City of DeKalb City Council met May 13.
Here is the agenda provided by the council:
A. CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL
B. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA
C. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
D. CONSIDERATIONS
1. Proclamation: National Emergency Medical Services Week.
City Manager Summary: The Mayor will introduce the attached Proclamation, which celebrates the dedication and training of the Fire Department’s personnel.
2. DeKalb Fire Department 2018 Annual Report.
City Manager Summary: Fire Chief Jeff McMaster will present the Fire Department’s 2018 annual report. Within its pages is a full breakdown of emergency and non- emergency services provided to the community, along with logistical responsibilities that keep the department compliant with laws and standards; and improvements and upgrades to increase operational efficiency, raise safety margins during emergency response, and enhance customer service. Some of these achievements are highlighted below.
Revision of Standard Operating Guidelines (SOGs)
Since the last annual report, the Fire department has updated its Standard Operating Guidelines. These guidelines give fire personnel an operational baseline to handle emergent and non-emergent matters. The previous guidelines were almost twenty years old and were nearly 800 pages. It is important to have directives that are up to date, incorporate modern methodology, accepted practices, and new industry standards. This substantial revision accomplished the following:
• Standardized the Incident Commander’s role at an emergency incident.
• Implemented a Cancer Risk Reduction plan for Fire personnel.
• Standardized incident priorities at various emergency incidents such as structure fires, motor vehicle accidents, hazardous conditions, and high-rise fires.
• Identified and established how to handle minor-to-major building code issues including condemnation procedures.
• Updated practices to comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) to protect confidential patient information.
• Standardized a Fire personnel discipline process to clarify the handling personnel issues.
• Fortified the Fire Department’s Active Shooter response criteria (Rescue Task Force) to enter a hostile environment with law enforcement to begin rapid triage, treatment, and transport of victims to increase survivability.
Requests for Service
In 2018, the Fire Department reached a historic benchmark for emergency response. We answered the call for 6,082 requests for service. This represents an increase of 509 calls (9.13%) over 2017. The upward trend has been consistent for a number of years. Generally, the Fire Department received requests for service in the following areas:
• EMS – 4,648 requests were up from 4,139 requests in 2017. This a 12.3% increase in EMS calls (see page 10).
• Fire and non-Fire requests were the same at 1,434 requests as in 2017 and 2016 (see page 10).
• Total request for service equates to an average of 16.66 requests per day (see page 6).
The City of DeKalb is divided into three (3) fire districts to serve the residents and visitors of DeKalb, Northern Illinois University, and the DeKalb Fire Protection District (see page 19).
• Fire District 1 serves the North & Northeast sides of DeKalb, the Downtown, Sycamore Road Shopping District, sections of NIU, and the DeKalb-Taylor Municipal Airport.
• Fire District 2 serves the south side of DeKalb and I-88.
• Fire District 3 serves most of NIU and the Annie Glidden North Corridor.
The majority of requests for service occur in Fire District 3 (see page 20).
Emergency Medical Services (EMS)
The Fire Department provides immediate pre-hospital care to the sick and injured, responding with a fleet of six (6) Advanced Life Support (ALS) ambulances and three (3) ALS Fire Engines for first response in the event of a delay in ambulance response.
We are a member of the Northwestern Medicine Kishwaukee Hospital EMS System. DeKalb’s Fire administration attends and participates in regional and local EMS- specific agency meetings and assists with the creation and implementation of EMS policies and procedures.
EMS accounts for 76% of our requests for service (page 6). The Fire Department provides community health education and training and brings EMS expertise to every emergency call within the department’s jurisdiction. Emergency Medical Technicians maintain the integrity of the health care continuum, starting in the pre- hospital setting, as well as responses to fires, mass casualty incidents, CBRNE (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosives) & WMD (weapons of mass destruction) events, and natural weather disasters (page 16).
Through the direction, cooperation, and training of Northwestern Medicine- Kishwaukee Hospital, new Standing Medical Orders (SMOs), new medications and medicinal therapy, expanded medical procedures, and technology upgrades in the form of new computer tablets were instituted to provide DeKalb residents with improved service to handle any medical emergency.
Fire Prevention and Public Education
Reducing public risk and empowering the community to prevent emergencies is the foundation of the DeKalb Fire Department. In 2018, our members participated in the following activities:
• Commercial building fire inspections.
• Preplan inspections in buildings that are new, remodeled or have not been
inspected for a period of years to acquaint firefighters with potential hazards.
• T aught Community Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) classes.
• Provided safety lessons to driver’s education classes at DeKalb High School.
• Presented numerous fire and life-safety lessons to people of all ages.
• Spearheaded a cooperative initiative to work with property owners to install fire sprinkler systems in all University Greek Houses as mandated by the Illinois Greek Housing Fire Safety Act.
• Emergency planning activities that included coordinating emergency response for large-scale events in the City and worked with staff to update DeKalb-Taylor Municipal Airport’s Emergency Operations Plan.
• Regular health and safety messages to the public through social media.
The Fire Prevention Bureau is responsible for the enforcement of the 2015 International Fire Code and the City of DeKalb Municipal Codes. These codes prescribe regulations consistent with nationally recognized good practices for the safeguarding of life, property, and environment from the risks of fire, explosion, and other hazardous conditions, which may prove hazardous to life and property in the use or occupancy of buildings or premises. The Fire Prevention Officer works within the Building & Code Compliance Division of the Community Development Department.
Fire Chief Jeff McMaster will present the Fire Department’s annual report for 2018 and will be on hand to answer any Council questions.
E. ADJOURNMENT
https://www.cityofdekalb.com/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_05132019-1625
Alerts Sign-up