In this article, we continue the review of performance measures for City operations included in the report on Service Efforts and Accomplishments — the SEA Report — with a specific focus on the services of the Fire-Rescue Department. As with each section of the report, we present a summary of how the services of the City are making the Island a better place, and how we measure success.

The Fire-Rescue Department has primary responsibility concerning the health, safety and welfare of all individuals on the island.

The citizens of the City of Marco Island should be extremely proud of the employees and the service delivery received by the department and the counterparts in Collier County EMS and Isle of Capri Fire Department. Some of the primary missions of the Fire-Rescue Department are: Prevention and extinguishment of fires, response to medical emergencies, hazardous materials, marine rescue, hurricane preparedness and response as well as education of children and adults in safety and first aid.

The major issue that continues to face the Fire-Rescue Service is the high life hazard that is associated with aging multifamily and high-rise buildings and an older population base. Each day there are approximately, 20,000-40,000 people on the island, 28,000 vehicle trips over the bridge and a large number of boaters using our waterways. We continue to see a rise in calls for service and the complexity of the calls has been increasing. We have seen high-rise and multi-family fires, marine rescue, medical calls, need for calling off island resources and multiple calls occurring at the same time. The major challenge for the Fire-Rescue service is our current staffing does not meet nationally recommended guidelines for structure fire response. The lack of appropriate staffing does delay critical actions by on scene personnel especially in mid and high-rise structures that impact the safety of personnel and citizens within those buildings.

Additionally, the delay of action does increase property damage. The department relies upon outside emergency responders who are often delayed simply because of the geographic location of the island. The city has taken some positive steps in the recognition of this issue and some progress has been made in the reduction of risk. As an emergency service we have taken steps with Collier County EMS and how we staff vehicles to reduce the possibility of missing medical calls.

The Fire Rescue Department maintains the responsibility for emergency operations and hurricane preparedness response. The recent addition of an EOC at our new police station and the purchasing of dedicated equipment for that center have improved our service capability to a disaster. The City Manager has placed emphasis on incident management and has also taken positive steps in its communication to the public with the addition of television stations and multi-media forms of communication. We continue to maintain our Code Red response system and the expansion of our Community Emergency Response Team volunteers.

The following are some of the successes and lessons learned from the department goals and measures as contained in the City of Marco Island SEA Report Spring 2009.

1. Response time — When you dial 911 you expect quick response. The department measures its’ response time from the time you dial 911 until we arrive. We are very proud of the fact that we are on scene within six minutes approximately 75 percent of the time. So what happens to that other 25 percent. Our data indicates that there are two primary reasons for delay, driving distance to certain areas of the Island and having to wait on other off Island fire and EMS units when we are on calls. We have recently moved one of our fire units to our training station and we are seeing a quicker response to the Tigertail, Hideaway and Old Marco areas. The delay due to having to wait for other departments continues to be caused by our units being busy and the type and number of calls we respond too.

2. Customer feedback and surveys — The department sends out a customer survey card on every call that we respond to in order to get feedback and improve how we do our job. I am happy to report that we receive over a 99 percent positive customer feedback on the 11 categories we list. Some concerns that are mentioned deal with response times, the actual 911 call and the care that they have received at the emergency room. All of the comments are then shared with all crews.

3. Fire prevention — Many people do not realize that the Fire-Rescue Department does over 2,200 fire inspections, 1,000 plan reviews, and will complete over 100 building contractor classes. Our Fire Marshal has reduced the average amount of time it takes to do plan reviews substantially this year.

Other issues

Please take the time to read the SEA report and see the many other accomplishments and measures that you’re Fire Rescue and the other city departments have accomplished. Also please come by the fire station and learn about the many educational programs that we have available.

The department has: A Community Emergency Response Team program with 82 volunteers, two Police/Fire Youth Academies during the summer, station tours, hurricane information and currently a “Dial 911 Don’t Drive During Medical Emergencies” campaign.

We will be glad to speak to any group or organization on any subject related to the fire department that you may have.

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