Chief's Page 2012

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Little Gasparilla Island Fire Rescue

February/March 2012 Fire Chief’s Report

“Little Gasparilla Island Fire Rescue is committed to protecting the lives and property of the community”

February/March Fire/EMS Calls:

            Fire     2- Transformer Fire, Fire Alarm

            EMS    7- Bee Sting, Broken Hip, Cat Fish Sting, Chest Pain, Knee Injury, Injury from Fight, Sick Person.

FEMA SAFER and AFG Grants Reports-

All reports are up to date!!!!

AFG Grant Update-

We received letters back from FEMA explaining why we were denied our two grants. The following are the explanations:

1-     Heart Monitor Grant, FEMA states that they identified a weakness in our application regarding equipment standards. They pointed out where to research the mandatory requirements, which state the equipment must meet those requirements. The requirement is that the equipment requested should improve the health and safety of the public and firefighters. According to the application, and what we have found on the page that they pointed out in the guideline the heart monitor meets the specifications. We are going to contact FEMA and get a better clarification on this so that we do not have this trouble in the future.

2-     Pumper and Equipment, FEMA states that the AFG grants were extremely competitive with less appropriated funding than in past years. THE FY application period received over 17,000 applications with a requested federal share of over $2.85 Billion dollars and only $345 million in available funding. Unfortunately our application did not score high enough to be selected this time to go to Peer review however the strongly encourage our organization to apply again for the 2012 FY Grant.

Forestry Grant:

We have applied for a Forestry Grant to assist with buying fire hose.  After speaking with Forestry they stated that we should know something with in the next month to month and a half.

Department of Health Grant:

We have put in for the Florida Department of Health Grant for our heart monitor and they should start awarding grants in (2) months.

Fire House Sub’s Grant:

We put in for this grant but it is a limited money grant for only $12,000 dollars. This will not pay for a heart monitor so we are attempting to get a LUCAS device, which is a CPR assisting device. We should know something on this grant in the next couple of months.

We are still actively looking for other grants.

Medication Inventory List-

The inventory list was given to Quadmed who responded very quickly back with some pricing that is very competitive and responsive to our needs as a small department. There are some items that we will only need to order a few of each item instead of a large amount of which some companies will only let you order large amounts. This will help our budget in the long run. I am comfortable with going forward with this company and I am still working with Jason Powers the rep about the medications which he is also stating that we can do the same thing as the supplies ordering small amounts of medications which will be a big help for us. 

Training Manikin-

The training manikin has been used a few times for training and is a great tool. I have no doubt this was a good purchase for the organization and all the members are going to benefit from it.

Chief’s Office-

The Chiefs’ Office is complete. It is very nice to have a place to work!!!!!

Department Training-

Department Training will continue to be held on the 2^nd and 4^th Tuesday of each Month. I encourage anyone that is interested in becoming a Responder/Volunteer for the department to please attend training or contact me for information. We could definitely use some more people to help us out. We are looking to start a new First Responder training course here in the near future so now would be a good time to get started.

House Numbers-

We handed out (8) House Numbers

Scheduling-

Scheduling for February and March was on track, and we had some Volunteers out to help. We also added a new volunteer to the department. I have also received some emails from some other Firefighters interested in becoming volunteers.

Budget-

Will be presenting a revised 2012 budget, as well as the 2013 and 2014 Budget thanks to everyone who has helped with this budget especially Barbara Travers!!

Fire Plan Update-

We have been working hard on this project. It has been difficult to find a truck for the Water Supply Truck in the price range that we have been looking for. We think we have found the truck and have talked with the seller and he has agreed to sell us the truck. We are waiting to hear back from him to finalize the deal. Once we get that done, the truck will get some fabrication done to it to get it ready for us.

The Brush Truck is getting close; Rocky has the truck up in Bradenton and finalizing a few things on it. A-1 Collision is ready for it at the paint shop as soon as he gets it completed!

We have ordered the 1,000 gallon tank for the tender and it should be in within the next couple of weeks. Once the tank arrives we will put the pump on and check with A-1 about painting. If they are not ready we will place it in service and await the painting. 

DEA License-

Doctor O’Leary had requested our department to obtain our own DEA license due to some regulation and control issues that have been occurring throughout the country. There has not been any issues locally but the DEA has been coming down hard on doctors and fining them very heavily for not having their departments getting their own practitioner controlled substance registration certificate. Dr. O’Leary had requested that we comply and get ahead of the game so that he does not have any issues. I wanted to let the board know that we have applied for and been approved, and already received our DEA license. This license is good for (3) years and costs us $551.00. This really does not change much of our process of obtaining our narcotics, we do have our own DEA-222 forms that we fill out to get the medications we need, however Dr. O’Leary is still listed on our license and has to sign our forms, and he will keep the forms in a locked safe which is a requirement.

Air Compressor For Station:

Purchased a used/refurbished air compressor for the fire station, as the one that we had was no longer in working condition. This is being used to air off the Polaris to keep it as clean as possible as well as the EMS equipment in the back. We can use this compressor to air up the tires on all of the fire apparatus, and use it for any maintenance needed as well.

Stair Chair Bag:

We are in the process of having a heavy-duty bag made for the stair chair to help keep the dust off of the chair.

Target Safety Training:

This is the training program that we purchased on the AFG grant we received. We have it up and running and all of the fire fighters and responders have been entered into the system. We had our first training on the system Tuesday night April 10^th. This system allows folks to take online classes/training courses and keep up to date on EMS, Fire, Haz Mat, Vehicle Operations, and other skills. This training is going to be a tremendous tool for our organization and assist us in keeping certain certifications up to date.

Fundraisers:

T-Shirt sales have been going really well, I have had possession of shirts for about a month and I think it has worked out well.

I am looking at having a cook out fundraising event in July around the weekend of the Fourth, probably doing a hot dog cook out, sell shirts, and possibly have a live band if it works out. I will keep everyone updated.

Jim Engmark

Fire Chief

Little Gasparilla Island Fire Rescue