The Southborough Fire Department once again experienced a busy year in 2003 responding to 1,213 emergency calls.  The number decreased by 46 calls from the previous year.

  Of the 1,213 calls that the Department responded to, 717 calls (59.1%) were medical emergencies.

  The Department continues to operate the ambulance service at the Paramedic level of care.  Paramedics basically bring the hospital emergency room to your emergency using specialized equipment, medication and standing orders from medical control physicians and statewide treatment protocols. 

  In 2000, I identified the need for a boat that could respond to the MDC Reservoir system should an emergency occur.  The Department’s “rescue” boat, a 50-year-old plus rowboat was deployed for a report of a canoe overturned in the reservoir.  When placed in the water the oars immediately snapped.  Fortunately, the canoe turned out to be something other than a watercraft.  I contacted both the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) and the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) officials in an attempt to have them provide a craft for Southborough to respond to emergencies within their properties.  They were unable to comply with my request.  I then contacted State Representative Paul J. Loscocco regarding the need.  Representative Loscocco was able to provide the Town with $25,000 to purchase an all-purpose rescue hovercraft.  The hovercraft can respond to emergencies on the open water as well as on ice.  The funding was provided through the State’s Community Policing Grant.  The hovercraft is housed and maintained at the Fire Department.  It is important to note that trespassing, swimming and ice skating upon the MDC/MWRA property and waters is both dangerous and illegal. 

  In March, the Town complied with a major recommendation of the 2000 Fire and Police Staffing, Equipment and Facilities Study, by implementing Public Safety Dispatch.  All 9-1-1 and emergency calls for police, fire and ambulance, as well as off-hours DPW calls are received, and processed in one central facility located within the Police Department.  Previously, fire and ambulance calls were received and processed at the Fire Department, then turned over to Police Dispatchers, resulting is a delay in emergency response.  A communications link between the police station and both fire stations, as well as a new telephone system shared by both facilities and an upgrade to the computerized dispatch, incident reporting and record-keeping system were required to ensure proper operation. Thanks to Police Chief William Colleary, DPW Superintendent John Boland, and Town Administrator Jancie Conlin for all of the hard work regarding this project. 

  Members of the Southern Fire District Technical Rescue Team, comprising of firefighters from Southborough, Ashland, Hopkinton and Milford, were honored by Lt. Governor Kerry Healy in December at the Annual Firefighter of the Year Award Ceremony.  Team members were honored for their heroic rescue efforts at the tragic Hopkinton House explosion that occurred on July 24, 2002.  Team members worked feverishly to save two girls that were trapped when the house collapsed around them after the explosion.

  Members of the Department have completed projects in-house, resulting in savings to the Town.  One noteworthy project was an engine replacement in the Department’s used military surplus brush fire truck.  At the height of the fall brush fire season, the engine in the 13-year-old truck developed a major mechanical failure.  The Department received several quotes in the thousands of dollars to repair or replace the engine.  Department members, with little formal mechanical training, and guidance from former Chief Peter Phaneuf (who restores antique military equipment as a hobby) worked long hours to replace the defective engine.   A tow truck was borrowed from Marlborough Emergency Management Agency to assist with the engine replacement.  The total cost was well under one thousand dollars. The truck is now back in service.

  Once again, the members of the Southborough Firefighters Association sponsored the annual Children’s Halloween Party.  Members of the Department worked with the Salvation Army of Framingham to collect toys for the less fortunate during the holiday season.  Thank you for your support

STAFFING

Four 42-hour work shifts are required to cover the 168 hours in each week in order to provide both fire and emergency medical services 24/7.  A minimum of two FF/EMT’s are assigned to Headquarters, and two Firefighter/EMT’s are assigned to Station 2 per shift.  Due to contractual requirements, there are two shifts with five personnel, and two shifts with four.  This is a decrease from the previous year when there were fire assigned to all shifts, and is still below the 2000 Fire and Police Staffing, Equipment and Facilities Study recommendation of six per shift.   The Fire Prevention Officer, whose dual role is inspections/public education and filling in for personnel that take shifts off, was temporarily reassigned to a rotating shift July 1 for budgetary reasons.  This resulted in a serious delay in completing necessary inspections. He was reassigned to conducting inspections and public education on December 11.  Full-time firefighters are augmented by an on-call staff.  The current staffing configuration allows us to adequately handle a majority of the routine emergency calls; however, major incidents require the recall of all off duty and on-call personnel.  Any reduction is staffing would greatly impact the services which we provide the residents of Southborough.

  The Department is comprised of the following personnel:

·         1 Full-time Fire Chief

·         1 Administrative Secretary/Dispatcher (32 hours/week)

·         19 full-time Firefighter/Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT’s)

·         6 Call Firefighter/EMT’s (an increase on two from 2002)

·         9 Call Firefighters (a reduction of 3 from 2002)

·         3 EMT’s (a reduction of one from 2002)

·         1 Safety Officer

·         1 Chaplain

It is important to note that 80% of the Full-Time members, and 37% of the on-call members live outside of Southborough.  This results in longer response times for fire apparatus that requires off-duty and call personnel to drive.

The following personnel changes occurred in 2003:

            New Members:

·         FF/EMT- Nathan Jarvi – Full time 

Left the Department:

·         Call FF/EMT Michael Manzelli

·         Call FF/EMT Matthew Boland (now full-time Ashland FF/EMT)

·         Call EMT Patricia Taylor

FIRE PREVENTION

(Captain Joseph C. Mauro, Fire Prevention Officer)

·         A total of 579 inspections were conducted in 2003 compared with 475 inspections conducted in 2002. The following is a breakdown of inspections:

 2002           2003   

  135            183                            26F Smoke detector (home resale) inspections

     11             18                     26F Re-inspection

    57              88                      26B Smoke detector (new home) inspections

      2               8                                26B Re-inspection

    65              64                              Oil burner inspections

      5               7                      Oil burner re-inspections

    32              35                              Propane inspections

      4               6                      House number re-inspections

    25              23                              School inspections and fire drills

    31              49                              Annual town license renewal inspections

    42              44                              Commercial building inspections

    20                1                       Tank Truck inspections 527CMR 8.00

      6               8                       Pre-blast survey/blast observations

      7               10                      Blast Observations

      5               2                               Underground Tank removal observation

    27                7                      Misc. safety inspections (insurance, etc.)

3                   Complaints Investigated

18                     License Renewal Follow-up Inspections

  5             Follow-up Inspections                   

·         The following programs were presented to the public:

   97              78                  School Fire Prevention programs

   12              14                  Misc. Fire and Safety Programs

   16              22                  Fire Station tours for groups

·         The number of plans reviewed were as follows:

  163           142                Residential Smoke Detector plans (new 

                                                 Construction & renovation)

    39            41                  Commercial plans (new construction, fire

                                                        Alarm, sprinkler, site plans, etc.) 

                15            13                   Site Plans Reviewed

                24            20             Construction Meetings/Inspections

FIRE PREVENTION PROGRAMS PRESENTED

·         The National Fire Protection Association’s Learn Not to Burn curriculum was once again presented to the kindergarten and first grade classes at the Finn School. This program was presented in 4 separate modules throughout the school year. The students were presented with information such as match and lighter safety, stop-drop-roll, and crawling in smoke. The final module involved bringing the department smoke trailer to the school and demonstrating the effects of smoke in a burning house. The students were also given the opportunity to have some fun by using a fire hose to extinguish a mock fire in a prop constructed of plywood. I would like to thank Fire Fighter Nancy Mabardy for providing assistance teaching and scheduling the school programs. Nancy is a S.A.F.E. certified instructor and is significant to the success of this program.

·         On the Sunday of Heritage Day weekend, the Southborough Fire Department held an open house sponsored by Papa Gino’s Pizza in Marlborough. Papa Gino’s provided the pizza and the members of the fire department had an opportunity to open the doors to the citizens of the town. Some of the activities included the smoke house demonstration, thermal imaging camera demonstration, children’s interactive games, and fire apparatus demonstrations. The open house was a success and was attended by approximately 400 residents. I would like to thank all the fire fighters and their families who volunteered their time for making this a successful day.

·         Several fire safety presentations were delivered throughout the year and included presentations to the faculty of the New England Center for Children, Southborough Senior Citizens, and various pre-schools. A 3-hour program was delivered to the students and faculty of St. Mark’s School in October and involved awareness about dorm fire safety practices. The program included an interactive demonstration of common fire hazards and ways to prevent fire incidences from occurring.

·         For the second year, the Southborough Fire Department conducted the senior citizen smoke detector battery program. The program was conducted during the first two weeks in November with approximately 50 homes checked. Not only were batteries checked and changed, but also detectors were replaced if they were older than 10 years and detectors were added to homes without proper coverage. This continues to be an invaluable service to the older citizens of Southborough.

PLAN REVIEWS, INSPECTIONS, and FIRE INVESTIGATIONS

·           While not all fires can be prevented, it is the responsibility of the Fire Department to ensure that the incidences of fires, fire deaths, and injuries be reduced through proper prevention and education. This is accomplished through the review of residential and commercial plans to ensure proper safety codes are followed. There were a total of 196 residential, commercial, and site plans reviewed during the year.

This was a relatively quiet year with respect to building fires in the community. There were no large loss fires investigated by the fire investigation unit and the dollar loss due to fire was very low. 2003 was one of the least active for fires involving structures in several years.   

EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES

(FF Kenneth Strong, EMS Coordinator)

The Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Division had a busy year. The EMS Division has been providing Paramedic (advanced cardiac life support) pre-hospital care to the Town since March 16, 2002. The Department continues to operate under a special waiver from the Office of Emergency Medical Services to allow 1 Paramedic and 1 EMT to staff an Ambulance, Without the waiver it would be necessary to have 2 Paramedics staff the ambulance.  Currently, 69% of the medical transportation to hospitals is at the advanced (intermediate and paramedic) level of care.

Throughout 2003 the department streamlined the paramedic level service and ambulance operations. Dr. Taryn Kennedy Director of Emergency Services at Marlborough Hospital provides oversight and support to the Department.   Within her role as Medical Director to the department she presents quarterly Morbidity or Mortality rounds for the EMT’s. She is involved in training and Quality assurance/Quality Improvement.           

The Departments two ambulances are fully equipped with cardiac monitors that have 12 lead ECG capability. This allows the Paramedics to confirm an acute myocardial infarction and notify the receiving hospital. The ambulances are also equipped with 30 Advanced Life Support (ALS) medications that the Paramedics can administer. Each ambulance is equipped with Epi-pen auto injectors used by EMT’s for acute allergic reactions/anaphylactic reactions.

Currently the Department has 6 Paramedics, 12 EMT-intermediates, and 12 Basic level EMT’s. Lt. Victor Robidoux and FF Nancy Mabardy are currently in Paramedic school and we look forward to their completion in late 2004. Paramedic Christian Dano is currently working on his Associates degree in Paramedicine.

The following is a list of classes approved by the Office of Emergency Medical Services and held at the Department during 2003.

Ø      2 hour-Morbidity and Mortality rounds (held quarterly).

Ø      2 hour Heat related emergencies

Ø      2 hour-Statewide Treatment Protocol reviews.

Ø      2 hour-Semi Automatic Defibrillator reviews.

Ø      3 hour-Obstetrical Emergencies.

Ø      4 hour-Semi Automatic Defibrillator full course.

Ø      16 hours-Hazardous Materials operations.

Ø      8 hour-Advanced Emergency vehicle operations (skid school)

Ø      8 hour-12 lead ECG interpretation.

Ø      48 hour-DOT Paramedic Refresher.

Ø      3 hour-New Statewide Treatment Protocols.

 The department continues to provide the towns people with educated, progressive, knowledgeable and hard working EMT’s and Paramedics who are committed to provide the highest level of pre-hospital care available. These committed members provide care in dynamic settings day or night 24/7. 2003 was an exciting and productive year and we are striving to make 2004 even better.

TRAINING

(Lt. John L. Kendall)

Various training sessions were conducted throughout the year in order to maintain our skills.  This year we were fortunate enough to have two specialty programs conducted by outside agencies.  They were:

• Hazardous Materials -  First Responder Operational – This 24 hour program brought the department into compliance with federal SARA Title III requirements for hazardous materials training.  Course was taught by Bob Haskell of the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy.

• Firefighter Survival – A 16 hour course with both classroom and practical sessions that trained the members in how to save downed firefighters during an incident. Course was taught by Joseph Nedder of the Uxbridge Fire Department.

Captain Joseph Mauro and Firefighter Nancy Mabardy both attended the Chief Fire Officer Management Training program at the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy.  The program is run by the University of Massachusetts, Donahue Institute for Governmental Services.

  Captain Mauro also attended the following seminars:

Massachusetts Firefighting Academy – Oil Burning Equipment

NFPA 13 Installation of Sprinkler Systems

NFPA managing Fire Safety Issues

  Firefighter Mark Sadowski completed the 11-week Basic Recruit Firefighting program at the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy.

  Firefighters Peter Phaneuf and Kenneth Franks received certificates from Fire & rescue Training, Inc. for completing the Emergency Vehicle operator/Instructor course.

  Captain David Dockstader received Massachusetts and National Fire Officer II certification.  He has attended several programs related to Critical Incident Stress Management and received his Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology from Anna Maria College.  Captain Dockstader’s counseling abilities have been a great asset to this department as well as to the Southern District 14 Technical Rescue Team.  Critical Incident Stress affects rescue workers and victims alike.  The first line of defense is immediate counseling for those involved in critical incidents and it’s people like Captain Dockstader who bring a sense of normalcy to those affected by such chaotic, stressful situations.

  Firefighter Neal Aspesi attended several classes including:

  Rapid Intervention

Instructor Methodology

Fire Officer Tactical Training

Radiological/Biological Detection Train the Trainer

Investigation of Fatal Fires

Investigation of Appliance and Electrical fires

  Two new members were appointed to the Training Committee.  They are:

  Firefighter Christian Dano and Firefighter John Tommaney.  They join the following members:

  Lieutenant John Kendall, FF Ken Franks, FF James Peltier, Safety Officer Jack Peltier and Firefighter Neal Aspesi. 

  The committee thanks the many town departments, private facilities, state agencies, and so many others for their continued support of our training programs.  We look forward to providing the best education for all department members throughout the coming year.

EMERGENCY PLANNING AND PREPAREDNESS

(Captain David J. Dockstader)

  The Southborough Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) continues to improve capabilities of response to disasters.  Southborough’s LEPC earned a full certification from the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) this year. Much effort was put into this e ndeavor. Disaster information surveys were completed for MEMA and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. The LEPC has met quarterly and has continually updated the Town’s Comprehensive Emergency Response Plan (CEMP).

  Southborough conducted a tabletop disaster exercise in June. This was our third exercise in three years. They year’s exercise demonstrated the need for a system to notify residents to either evacuate or to shelter in place in the event of a chemical emergency.  It became evident that the police and fire departments, even with the assistance of mutual aid units, would be tied up with the event and notification to residents would be difficult.

  Southborough is gearing up its Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program.  We have assembled emergency response first aid kits and back packs for 30 responders.  Training of the fire and police explorers will be starting soon.  Both FF Nancy Mabardy and I are certified as CERT trainers for this program.  We are looking for additional older teens and adults to be trained to operate in neighborhoods during a large disaster until fire, EMS and police can arrive.  Southborough has received a small grant for training, and has applied for another grant.

  MEMA emphasized development of plans for care and shelter of animals during disasters.  Southborough residents formed a group to develop animal contingency plans.  They will be presenting their findings to the LEPC.  Animal care plans will be added to the Town’s CEMP.

  Plans were activated during the potential approach of Hurricane Iasbel to the area.  Portable water pumps and chain saws were prepared at the fire stations.  Designated shelters were notified of possible implementation of disaster plans.  Fortunately, the hurricane missed us and no action was needed.  Storm shutters have been constructed for the Emergency Operations Center to protect the windows in the event of a storm containing high winds.

SENIOR CITIZEN LIASON

(Lt. Victor G. Robidoux)

  The Department is pleased to announce a cooperative collaboration with the Senior Center to present the “File of Life” program.  This program is designed to inform emergency service responders of a person’s pertinent medical history, medications, emergency contacts, etc.  This information is vital in the event a senior is incapacitated.  The “File of Life” is a magnetized 3” X 5” envelope containing the information, and is usually adhered on the refrigerator in the patient’s home.  The “File of Life” is free to senior citizens and is available at the Fire Department or the Senior Center. 

  Additionally, the Fire Department, along with the Police Department, Council on Aging, and representatives of the Senior Center, meet on a monthly basis to discuss a wide variety of senior citizen safety issues.  Quarterly senior safety talks are presented at the senior center.

  CONCLUSION

  I would like to thank all of the members of the Southborough Fire Department and their families for the dedicated service that they provide to you, the citizens of Southborough. I would also like to thank the members of the Board of Selectmen, all of the Town’s Department heads and Town Boards and Committees for their continued cooperation, assistance and support.  On a personal note, I would like to offer my congratulations to Police Chief William J. Colleary Jr. upon his retirement December 31, 2003.  I have known Chief Colleary for most of my life.  It was a pleasure working for Chief Colleary when I was a police dispatcher in the late 1970’s, as well as working along side of him as a department head.  Best wishes for a happy and safe retirement!  Congratulations to newly-appointed Chief William H. Webber!  I look forward the continued great working relationship the public safety departments share.

  In addition, I would like to thank all of the residents and businesses that have donated time, material and/or funds to aid us in serving the citizens and visitors of Southborough

  Please visit our web site for continuous updated department information: www.southboroughfire.org.

  Respectfully Submitted,

John D. Mauro, Jr.,

Fire Chief