OCEAN CITY – The fire chief on Tuesday summarized the “best season” for the Ocean City Fire Department (OCFD) in seven years.
“I believe this was our best season over the course of the last seven years since the current council members and past city manager rearranged the fire department. The 2014 summer season’s data cannot be disputed. It represents that we did in fact deliver a better service than last year, and each of the previous years. That is quite the testament,” Fire Chief Chris Larmore said
According to the report, despite call volume increasing for the first time in four years as a result of a busier August, the response time continued to meet expectations with an average arrival time of 4 minutes and 27 seconds from time of dispatch.
For the summer, there were 2,913 calls for service for Fire and EMS, compared to 2,810 in 2013, 3,118 in 2012 and 3,157 in 2011.
“During the peak of our season when we have seven available ambulances, only nine times were all seven ambulances on the road responding to a call or at a hospital,” the chief said.
That is exceptional availability and resource management of staffed EMS units, the chief stated, as he clarified not a single call was dispatched during the 2014 season that a response was not provided, although twice outside mutual aid was notified for ambulance transport, which speaks well of the department’s ongoing mutual aid agreements.
In 2013, there were eight such occasions during the summer season, but in 2012 there were 17 occasions and in 2011 there were 24 occasions.
Larmore pointed out the department provided the required personnel to ensure better coverage, with a continued reduction in payroll costs after mandated pay incremental increases.
The report highlighted, the Volunteer Division continued with non-compensated duty crews, with a total coverage of 8,172 hours of service over 100 days. The goal is to provide a crew of four people in 12-hour night shifts for the “100 days of summer,” which comes to 4,800 hours. Crews exceeded the goal by 3,372 hours.
Looking forward, the year will continue with a focus on the False Alarm Reduction Program. The chief explained, through proactive code enforcement and cooperation by owners, in conjunction with the Fire Marshal’s Office (FMO) Quality Assurance Program, the department intends to continue reduction of such preventable alarms.
Working with the Zoning and Building Department and PRESS Committee, another focus of the fire department is over crowding issues in residential units.
Also, the department is re-evaluating the Quality Assurance Program. According to the report, the FMO is researching computer programs and companies for potential efficiency improvements in the overall program.
Larmore furthered the FMO continues to push forward with the High-Rise Inspection Program. The high-rise code was rewritten in 2005 with a 12-year compliance window for the 19 specific non-sprinkled high-rises. The inspection program has been extended to sprinkled high-rises, and 17 high-rises in Ocean City have been inspected.
The chief concluded, every year the department conducts inspections for over 150 establishments with lLiquor licenses, and staff recently spread the inspections out over 12 months, rather than a three-month period in the winter/spring, to see the establishments in operation.
“As a council member one of the proudest moments I have is when I held up my hand and voted for you to be our chief for the fire department,” said Councilwoman Margaret Pillas, thanking Larmore for the report.
The deficiencies of the department couldn’t have been resolved without the help of many others, the chief responded.
“The real thanks needs to go to the men and women of this department who have stepped up to do the right job and there is no question that it has been done,” Larmore said.