Chief Reviews OCFD’s Summer

OCEAN CITY — Resort officials got a briefing this month on the performance evaluation of the Ocean City Fire Department (OCFD) for the 2016 season and learned the city responded to a higher number of calls, did so more efficiently and came in under budget.

OCFD Chief Chris Larmore presented the 2016 performance and evaluation review of his department to the Mayor and Council on Nov. 15. According to Larmore, calls for service increased during the summer compared to the same time frame in 2015, but the department was able to respond to every call quickly and efficiently.

“We had exceptional coverage,” he said. “Arguably, it was the best year we’ve ever had. When a call came in, we had units ready to respond every time but one time. For every single 911 call, we had a unit ready to respond. We were able to provide that coverage with a payroll deduction, which is noteworthy.”

The OCFD handled 3,238 total calls for service from June 1 to Aug. 31 in 2016, including 2,735 EMS calls and 503 fire calls. By comparison, the department handled 3,107 calls in the same period in 2015 including 2,628 EMS calls and 479 fire calls. The four-year low was 2013 when the department handled 2,810 calls for service from June 1 through the end of August.

The OCFD is a combination of paid staff and volunteers who work in partnership to provide fire coverage, emergency medical services and ambulance transport for the resort. In recent months, it has been reported that volunteer fire companies are feeling the impact of a reduction in the number of volunteers, particularly because of attrition. Older volunteers are leaving the service in many jurisdictions and there hasn’t been a corresponding influx of younger volunteers. However, Larmore said on Tuesday the opposite is holding true in Ocean City with the volunteer department thriving.

“We keep seeing and hearing that volunteerism is down, but Ocean City does not follow that trend,” he said. “They were actually able to increase staffing, and in some cases considerably.”

The statistics for the 2016 summer season bear out that sentiment. From June 1 to Aug. 31, the volunteer duty crews provided 8,150 hours. During the same period in 2015, volunteer duty crews provided 7,524 hours.

Larmore said there was only one occasion during the summer season when the OCFD was “out of units,” meaning all available units were dispatched to incidents with no crew available. However, the brief time when the department was “out of units” was quickly handled by splitting other units or deploying command staff into action.

Larmore said the combined paid staff and volunteer fire company were able to drastically reduce their response times to EMS calls this summer.

“In the height of the summer, our response time for EMS calls from the time of the call to arrival was 3.89 minutes,” he said. “That is utterly remarkable. That represents the energy and passion of our people and the maintenance of our equipment. Roughly 90 percent of our calls were under seven minutes. It’s remarkable considering the traffic here in the summer.”

The 3.89-minute average response time also represents a four-year low for the department. In 2013, the average response time was 4.19 minutes and that climbed to 4.27 in 2014. Last year, the average response time was 4.18 minutes, but that dropped below four minutes this summer at 3.89.

Larmore said the response times can be somewhat deceiving because only a small fraction of the incidents require immediate responses. For example, a large number of calls are for false alarms or other incidents that don’t require an immediate response.

“Sometimes, response times are grossly exaggerated,” he said. “In only 3 percent of all calls does response time have a direct impact on an outcome. What we like to say is if that 3 percent is one of your loved ones, you have a high expectation for response time. When they call for help, they care about how quickly you got there and did you resolve the emergency.”

Often in the summer season, the OCFD relies on mutual aid from allied departments during heavy call times. Larmore said not once during the summer season did the department need to rely on mutual aid.

“There were zero times in 2016 that we had to rely on mutual aid for an ambulance transport,” he said. “In the previous year, there were three times when we needed mutual aid. This summer, we had more calls for service and never once had to get mutual aid for a transport.”

As far as the budget, according to Larmore, the OCFD spent around $3,000 more this summer than last, which was largely due to a mandated payroll increase. The chief said that relatively small difference was also remarkable considering the payroll implications.

“The last part is about all they do and still stay under budget,” he said. “There isn’t a department that can claim that kind of report. We follow our budget and we demand perfection and we’re hard on ourselves. All of our people made it happen and we had a great season.”

About The Author: Shawn Soper

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Shawn Soper has been with The Dispatch since 2000. He began as a staff writer covering various local government beats and general stories. His current positions include managing editor and sports editor. Growing up in Baltimore before moving to Ocean City full time three decades ago, Soper graduated from Loch Raven High School in 1981 and from Towson University in 1985 with degrees in mass communications with a journalism concentration and history.