Park City Fire District 2011 Annual Report

Executive Summary

The Park City Fire Services District protects 110 square miles in Summit County, Utah. Within our jurisdiction’s boundaries are three world-class ski resorts, hundreds of miles of beautiful mountain trails, five golf courses, the Utah Olympic Park with its ski jumping and bobsled-luge skeleton track facilities, unbeatable snowmobile and cross country skiing opportunities, five star hotels, and much more. Whether you live here or are one of the four million annual visitors Park City offers hundreds of activities for all tastes and ages.
We pride ourselves in delivering second-to-none emergency
services. We currently staff seven fire stations with firefighters trained in virtually all hazards including fire suppression, emergency medical services, hazardous material events, and technical rescue needs.

Our firefighters train every day in order to be optimally prepared for all possible emergency situations. In addition to emergency response we provide an array of other non-emergency services. Some of these include fire prevention, code enforcement, plan review, CPR and first aid training, a fuel reduction program, and many others.
Please visit our website to stay current with the Park City Fire District. We hope you enjoy living, visiting and playing here as much as we love working here.
Please be safe!

Paul Hewitt
Park City Fire Service District

During his tenure with the District, Chief Heumann has been involved in many professional associations, including: The Joint Council of Fire Service Organization, Chair since 2004; Utah State Fire Chiefs Association, Secretary/Treasurer since 2006; Utah Fire Caucus Planning Committee member; Utah’s Region 2 Homeland Security Committee, Secretary 2002 to 2010; Western Fire Chiefs Association, Utah Vice-President 2003 to 2006; Greater Salt Lake Chief Fire Officer’s Association, Chair in 2005. He also earned his National Fire Academy Executive Fire Officer certification in 2005.

Chief Heumann aided the District through many changes; from a primarily part-time fire department to a full-time, professional fire district. His hard work and dedication helped in the acquisition, state licensing, and administration of the Park City Ambulance Service. He has researched, developed, and implemented many programs that the District uses today.

Chief Heumann’s positive attitude, great sense of humor, infectious laughter, and ability to produce a stunning and “appetizing” pie chart will be greatly missed by those who work with him on a daily basis. However, we won’t miss the stinky raw milk Kefir, Kombucha, Schinken, Schmalz, and Leberwurst he began eating after becoming a Weston A. Price disciple. We wish him luck in his future endeavors!

Happy golfing Frank!

The Park City Fire Service District is pleased to announce the completion of our newly rebuilt fire station located on Bitner Road. On January 2, 2012, firefighters reoccupied Fire Station #33. The completion of this capital facilities project concluded the build-out of our Bitner Road parcel. This build-out included our Administrative Office building, a multi-story training facility, a warehouse and apparatus maintenance facility, and the rebuilding of the “Burns” Fire Station.

The 10,000 square foot fire station is staffed 24 hours a day by three highly trained full-time firefighters including a Captain, Engineer, and a Firefighter / Paramedic. The emergency response equipment at the station includes an engine, ambulance, brush truck, and hazardous material unit.

The training facility is an approximately 4000-square foot structure providing firefighters various firefighting, forcible entry, and search and rescue capabilities. This facility will greatly enhance the training opportunities not only for our firefighters, but for our neighboring jurisdictions as well.
The last structure of our build-out is a 4000-square foot warehouse. This building will store both firefighting, emergency medical supplies, and other supplies relative to the mission of the Park City Fire District. The structure will also have the capability of housing our first ever apparatus service bay for our vehicle maintenance needs.
We would like to invite all to attend our Open House of this newly rebuilt station, located at 730 Bitner Road on January 31, 2012 from 3 pm to 5 pm.

On October 3, 2011, the latest group of seven Park City Fire District firefighter trainees began Recruit Academy 2011. The ten-week intensive training course will features Firefighter I and Firefighter II certification, Live Fire certification, Hazardous Materials Awareness and Operations certification, and PCFD Medical Protocol training. A typical day for these young men begins at 0630 hours with “PT,” afterwards returning back to Station 36 for clean up and vehicle inspections. One to two hours are spent in the classroom reviewing Firefighting Essentials, 5th Edition, which is a comprehensive training guide for new firefighters. Each afternoon focus is placed on the practical application of the morning’s classroom lesson. Then they return to Station 36 for cleanup and equipment rehab with the day ending around 1730 hours.

“PT” consists of strenuous physical activities, including running the 120-meter jump stairs at the Utah Olympic Park and various trails around the area. Each recruit also does 250 sit-ups and push-ups each day to improve his personal fitness level. Team building, self discipline, integrity, trust, and honor are emphasized during all aspects of the Recruit Academy. We also use regional facilities to enhance the training experience and broaden the perspective of the recruits. On October 25-27, we used the Unified Fire Authority Training Facility in Magna for interior structure firefighting and large vehicle firefighting.

PCFD Recruit Academy 2011 is slated for graduation on December 8, 2011. We look forward to long and prosperous careers for each of these fine young firefighters.

October is Fire Prevention Month: Protect Your Family From Fire! Being ahead of the game is the best way to protect your family from fire.

That’s why the Park City Fire District is joining with the National Fire Protection Association during the month of October to let citizens know: “It’s Fire Prevention Month. Protect Your Family From Fire!”

This year’s campaign focuses on preventing the leading causes of home fires – cooking, heating and electrical equipment, candles and smoking materials. Additionally, citizens are encouraged to protect their homes and families with life-saving technology and planning.

Nearly all fire deaths can be prevented by taking a few simple precautions, like having working smoke alarms and a home fire escape plan, keeping things that can burn away from the stove, and always turning off space heaters before going to bed.

Fire is a dangerous opponent, but by anticipating the hazards, you are much less likely to be one of the nearly 13,000 people injured in home fires each year.

The Park City Fire District offers the following tips for protecting your home and family from fire:

• Stay in the kitchen while frying, grilling or broiling food. If you leave the kitchen for even a short period of time, turn off the stove.
• Keep anything that can burn at least three feet away from heating equipment, like the furnace, fireplace, wood stove or portable space heater.
• Have a three-foot “kid-free zone” around open fires and space heaters.
• Replace or repair damaged or loose electrical cords.
• Blow out all candles when you leave the room or go to bed. Avoid the use of candles in the bedroom and other areas where people may fall asleep.

While preventing home fires is always our number one priority, it is not always possible.  So it is imperative that you provide the best protection to keep your home and family safe in the event of a fire. This can be achieved by developing an escape plan, which you practice regularly, and equipping homes with life-saving technologies, like smoke alarms and automatic fire sprinkler systems.

The following pre-planning measures will help keep your family safe if there is a fire in your home:

• Install smoke alarms inside each bedroom, outside each sleeping area and on every level of the home (including the basement).
• Interconnect all smoke alarms in the home so when one sounds, they all sound.
• Test smoke alarms at least monthly. Replace all smoke alarms when they are 10 years old or sooner, if they do not respond when tested.
• Make sure everyone in your home knows how to respond if the smoke alarm sounds.
• Have a family meeting and make a plan. Walk through your home and inspect all possible ways out.  Households with children should consider drawing a floor plan of your home, marking two ways out of each room, including windows and doors.

If you are building or remodeling your home, consider installing a home fire sprinkler system.

Download Minutes from September 7th, 2011

Download Minutes from July 6th, 2011

Download Minutes from May 5th, 2011

1. Worst headache ever.  A sudden onset, severe headache that continues to get worse is a potentially life threatening emergency, especially if associated with visual disturbances, loss of balance, impaired speech, or confusion.
2. Disorientation, fainting or loss of consciousness. Sudden disorientation can mean anything from low blood sugar to seizure to stroke and should be treated quickly.  Loss of consciousness can be a sign of many internal problems, including heart attack, bleeding, infection, and shock even with an absence of pain.
3. Can you repeat that? Following a blow to the head, people often cannot remember what happened and repeat the same question or phrase over and over and over…This is a sign of concussion and should be examined.
4. Pain or discomfort in the jaw. Heart attacks commonly present with pain or discomfort in areas other than the chest, like your shoulders, arms, or jaw. Associated symptoms may be cool, clammy skin or difficulty breathing.
5. Acute behavioral changes. People often discount or stigmatize mental illness as a weakness or flaw rather than an actual medical emergency. Suicidal expressions or thoughts should never be ignored. These situations can get out of control quickly and professional intervention is often needed.
6. Chest “Discomfort”. Pain is interpreted differently by different people. If you have tightness, pressure, a dull ache, inability to take a full breath or other descriptions of discomfort, a heart attack is a real possibility. It can happen at rest or be provoked by activity. Other associated symptoms include difficulty breathing, radiated pain (shoulder, back, jaw, abdomen) pale clammy skin, heart palpitations, light-headedness, or nausea. Ignoring these can have deadly consequences.
7. I can’t breathe. Severe asthma attacks, acute bronchitis, pneumonia, exacerbation of C.O.P.D. , and congestive heart failure are all medical emergencies. With young children, croup and epiglotitis can happen suddenly and quickly become life threatening. Even if you have never been diagnosed with a breathing disorder, a sudden onset breathing problem should be treated without delay.
8. This is not a normal stomach ache. Sharp stomach pains that worsen when you move or prevent you from sleeping should be examined quickly. Abdominal pain can also present as a constant deep ache that will not cease. If the pain is accompanied by fever, swelling, tenderness, nausea, vomiting, clammy skin, changes in bowel movements (color, diarrhea, constipation), bleeding, or radiated pain, this increases your risk of a serious condition. Any of these acute symptoms associated with pregnancy should also be examined quickly.
9. 9. I got hurt yesterday but now…Traumatic injuries are frequently ignored. Things like neck pain after a vehicle accident or deep pelvic/abdominal pain following a skiing mishap are often discounted as normal for what just happened. The truth is that non-displaced fractures and internal bleeding are sometimes self diagnosed as deep bruising and can become life-threatening if left untreated. A quick, precautionary trip to the doctor sooner can replace a more emergent trip later.
10. I’ve fallen and I can’t get up! It’s a favorite line from a commercial for everyone to spoof, but a ground level fall can be devastating for the elderly. Family members often put them back in their favorite chair or into bed and pass off an ache or pain as a sign of aging. In many circumstances, the elderly are also dealing with other medical conditions or pain and can ignore a new injury or simply do not want to go to the hospital. Even if you’re not sure, a 9-1-1 call to assist is always a good idea. The paramedics can do a quick head-to-toe evaluation and determine if a hospital visit is needed or not.
11. When in doubt, CALL!! Transport to the hospital via ambulance following a 9-1-1 call is not required or, in some cases, needed. If it’s not, we’ll tell you. If you’re uncomfortable driving yourself or a family member to the hospital, we’ll take you. We don’t mind, really! We would rather have someone call right away than wait too long. So, save a life and call 9-1-1. It may even be your own.

Download Minutes from April 6th, 2011