Executive Summary
Click here to view the full report: 2014 Annual Report
We began the year making energy efficiency upgrades to all of our facilities. In addition, a national Blue Sky Grant was awarded to the fire district in December beginning a new push to take advantage of solar power and continue our pursuit of making our facilities more efficient.
Park City has a dynamic population varying from 30,000 to over 90,000 residents and visitors. PCFD recognizes life safety needs are somewhat variable depending on the population present. PCFD began a dynamic staffing model in 2014 maintaining greater numbers of on-duty firefighters when our population base is higher.
This year we maintained and improved our efforts of being good neighbors within our district boundaries. We hosted public safety fairs, attended neighborhood meetings, and participated in many non-profit fundraising efforts. In one such event, PCFD firefighters participated for the first time in the “Chili Cook Off” benefitting the children’s burn camp.
September marked the first official physical ability testing of our firefighters using a validated task performance test. This annual physical abilities test measures PCFD member readiness in the areas of lifting, climbing, crawling, dragging, and carrying. The test was developed using an outside source to develop and validate the process. This process is part of our firefighter wellness program utilizing Park City Medical Center staff as well as trained PCFD Certified Fitness Coordinators.
PCFD put into service a new track driven Ranger vehicle for emergency medical and wildland fire response. The Ranger carries a compliment of medical equipment and is also equipped with a water tank and foam system for firefighting. This new vehicle will do everything our snowmobiles used to do and more, responding on snow, ice, mud, and other difficult terrain. In addition, the Ranger has room to carry a patient from the location of their injury.
PCFD began an effort to better prepare our future leadership with officer development coursework. This proved to be a good start and going forward this leadership training will be more inclusive involving our current leadership as well.
The PCFD (Park City Fire District) continues to strengthen and improve our efforts to mitigate wildland fire danger and risk to our district. 2014 saw an increase of over 200% in the resident use of PCFD’s deadfall and limb chipping program. The PCFD wildland firefighting team was deployed several times throughout the year out of state. This program offers valuable wildland firefighting experience to our members while generating revenue for the district. Our fire prevention bureau continues to work with business, industry, and residents to keep our district as safe as possible from forest fire.
We are now in our third year of assisting and directing an emergency medical technician (EMT) certification program at Park City High School. PCFD helped train and certify 40 high school seniors as EMT’s this year.
While the Ebola virus didn’t represent an immediate threat to our community, PCFD did use it as a training opportunity. In December PCFD ran a table top drill with summit county health officials further reinforcing universal precautions and other infection prevention mandates.
The Park City Fire District remains committed to the constant improvement in providing for the safety needs of our residents and visitors. We welcome comments and suggestions through the use of our website “contact” button, or feel free to call us.
We hope you enjoy living, visiting, and playing here as much as we love working here.
Please be safe!
Paul Hewitt
Fire Chief
Park City Fire District