Regional Fire Departments?

[FiremedicMike]

I was wondering if anyone out there had any experience with numerous small career departments combined to make a larger "regional" department.

I would love to hear any information regarding what to do with current leadership, how to handle multiple iaff locals (do they stay seperate or become one, if so, who becomes president?)

Any information would be greatly appreciated

[raven911]

Can't speak for municipal departments, but the federal guys have done that in several places. Don't know how well it has turned out though. I have heard it hasn't been as smooth as was anticipated.

[DrInferno]

Amalgamation was pretty popular here for a while, but these aren't small fire departments. The city of Toronto and the rest of the surrounding departments were forced into a cost saving amalgamation. So to give you some background this fire department now has over 3000 guys and is the largest in Canada. Anyways they went approx. 5 years without a contract, they had to form a new local and wiped out the other IAFF numbers. As for who ran the association I am not sure how they handled that. In other places like Ottawa and Hamilton Ontario, this has been done with other problems. These departments now have some composite stations (full time/volunteer). So that of course leads to the two hatter situation. These IAFF locals I believe (Hamilton for sure) kept their numbers and the other locals joined the larger one.

[raven911]

All of the regionalized departments I have had any dealings with have been very large too. I know that you can incorporate many small departments into a larger fire protection district, But they are usually volunteer organizations. I have never really seen it with smaller career departments. I wouldn't think most local governments would stand for the loss of control they would have over the respective fire departments.

[PuffyNPFD]

In Northern NJ, 5 fire depts. were consolidated into the North Hudson Regional Fire & Rescue. They were Weehawken, Guttenburg, West New York, Union City, and North Bergen. They pooled their resources and respond without community limits as a factor. They too had to abandon their respective IAFF locals and form a new one.

[FiremedicMike]

Hmm.. Puffy - how did they handle the fire chiefs, did there become a board of chiefs?

[Smoke286]

Originally posted by raven911
Can't speak for municipal departments, but the federal guys have done that in several places. Don't know how well it has turned out though. I have heard it hasn't been as smooth as was anticipated.

Yes, Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa , Halifax , Sydney have all gone that route

[Trkco1]

Heard on the news today that Westchester county NY is looking into making a countywide FD.