Department Structure, need coments please

[clarkx3]

Our Dept. consist of 3 Stations and 44 Firefighters. We have now 1-Chief, 3-1st Asst. Chiefs and 3-2nd Asst. Chiefs. There is a 1st and 2nd for each Station and 1 Chief for overall.

-----We want to change it to--- 1-Chief, 1-Deputy Chief, 1-Asst. Deputy Chief, and for each station a Captain and Lieutenant. I think 7 Chiefs is to many and there is no clear chain of comand or pyrmad. Am I on the right track or is 7 Chiefs ok or should we listen to the vets. and leave it alone I vote change.

[Dickey]

You gotta do what is right for your dept and what works. It may seem too "brass heavy" but do things get done and it all works out in the end?? Basically I'm saying if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Also to make any change, you have to have the support of the Chief otherwise nothing will happen.

For example, my department is slotted to have 45 members total. One chief, 2 assistant chiefs, 2 captains, and 4 lieutenants. That system works good for us. The full time department next door to us has a Chief, 1 assistant chief, 2 Deputy Chiefs, 3 Battalion chiefs (one for each shift), 6 Captains (one for each station), and 12 Lieutenants. That system works for them.

Bottom line, the job title doesn't matter as long as the job is getting done. I hate to say it but it doesn't matter what you think, it's up to the Chief how he/she wants their department to be set up.

[ehs7554]

I used to work for a dept that had 4 stations and the 4th only opened up about 4 years ago we had the following:

Chief
Asst Chief - Technical
Asst Chief - Operations
Fire Marshall - Bat Chief by rank/pay
Training Chief - Bat chief by rank/pay
2 Inspectors - Lt by rank/pay
These were 40 hr jobs
we had three shifts with the foloowing:
1 Bat Chief/shift= 3 total
1 Lieut per station?shift = 12 total
15 mixed drivers and FF's/shift

The town was about 55000 with a division 1 college
here is a link for their city fire web site so you can see some more info.
http://www.ci.manhattan.ks.us/Fire/
hope ths helps

[DeputyChiefGonzo]

Our Dept. consist of 3 Stations and 44 Firefighters. We have now 1-Chief, 3-1st Asst. Chiefs and 3-2nd Asst. Chiefs. There is a 1st and 2nd for each Station and 1 Chief for overall.

-----We want to change it to--- 1-Chief, 1-Deputy Chief, 1-Asst. Deputy Chief, and for each station a Captain and Lieutenant. I think 7 Chiefs is to many and there is no clear chain of comand or pyrmad. Am I on the right track or is 7 Chiefs ok or should we listen to the vets. and leave it alone I vote change.

I need a little more infor before I can comment on the situation.
Are you a career, paid call or volunteer FD?
If career, how many groups do you have?

It appears you have no company or station officers on the rigs.. am I correct?

[firepimp]

If it works leave it alone I say , it's probably nice that there's always some brass to turn to in any event , but my ideal thing would be 1 chief 1 assisant chief and 1 captain per station and 3 luitenants per station. But the main thing is what works and what won't work.

[ChiefReason]

A city close to us pretty much mirrors what you have with regards to 3 stations and 44 firefighters.
They have a chief, 4 battalion chiefs, 4 captains and 4 lews and 31 firefighters. One of the bat chiefs is acts like an asst. chief, but when the last asst. chief retired, the city council didn't want another asst. chief, but approved adding a fourth bat chief. Strange, huh? The system has worked well for them. Of course, it's not a perfect system, but they have a good mix/great bunch.
I would only vote for change if there was something really lacking. If not; work out the wrinkles and leave as is.
IMHO.
CR