Chief Richard "Smokey" Dyer, Kansas City, MO, Fire Department
Dyer has served with five Missouri fire departments, as the chief deputy fire marshal for the State of Missouri and assistant professor of fire science at Central Missouri State University.
For nine years, Dyer served on the Board of Directors for the 12,000-member International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC). During 1998-99, he was president of that association. He is currently serving on a joint task force of the IAFC and the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) to develop a program concerning labor-management cooperation.
Dyer has been an adjunct instructor for the National Fire Academy at Emmitsburg, MD, and is currently an associate instructor for the Fire and Rescue Training Institute of the University of Missouri.
The Kansas City Fire Department operates from 34 fire stations. These stations are divided into seven battalion districts that include 31 pumper companies, 13 ladder companies and seven rescue companies. It operates Community Service, Professional Development, Technical Service, Special Operations and Emergency Operations bureaus; hazardous materials and airport response units; a high-angle rescue team; water rescue units; a training academy; a communications center; and fire prevention services.
Dyer was interviewed by Editor-in-Chief Harvey Eisner.
Firehouse: Let's begin by discussing the fire department's staffing levels. Are they where they should be or would you like to hire more firefighters?
Dyer: We're in a situation where we have four basic staffing criteria, minimum staffing, so we operate engine companies, truck companies, quint companies and rescue companies. So the minimum capacity right now on trucks, quints and rescues is four and engines is three.
In August of 2001, a fire sales tax was passed to provide a quarter-cent dedicated sales tax for fire department operations. The plan is in a five-year period to obtain NFPA 1710 compliance for all companies.
Firehouse: How has that plan been working so far?
Dyer: So far it's working fine, but when we passed the tax in August of 2001, with the state statutory requirement, the tax did not start to be collected on retail sales until January 2002. Ever since the tax passed, we immediately started the recruiting process and the selection process. The training process of the firefighters, as it stands right now, we have selected and trained 77 firefighters, a significant portion of them to fill vacancies due to retirement. Starting with the next class of 30, over the plan of five years, we predict that at the end of the fifth year that we will add 135 to existing staffing, budgeted full-time personnel of 996.
Firehouse: How is apparatus replacement progressing?
Dyer: Well, we already have (replaced some apparatus) as part of the fire sales tax program. Right now, our oldest apparatus is a truck company that is 10 years old. All other apparatus are newer than that. The average age is five years.
Firehouse: What lessons were learned from the fire in which a battalion chief was killed? Are there other programs that you're going to put in place as a result of that fire?
Dyer: Primarily, to address that firefighter's fatality, we're utilizing recommendations included in the NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) report.
Probably the one that has been the most significant change in terms of fiscal impact was purchasing all new SCBA (self-contained breathing apparatus) for the department with integrated PASS (personal alert safety system) devices, which is probably a piece of equipment that would have given us a lot greater ability to locate that battalion chief and to be able to effect a rescue prior to his death. The other things are training and procedural in nature that we have been implementing.
Firehouse: Any other specifics in the procedures that you're implementing?
Dyer: Increased accountability of firefighters. That's one of the significant things that we needed to address, having chief officers working alone in roles of either being the interior sector officer or safety instead of working in pairs.
Firehouse: Is there any new technology that you're going to purchase as a result of that fire? I believe that one of the mutual aid companies had to come in with a thermal imaging camera. Have you bought those units?
Dyer: Yes, all seven rescue companies are now outfitted with thermal imaging cameras.
Firehouse: Are there other pieces of equipment or radios that you're purchasing?
Dyer: No, the radio system was in the process of upgrade at the time of the incident and the post-review of that incident did not reveal any failures of radio communication. We have been extensively involved over the past five years in the initial installation and then an additional upgrade of the radio system, with additional towers and repeaters to make the system more reliable. We didn't have any communications failures at that incident and right now the system is operating with few operational complaints by the companies in the field.
I think that the most significant technological advancement were the new SCBA with integrated PASS systems, which was about a $1 million investment, and then the purchase of the thermal imaging cameras.
Firehouse: How about increased hazmat and terrorism training? How is the department handling that?
Dyer: Right now, we're addressing the terrorism issue primarily through what we call MMRS, which is the Metropolitan Medical Response System. A training grant was received from the Defense Department, and the fire department was selected as the lead agency in city government to administer that. A decision was then made to prepare for terrorism on a regional basis, instead of just Kansas City, Missouri.
We have formed the MMRS Oversight Committee headed up by Dominick Ceroni, who has been promoted to deputy chief. And then we had a multi-disciplinary oversight committee made up of representatives of fire, police, health, emergency management and hospitals. Now we have nine different subcommittees operating.
In July, we transferred the governors of that committee to the mid-America Regional Council, which is a regional government body, and the committee will be co-chaired by one city manager from the Kansas side of the metro area and one of the Kansas City assistant city managers along with elected officials, fire chiefs, police chiefs, representatives of the hospital association, emergency management directors and then to set forth the policies that we're going to have for terrorism in the metropolitan area. Then those recommended policies will go back for adoption to the various local governments.
In the training phase, we have six metropolitan hazardous materials teams and we have worked extensively to upgrade both their equipment and training in response to weapons of mass destruction, primarily from chemical, thermal and now radiological situations.
We have also purchased three terrorism trailers that give us a significant quantity of both hard and disposable equipment and supplies. One is housed in our fire department, one at the another suburban fire department on the Missouri side and one on the Kansas state line, so we have tried to make this regional throughout. When we received the Defense Department training grant, again we did that on a metropolitan basis and that's the same we've done with equipment grants from the Department of Justice. So we've been in a consistent build-up to maintain our readiness for terrorism starting in 1997.
Firehouse: Let's discuss some of the top projects that you're working on.
Dyer: We've been working on creating the labor-management model with the goal that all or most of our significant decisions made on the department with the consensus decision reached in the labor management partnership process, as opposed to just the chief rendering a decision. We originally took the IAFC (International Association of Fire Chiefs) and the IAFF (International Association of Fire Firefighters) labor-management partnership model and started that as our base, where we have two unions, one for the rank-and-file and one for the battalion chiefs. The two presidents and myself have attended training put on in the joint initiative of the IAFC and the IAFF.
Following that, then we had all of our chief officers and the executive boards of both locals trained in the same program of the IAFC and the IAFF. Then we brought in the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service that worked with us for over six months to create a labor-management partnership document that sets up the framework of how we'll work with each other and how we will make decisions. That's been a significant project that was a year in the making to create the labor-management partnership process. The next stop following that is creating a strategic plan. We have utilized that labor-management partnership process to select a consultant firm that will come in and be with us from six to nine months and then create a strategic plan for our operations and what projects we're going to work on to improve our services over the next five to seven years.
A second component part of that strategic plan will be to map out a 15-year capital improvement plan which will address all of our fixed-facility needs as well as a current and improved fleet-maintenance program, to refine it and look at our current units. With the first sales tax, we have funding in place to carry out those three things of five- to seven-year operational plan, the 15-year facility plan and the fleet-replacement plan.
Firehouse: Does the labor-management partnership have the total backing of the governing bodies?
Dyer: Yes, the labor-management partnership, of course, was something that was done between the three entities - what we're calling fire administration, which is the chief, the deputy chiefs and three assistants to the chief who are the non-union personnel, and then the two unions. It was done with full review of the law department and the city manager's office. Of course, we had to have the support of the city manager, the elected officials to place this initiative on the ballot and the fire sales tax, which was done early on while we were in this process, so yes, we feel we've got the full support of those people who are responsible for our policy oversight.
Firehouse: You have a lot of things going on. Anything else that's up at the top of the list?
Dyer: On the top of the list, we're currently working on revamping how we do all of our promotional processes and then dealing with an outside consultant in the labor-management process. We did that also with the selection process for our new personnel. We just completed the first assessment center for battalion chief utilizing the new methods which involve the use of all internal assessors from the fire department and no external assessors, and also involves all three groups in the labor-management partnership in conducting the assessment.
The unions actually select assessors who sit in on the process to create the eligibility list for battalion chiefs. The selection process, again, was totally revamped with the recommendations of an outside consultant, but working in the labor-management cooperation where we have totally redone how we're doing our recruitment, but also our selection process for fire candidates. After we finished revamping the selection process, then we re-did the training process for newly hired recruited firefighters and we have now broken the academy into two segments, as we call it.
We call the first eight weeks of the academy pre-apprentice training. During that time is when they get most of their didactic training, so it is mostly classroom. At the end of the eight weeks, that's when the pre-apprentice is tested and must be able to obtain a first responder medical license, and must be able to complete and pass the classroom work for Firefighter I and II certification.
Then the other element that is not classroom based, but that they must pass, is the candidate physical ability test, again developed from the initiative of IAFF and IAFC, a joint project. That ensures that before you move into the cadet portion of the training academy, where actual field training of Firefighter I and II and hazardous materials in addition to EMT is instructed, that you have the learning ability to be able to pass the written examinations that are administered during the training process and you also have the physical ability to do the job of firefighter before you start training on ladders, hoses and other field exercises. It also ensures then that anybody that we bring in has the tutoring and the training necessary to ensure that over an eight-week period that they have been offered training evolutions that will assist them and educate them on how to successfully pass the candidate physical ability test.
Firehouse: Are there any other major initiatives or plans for the future that you'd like to discuss?
Dyer: We want to be able to fully comply with NFPA 1710 and also to become an accredited fire department. Those are our two big goals that come out of that initiative of the strategic plan.
We plan in the next 15 years, in our capital plan, that we will have built a new station or rehabilitated 100% of our facilities, as well as build a new fire academy and a new fire headquarters. Following the process for battalion chief promotions and in our next promotional process for captain, we expect to utilize the same process for fire apparatus operator, which most departments call engineer or driver. And then two years after the captain's test, we plan on using that process for the apparatus operators.
In the last 18 months, we have totally reorganized fire administration in our bureaus of the fire department. If someone who retired from here 20 months ago or two years ago came in today, the company distribution out in the field would be the same, but everything above the battalion chief level is reorganized and different than it was prior to that.
We also have added two additional office sites to the fire department in the last 18 months where we're now conducting administrative operations because we've outgrown our space on the 22nd floor of City Hall.
