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Fire Administration
The City of Vandalia's Division of Fire's Mission is to provide superior fire/Emergency Medical Services (EMS) services to 15,000 residents of a 12.5 square mile city at the top of Montgomery County. The Division of Fire provides this superior level of service from three strategically located fire stations.
The Division of Fire's administrative team consists of the Fire Chief, a full-time Office Manager, an Assistant Fire Chief, and command staff of three full-time Captains (Shift Commanders), and one part-time Captain.
The backbone of the Division of Fire's Emergency Medical Services (EMS) is the delivery of our customer-centric services model. The Division of Fire strives to provide three fully staffed advanced life support (paramedic) medic units 24/7/365. The Division of Fire prides itself on being able to provide high-quality emergency medical services and taxpayer/city council support has allowed us to continue to develop our service delivery model affording us the opportunity to provide our customers with a highly trained and motivated staff supported by the latest innovations and technology.
Customer Service
The Division of Fire answers approximately 3200 calls for service each year, approximately 90% of these calls for service are for emergency medical services. The Division of Fire is a customer service organization whose objectives include getting to you quickly, effectively managing your medical emergency, and getting you to a definitive care facility. The goal is to create positive outcomes for our customers and their families.
We have found that the best way to ensure that we are meeting our customer's expectations is through preparation (training). Alexander Graham Bell once said: "Before anything else, preparation is the key to success".
Practice
As in any professional sport, the Division of Fire believes you "play as you practice", therefore "practice" (or training) is essential to the success of the Mission. The Division of Fire's, Fire Training and Special Operations Group is charged with developing and delivering nearly 500 hours of training each year. Employees are exposed to three hours (on average) of some type of fire, EMS, or Special Operations training every week.
Special Operations
Special Operations are the tactics used to solve specific or technical rescues or hazards. The Special Operations Group (SOG) is responsible for developing the Division of Fire's rescue cache and for training our personnel in these specialized techniques.
First-Response Organization
The Division of Fire considers itself to be an all-hazards "first response" organization. Therefore we plan and prepare to respond to a wide variety of "special" hazard/rescue situations ranging from water/ice rescue, to high/low angle rope rescues, to confine space or collapse rescues, to lost person search, and/or hazardous materials problems.
Training
The SOG plans for at least three hours of special operations training for each firefighter each month.