SIDNEY — The annual presentation on the Sidney Department of Fire and Emergency Services was given during Sidney City Council’s Monday evening meeting.
Fire Chief Chad Hollinger provided the presentation to council members on the department’s 2021 statistics, but made sure to credit Deputy Fire Chief Dallas Davis and Administrative Assistant Katie Hoehne for their help putting the report together.
Sidney Fire’s fire prevention activities, training hours, operation activities, significant events, the incident densities and response times by district were included in the annual report.
Hollinger’s report began by reminding council members of the department’s mission statement, “Serve and protect the community by preventing loss of life and property.”
“Everything we do it driven by that mission … Our mission is people driven,” Hollinger said.
He then listed and displayed the numerous pictures of those in leadership roles at the department, as well as went over personnel changes including Assistant Fire Chief Mark Barga’s retirement and promotions.
The fire protection office (FPO), which conducts inspections, fire investigations, plans review and fire safety education/training, is comprised of Deputy Fire Chief Dallas Davis, Lt. Ryan Heitman and Lt. Greg Francis.
The public education program of FPO rebounded last year after COVID-19’s significant impact in 2020, Hollinger noted. In 2021, they conducted 20 public education presentations, reaching 3,128 people compared to only one presentation in 2020, when they spoke to 60 people. Hollinger said these events is where the “rubber meets the road” and he would much rather have higher numbers of community outreach opportunities to educate the public rather than meeting them after a fire for fire investigations
Last year, the department conducted 234 fire prevention inspections, 24 fire investigations and one court-ordered juvenile fire-setter program.
The training division is run by Davis and Lt. Jeff Simon. In 2021, the department underwent 4,331 total hours of training, averaging 124 hours per person.
Hollinger informed council members Simon is also the Shelby County HAZMAT chief, whom Hollinger praised for his great work. The Shelby County HAZMAT, under Simon’s leadership, Hollinger noted, is now a standalone Type II team. This distinction is something that typically is held by large cities.
Council member Mike Barhorst asked Hollinger to expand on a Type II team, to which Hollinger explained it meant the team has access to greater number of resources such as people and technology than a Type I team and it is better able to manage unknown chemicals.
Sidney Fire has three crews, which operates every third day, and contains a total of 10 firefighters each. Hollinger pointed out the department responded to 4,039 calls in 2021 and within the last six years, calls have exceeded 4,000. He doesn’t anticipate that number going down. There were a total of 2936 EMS and 123 fire calls with eight significant fire incidents within the 2021.
Barhorst asked why there have been more fires and more highly damaging fires lately. Hollinger said these fires can be attributed to improperly distinguishing smoking materials and wiring issues within a structure.
The A-Crew is headed up by Assistant Chief Keith Wiley with Lt. Rick Slife. In charge of the B-Crew is Assistant Chief Jason Truesdale with Lt. Brian Lundy. The C-Crew is run by Assistant Chief Eric Barhorst with Lt. Bryan Ramge. Hollinger praised all of the work of the leaders in the department saying they do a fantastic job.
Other than fighting fires and EMS calls, members also conduct rope, trench and ice rescues. Other types of rescues include fast moving water, confined space, HAZMAT, grain rescues and extrication from motor vehicle crashes and machinery.
There were 377 EMS and 95 fire incidents within the 2021 operations of township activities, Hollinger said.
Among the most significant fire incidents during 2021, during a November structure fire on Second Avenue, a life was lost, with the total dollar amount loss set at $90,000. Also he noted a February structure fire, which first responders were honored for saving lives, on Oak Ridge Drive; the dollar loss amount was set at $110,000. Hollinger said the most expensive confirmed event last year was a structure fire on East Court Street in May with $130,000 in damages.
Hollinger also reviewed the response times in 2021. The response times were broken down between fire and medical calls. The fire data showed, in 2020, SFD responded 91% of the time in 6.5 minutes to the center portion of Sidney, 87% to the west, and 52% of the time to the north of town.
The standard is a 6 minute response time for EMS calls, Hollinger said. The medical call data for 2021 showed SFD successfully arrived within 6 minutes 87% of the time to the center of town, 72% to the west, and 42% of the time to areas north of Russell Road.
