1. Fire Service Deployment: Assessing Community Vulnerability
FireCARES Project

2. Fire Department Core Values
Protect lives, property, and the environment through preparedness, prevention, public education, and emergency response with an emphasis on quality services, efficiency, effectiveness, and safety.

3. Matching Resources to Risk
If fire department resources (both mobile and personnel) are deployed to match the risk levels inherent to hazards in the community, it has been scientifically demonstrated that the community will be far less vulnerable to negative outcomes in…
firefighter injury and death
civilian injury and death
property loss

4. Fire Department Expectations
Service expectations have steadily increased
Emergency Medical Services (EMS)
Response to natural disasters
Hazardous materials incidents
Technical rescue
Acts of terrorism

5. Fire Department Challenges
budget crises
rising call volume
personnel and equipment shortages
security issues
expectation to do more with less

6. Challenges are Driving Dangerous Decisions
Forcing decisions to cut fire department resources faster than we can evaluate their impact
Cuts can leave a community without sufficient resources to respond safely and effectively

7. Plan to the Budget or Budget to the Plan
Fire chiefs faced with policies created by municipal officials
With finite budgetary resources
Without a solid technical foundation for evaluating the impact of staffing and deployment decisions on the safety of the public and firefighters

8. The Need for Hazard Risk Assessment
Traditional focus of risk assessment
identification of fire hazards and
planning an appropriate suppression response force
Today, hazard risk assessment goes well beyond the fire problem to medical and other emergencies.
Fire chiefs must assess;
A wide array of hazards
The risk level associated with an adverse event involving those hazards
The necessary resources for response to such an event

9. The Need for Hazard Risk Assessment
The resources (personnel and equipment) needed for the response must consider the outcomes
Firefighter injury and death
Civilian injury and death
Property loss (and the environment)

10. Matching Resources to Risk
Following a community hazard/risk assessment, Chiefs must prepare a plan for timely and sufficient coverage of all hazards and the adverse risk events that occur….Standard of Response Coverage. (Standards of Cover)
Standards of response coverage is defined as the written policies and procedures that establish the distribution and concentration of fixed and mobile resources of an organization

11. Standards of Cover Resource distribution is associated with
geography of the community
travel time to emergencies
Distribution is typically measured by the percent of the jurisdiction covered by the first-due units.
Concentration is also about geography
arranging of multiple resources,
spacing them so that an initial "effective response force" can arrive on scene within time frames established

12. Matching Resources to Risk
Response time goals for first-due units (distribution) and …
Response time goals for the total effective on-scene emergency response force (concentration) …
…Drive fire department objectives like fire station location, apparatus deployed and staffing levels.

13. Explaining to Decision Makers
If response times and force assembly times are low, …
it is an indicator that sufficient resources have been deployed and outcomes from risk events are more likely to be positive.
Conversely, if response times and force assembly times are high,
it is an indicator of insufficient resources and outcomes from risk events are more likely to be negative.

14. Fire Department Performance
Resource Availability/Reliability is the degree to which the resources are ready and available to respond.
Department Capability is the ability of the resources deployed to manage an incident.
Operational Effectiveness is the product of availability and capability. It is the outcome achieved by the deployed resources or a measure of the ability to match resources deployed to the risk level to which they are responding

15. Fire Service Leaders Faced with Decisions
When evaluating current capability or measuring impact of a change in the level of resources deployed, department leaders (and community officials) must decide:
What resources to commit to risk management (prevention/pre-planning/preparation);
What resources to commit to response/mitigation
The acceptable level of risk.

16. Fire Service Leaders Faced with Decisions
Decisions must be based on understanding of
relationship between community hazards and associated risk,
basic emergency response infrastructure, including fire department response capability
outcomes of emergency incidents
Considering these three elements AND the tools available to decision makers, a basic community vulnerability formula

17. Vulnerability Formula
Risk Level Too few resources (-) = (-) Outcome Appropriate Resources (+) = (+) Outcome

18. Matching Resources to Risk
If fire department resources (both mobile and personnel) are deployed to match the risk levels inherent to hazards in the community, it has been scientifically demonstrated that the community will be far less vulnerable to negative outcomes in…
firefighter injury and death
civilian injury and death
property loss

19. FireCARES FireCARES = Community Assessment Response Evaluation System
Same Study Team as NIST Studies
DHS/AFG Grant
DOD – ROGUE project

20.
Questions?