Fire chief outlines hazmat incident billing and says city will bill for many responses; department also highlights Lucas CPR rollout

Fire Chief Brett Stenum told the council the Fire Department has responded to close to 160 hazardous-material incidents so far this year and that about 112 of those cases are considered billable. He said the city typically collects 60–70% of billed hazmat costs and emphasized the incidents require specialized equipment and personnel time.

Stenum noted hazmat responses commonly last two to six hours and use expendable supplies and highly trained personnel, so billing is intended to recover consumable costs and partially offset the personnel hours those crews are unavailable for other emergency responses. He said revenue from billing would be recorded in the fire department’s revenue budget and flow to the city’s general fund.

Medical operations lieutenant Jason Adams described the department’s adoption of Lucas mechanical-CPR devices, which provide automatic chest compressions at about 102 compressions per minute and free up crew members to perform other life-saving interventions. Adams said crews can apply the Lucas device in under 10 seconds and that the department is working to equip every fire apparatus and stadium units with the device; flight time and operational limits for drones were discussed earlier in the meeting in APD remarks.

The presentation was informational; staff said the city will follow its billing procedures (similar to EMS billing practices) and will return with any policy changes if the billing program requires formal council direction.