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Fire chief outlines staffing, equipment needs and county reporting plan
Summary
The county fire chief reported recent wildland and structure responses, proposed raising county firefighter pay to $25/hour, described mutual-aid and incident-command roles, and said the county will centralize NFIRS reporting through ImageTrend to improve grants and recordkeeping.
Duchesne County’s fire chief, identified in the meeting as Josh (speaker 8), gave an update on recent fires, mutual-aid assignments, equipment needs, and operational changes at the July 21 meeting.
Josh said county crews responded to several smoke checks and wildland fires in the last weeks and that one engine (Engine 145) was assigned to Deer Creek with a 16-day assignment for a county operator. He reported that a pump failure on Fruitland’s Tender 146 prompted an order for a replacement pump. On firefighter pay, Josh described a proposed increase in county pay from $21 to $25 per hour while noting state pay averages around $33; he and commissioners discussed affordability and reimbursement considerations.
The chief also clarified incident command roles: local city chiefs generally assume IC for fires in their jurisdiction, with the county fire chief/marshal providing support and taking over unified command where necessary. Josh said the county has adopted ImageTrend and will build out reporting to NERIS (the national fire recording system) so departments’ reports will flow through the county in a standardized way; the shift is intended to improve grant positioning and ISO-related reporting.
Commissioners discussed contract length for coverage, compensation, and expectations for reporting and apparatus maintenance. They asked staff to refine agreement language (inspection and repair responsibilities, reporting when apparatus is taken out of service) and to consider three-year contract terms for some cities to align oversight and review cycles.
The county will continue to refine mutual-aid and billing procedures so that equipment replacement and one-off costs can be tracked and invoiced when applicable.
