Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Fire Department topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Fire chief urges new training facility and third station as call volume rises
Summary
Middletown’s fire chief reported a month of heavy emergency activity, outlined plans for a containerized training building and said a third station and a new engine are needed to keep response times within industry standards.
Fire Chief (S3) told the council that the department handled 335 emergency calls last month and responded to two significant fires in the South Fire District, including one on Dunm Avenue where civilians helped evacuate occupants from a structure, and that no civilians or firefighters were seriously injured.
The chief said the department is pursuing a live-fire, containerized training building from Draeger — a six-container stacked structure with burn rooms and reconfigurable training mazes — and plans to fly a small team in October to Pennsylvania to test a similar installation. He said the training building could help the department meet ISO training and facility standards that factor into the city’s fire-protection Insurance Services Office (ISO) rating.
“Once we add that training building in, does this truly get us to a 2?” the chief asked rhetorically, explaining that a lower ISO rating could decrease insurance costs for residents. He told council members the department will submit required paperwork for a full ISO evaluation when ready.
On apparatus, the chief said final specifications for a replacement Engine 3 from Smeal should be available within one to two weeks, with an anticipated build cost in the neighborhood of $1,000,000 and a production timeline that could stretch more than a year. He also said Truck 2 has spent roughly two months out of service for repairs and is slated to return this week.
The chief described a failed procurement path for an ARPA-funded headquarters renovation: the Gordian Group, engaged under a state contract to avoid a local bidding process, returned an estimate of about $450,000 — far above the department’s $180,000–$250,000 budget for the project — and the chief said staff will now pursue a full competitive bid process instead.
Regarding station placement, the chief recommended starting a planning effort for a third station on the Newfield Street side of recent and planned development to reduce current response times (he described existing routes that regularly produce 12–13 minute responses from Main Street into some neighborhoods). The chief said locating apparatus closer to growth areas would reduce mileage, wear-and-tear and long-term repair costs for rigs.
He also raised a fire-code enforcement issue at a 24/7-occupied facility where a resident repeatedly pulls a pull-station alarm. The department and the property manager are pursuing state waiver options and relocation of the pull station to reduce repeated false alarms while maintaining fire-detection requirements.
The chief closed by outlining a planned large-scale active-violence exercise with police, EMS and hospital partners next April and a smaller training event in October to build toward it. He invited council members to observe the exercise and said the department will report back as plans and vendor negotiations advance.
