 Hello and welcome to quality of life. I'm your host Dave Augustine And I'm honored today that our guest is chief Mike Romas of the Sheboygan fire department I invited chief Romas to talk about the services provided by the Sheboygan fire department and the level of training Maintained by the members of the department all of which affect the quality of life in our community. Welcome chief Romas Thank You Dave. Thanks for having me you bet where I'd like to start out with chief is you're fairly new to the Fire department in the city. Mm-hmm. Could you give us a background of you know your training and your experience in fire? Absolutely I have over 30 years of service in the fire department I originally was born and raised in Milwaukee lived there my entire life I spent just over 30 years with the Milwaukee fire department Started out as a firefighter, you know worked my way up a driver a lieutenant a captain battalion chief deputy chief assistant chief and Then I was fortunate enough to be hired by Sheboygan as their fire chief So I'm excited to be here and that's really where I came from Always been involved in community service my whole life I was a lifeguard for many years on Lake Michigan That's another reason I wanted to come to Sheboygan nice because I love Lake Michigan I love that that part of it and you just just like in Milwaukee you look east and there's the lake So I feel like I'm a somewhat home here excellent well on behalf of Sheboygan the community and the city Sheboygan Welcome chief to your position. It's great having you. Yeah, great. Thank you with the Sheboygan fire department What is the basic makeup or structure of it meaning, you know, it's locations You know the types of equipment in each location the stations if you could kind of give us a summary or a view of you know How that sits sure absolutely We're fortunate to have five fire stations in the city and that Reduces our response time for whatever it is that the citizen needs. So that's that's critical in this area Sheboygan is obviously built up along Lake Michigan. So it's long and it's narrow So we have those fire stations scattered north to south throughout the city. We have engines trucks paramedic units and some other extra equipment a fire engine is Basically the people that go inside the building they have the water and the holes now They have other things, but I'm just trying to keep a basic right. Thank you the fire department's like a football team I like to equate it to a football team And we have the engine in the truck like there is the offense and the defense and the engine Like I said before has the water and holes and they go inside and put the fire out They put the wet stuff on the red stuff as we say nice and then the truck companies we call those our toolboxes and A truck is the one with the big area ladder on top and it's it has a pipe a pre-piped Waterway so we can use that for bigger buildings or things that are set back that we need to get water to and The truck company supports the engine company in that they create openings for us above to make sure that we can get inside It takes the heat and the smoke away from the fire and allows firefighters to get in They have extra tools. There are forcible entry experts So we really do have two different things going on at a fire Basically, there's a lot of things going on a fire, but those are the two basic things So we have engines and trucks and of course I know that people in this community know about the paramedic units and we have three of those and They're stationed throughout the city, you know one north one south and one in the middle and 78% of our runs are EMS a either BLS or ALS related So the citizens of Sheboygan have excellent care. We have 32 paramedics in the city and So the training level the certification level is very high when it comes to EMS So when that citizen calls 9-1-1, they're going to get the absolute best service equipment Attitude that they can possibly get okay chief are all five stations Equip the same or do you have one station as this is their expertise another station? That's their expertise so you can kind of dynamically Flow as situations come up in the city. There's somewhat different. We don't have teams per se I mean, we have some specialties. That's something I'd like to look at in the future, but you know, we have hazardous materials responses, but that's county run and we have confined space and We have people that are well versed in ropes, but We need to get more people trained and we will be doing that in the near future. Okay With the five stations your staff, what are the core services that you provide to the community core services? Obviously our number one run is EMS So when I say EMS everybody thinks of ALS, which is advanced life support or advanced life support system And then we have BLS, which is basic life support So of our 66 firefighters that we have working we have three shifts. There's 22 on per day We have 32 paramedics scattered throughout the city So we have approximately 10 or 11 or 12 working every day Our paramedic units have two paramedics on each unit. So there's a minimum of six Usually more though throughout the city You know on staff So that's our number one run. That's the basic thing that we do But we're a fire department. So we also do fires, but fires are a small percentage of what we do Building constructions gotten better Communications and IT have gotten better Apparatus is better our equipment's better all those things are better now than what I came on 30 years ago and all that adds To our speed of response. So, you know I'm dispatch issues to get a telephone call on a dial phone and then used to go to a Dispatch center that would plug in similar to what you'd see in an old World War two movie where the operators are plugging lines in I saw that happen in Milwaukee. Actually, we actually had that. So that doesn't exist anymore It's computers and the dispatchers I give them a lot of credit They have to be right 100% of the time and they are I don't know how they do it But they are and they dispatch us and but it's with a computer and it's a lot quicker than it ever was before so We get our fire runs and that's about two to three percent of our responses But we do a lot of things besides those two things We do, you know hazardous materials responses. We do Assist invalids we Basically anything that the police department can't handle if they need a fire department, you know Somebody to take care of it will come floods lockouts Things like that. We do just about everything but a lot of what we do during the day is Education and training and keeping ourselves sharp so that when we do get the call. We're ready to go. Okay. Thank you for that explanation With your makeup of calls, you know, let's say on a monthly average You said, you know fire calls are maybe two to three percent of your total calls or most as your EMS or health related You know services to the community On an average, let's say on a month. What would you say your call volumes would be roughly roughly last year? We had about just over 5200 runs total per year So, you know divide that by 12. I don't know what you'd come up with but that's approximately what we'd have Would that be about not 500 between? Well, maybe 450 total in the history of You know the medical part of the fire department Do volumes do you see them staying the same or have they been you know increasing decreasing or would you say it's pretty much a level? You know type of a volume Since I've gotten to Sheboygan obviously I did some research to find that out actually preparing the interview for the position The runs here have gone up our runs have increased pretty much every year for the last several years And but the big increase has been in EMS. Okay, so I'd say it's on the rise Not a not drastically, but it is rising and I expect that to continue in the near future In your runs, you know you have fire versus the medical part. What are the average response times for the department? Because we have five stations. It's very good and in the fire service. It's all about speed right on our Service it's all about speed the quicker we can get to a building if there's a fire a situation the smaller The fire is and the less we have to do in the quicker we can put it out and mitigate that situation So and the same is true for EMS, you know, if somebody's having a heart attack You know, you can't get there soon enough. So it's seconds matter. They really do even in a fire You know when I came through the Academy 30 years ago, I was taught that a fire doubles in size every 17 seconds Wow And I think that's pretty much true based on my experience as a chief and standing on the outside and Watching that fire develop, you know through the windows and the smoke changing and things and going from, you know Room and contents to two rooms to a 50% of a floor to a hundred percent To two floors to the building to other buildings, you know what I'd say that's pretty accurate Some people will disagree and it's been argued that it might even be faster because Building construction has changed a great deal in the last, you know, 30 40 years and there's a lot more truss lightweight construction a two by four isn't a two by four anymore It's you know, it's one in seven eighths by you know, three and three quarters You know, I mean, you know what I mean sure and it's not true lumber some of it's fabricated and milled and So there's all kinds of things so if you look at a room and contents From before from let's say 30 they call that a legacy construction You look at legacy compared to modern construction and you light a fire in furnished in the same way But with modern materials that compared to old An old an old room might flash in four or five minutes Whereas modern construction might be two minutes or three minutes thereabouts. Okay, so that's important definitely Excuse me. I know working when I used to work in the health care industry as IT You know in working with the Clinical or medical staff, you know, that's in the training that we had even though we were support services We were still known and that's one thing that they also Emphasized as the amount of time seconds can matter, you know If somebody is having a heart attack a stroke or any type of a condition where you know seconds count it does You know it absolutely does and then when you get there You know now we can control everything that happens and you know then then the equipment the training You know the attitude of that all kicks in the experience all of those things come together and in our department I think we're very very successful at what we do because of our people and the training that they have, okay You had mentioned with dispatching, you know things are more efficient with technology and equipment Our department is dispatched through the same dispatch center to City County dispatch center is what police are So that makes it all tied together nicely as well correct correct. How do you see? This is kind of a curve chief, but you know get the whole combined dispatch. You see that improving services Overall, yes, I'd say it will it's already happening now we have even though we have separate centers we're right on the cusp of becoming a combined dispatch center truly County City and Equipment is being installed. It's being purchased The planet that was set years ago is being put in place right now and it will I believe Benefit in a in a better faster more efficient Dispatch center with better trained people with better equipment and overall I think we're going to be very well served by that combined system and like I said, it's happening right now. Okay, excellent I know you had mentioned about technology and how Enhancements have been made we've become more efficient. Could you go in a little bit more? Let's say, you know and fire and ambulance, you know that the I know we have the it equipment You know the computers and the communications what you can do, but there's also improvements on the basic equipment that they use on the scene as well Could you go into how some of that has improved over the years? Absolutely? I I alluded to that before where I went to the dispatch center as a Rookie or a cub firefighter and I saw the dispatchers plugging things in like I remember seeing in old movies in World War two era That stuff obviously that's long gone In terms of equipment probably our number one area other than dispatch is our EMS equipment our ALS equipment we have monitors That's a separate unit. That's very highly technical and our defibrillators which are You know what we use to shock people hook them up and we check their their heart rates and things Those things didn't even exist, you know 15 20 years ago or they were just getting started When I was a young person, I used to watch emergency that Kind of you know with cage and to so do I think I think that was their names But you know they were paramedics and they you know, there's always something big going on But and they had that type of equipment, but that was you know one of the first departments to do that We have it now. It's changing right now as I speak. We're looking at the next generation Some of it is required by our medical director the doctor that runs our program here in the county Insists on you know an upgrade to that equipment. So sometimes our hands are tied But in a good way sure we need to keep increasing that technology and you know, that's your area We've worked together a lot and you've been very very helpful to me and We can't get by Without the technology today and it's changing all the time. I mean more I think more in your area than any area There you know, I mean a computer today That's a modern and ready to be used and it's great in a month. That's not obsolete But if there's something new that's even better and it's hard to keep up and there's a lot of overlap and things And it's very difficult and we appreciate what you do for us. You're definitely welcome It's honored to be part of that whole system. Thank you, you know like with our fire and emergency services It's almost like you're an extension of the hospital or they're an extension of you Especially with the technologies and equipment she used you can be sending information right to them or them back to you directly How does that help in the quality of the care of the service a great deal? Questions don't have to be re-asked. You know that information is instantaneous Everybody works better faster because of that people get better care and that care, you know They're diagnosed properly sooner and then they're given treatments that are necessary or might help them from prevent them from you know being injured in the future or Rehabilitating stroke is a classic example if we know somebody is a stroke patient There's certain drugs that be given can be given to them But they have to be diagnosed properly and then as soon as they get in they have to be Treated with a proper drug. Well, that doesn't happen Thirty years ago, right? It just doesn't happen today. It does and that's just a tremendous thing Stints or heart problems if there's a blockage in an artery in the heart if that's known The the big push today is to get you know people from the field their homes into the Cath lab sure as soon as possible and that's a big drive right now and hospitals are coming way down in that Well, if they do that that means that that artery is open again And the heart's back not to maybe normal But it's open and they don't suffer any lingering consequences blood is flowing So they're going to avoid that those are just two examples where our speed and tick the speed of technology and Working together with a partner like the hospitals it all comes together and everybody's better off today in 2014 Then they were in you know 1960 or 70 or whatever and obviously with you know Technology changing so rapidly in the way we're trying to change and keep up the date Also, there's medical procedures that change, you know as well that they come out with this You know like you said now an aspirin first or possibly if it's diagnosed correctly or other advanced services that you provide What type of training does the paramedics have to go through to stay on top of their skills and what types of training programs? Do you have it's unbelievable? Are you know, I'm an EMT. I'm currently on my event I'm currently an EMT and you know when I went through it was you know a few hundred hours of train like maybe I think 200 or something a paramedic it's I don't even know what it is today It's like 1400 or 1600 or whatever it's six months eight months of training and experience and ride-alongs and you know Doing the procedures intubations and starting IVs and and pushing drugs with the doctor's permission and talking You know, there's so much involved in that. It's such a high level of skill It's unbelievable and a training is non-stop procedures change technology changes equipment changes protocols change Apparatus changes It's non-stop. It's going on all the time. So they have there's training. It's year-round You know and our EMS our BLS people also have that training too and we support our paramedics in the field Also as much as possible. Yeah, this just came to mind to ask the question So not that I'm trying to throw another curve at you or whatever, but does the training and orientation with you know Your medical people EMTs is there any coordination with let's say the emergency department said, you know The local hospitals here like St. Nick or Memorial Aurora, you know Where they would spend time in the ER room or at least partner shadow and work on certain techniques so that How should I say extension of an arm one way or another, you know, we're working together more is anything like that go on Yes, that happens all the time We have a great working relationship with the two hospitals in the city of Sheboygan as well as other hospitals in the state even Children's down in Milwaukee and freighter in Milwaukee and craft in and you know, we're all over so Yes, and and they're there they know that by helping us. They're really helping themselves and We listen to each other a lot of its communication. You know something isn't right there if there's an issue or a problem they come to us and It's very professional It's all the bottom line is to make it the best for the patient and for the citizens That's when we come to them or they come to us. That's always what's foremost in both of our minds So we have an excellent working relationship. I've met with the directors of both those hospitals and Fantastic people with that. They're just driven to be the best and It's kind of hard not to follow along with that type of an attitude. That's great Switch you over to the fire site. Obviously there's training. It has to go on there as well And recently you had a training exercise with the buildings on the shook it property Mm-hmm where you had could you go into that as far as you know What that was all about and what you all did and the types of exercises you conducted sure when I first got to shabu again, I met with my command staff and One of the people I met with was my battalion chief in charge of training Keith Rissy And he told me that he would one of his goals that he would like to see our department achieve was to have some live-fire training To his knowledge, I'm not saying it never happened There might be somebody from years ago that did it but to his knowledge as long as he's been in the department There hasn't been any and when we get a new firefighter. They're already paramedics So they get put right on the paramedic unit So when there's a fire our med units do goal But the opportunity for them to get into the fire like we talked about before on an engine or a truck Isn't as likely so we wanted to keep those skills up and that confidence level up so we Pushed to do that and because of other city departments like planning and You know even it to an extent and DPW and so you know, I'm not even I'm just scratching the surface Sure, they all helped us out and we put together. We were allowed to get the chukrit property building There was a residence on there with no exposures around it so it was a very safe and the city and my the leaders in city government the city Administrative officer Jim Immortio might our mayor Mike van der steen They all were behind me and they helped make this all happen finance Kathy or Nancy bus So we put it together and we had this training and it turned out excellent my training officer chief Rissy did an excellent job Well-prepared we actually went down to Milwaukee to see they do these types of things all the time sure and we went down there and met with them and We looked at how they did things we looked at How they set them up and what the paperwork and administrative parts were like the federal laws the state laws all those things we followed all safety procedures and We were down there for a day of training and then we spent the day and we actually burnt the house down And so it was good for our members But we also had a chance to work with other Departments in the area they brought in tankers for us because we had a backup water supply because our primary water supply was Way off on Indiana Avenue, and it's very far away But we made that all work and with we could have done it without their help So that was a big plus for us to the need other departments and they helped us out and you talk to them You get to know what their needs are to and so that was a real good team building exercise for everyone Well, and that also supports the extending the arm So to speak with the other fire departments in the county where you can help back each other up And I believe it's at Mabus Mabus right Mabus is an acronym standing for mutual aid box alarm system It started in Illinois in the 70s They call the Illinois Mabus mother Mabus and then it spread to the states around there And one of the first states was Wisconsin and now it's spreading around the country I don't know how many states have it, but Almost all the counties in the state of Wisconsin out of the 72 I don't know last counters had to be 50 to 60 I think that are either have it are gonna have it soon or thinking about having it so yeah, it's worked out very well a lot of You know people looking at consolidating dispatch centers and and and Telecommunication towers and frequencies and things like that. It's all been addressed and looked at and picked the part And what's the best way? What's the the safest way? What's the most economical way to do it so all those things are happening? I think a lot of it because of Mabus, I think that's a great opportunity with you know Speaking the story of doing more with less but more importantly Everybody's on the same page and start to read each other if you have protocols Standard operating procedures, you know train the same the same techniques train on the same equipment You know, it's almost like what the Coast Guard does absolutely you know on there when they go out on a mission to rescue somebody everybody's trained in that Position so it doesn't matter what the crew or hunger comes in they're training the same so it's like and that's a great point I would write just a practical example is we're looking to number all the rigs the same county-wide So a lot of times the city has their protocols and procedures and their you know their history and The tendency is to want to stay that way But I have a very open-minded command staff and I think department This is one of the most open-minded departments. I've ever seen and I've worked with you know big ones and little ones I've seen other departments and They're like what's gonna be the best so you know for example, you know We're gonna have a combined dispatch center County City Well the county to make things better. They wanted us to use the The name city before any kind of communication city engine to Responding to and give an address. So We're like, you know what that's not gonna kill us to do that. So let's do it So it's just a matter of city, you know, we put the word city in front Well that helps County dispatch know in the future, you know, it'll be seamless then so we're you know Swiss cheese little bit every time a couple little holes here and there and eventually It'll when it does start for real boom We'll have a block of cheese with no holes exactly excellent chief Could you go in a briefly to some of the other educational programs that you do in the community? I know you got you're in the schools, you know, you're in the community itself You know, you're also doing commercial building inspections, you know Where you're promoting, you know fire safety or educational safety Could you go in briefly to some of those types of activities? Sure the the biggest one? I think and the one that we're most proud of is our school education programs We have Different programs for kindergarten through third grade. So we have four separate programs all geared to that age level and all that They build on each other so That's a wonderful program and our firefighters go out every fall. We just finished they just got done Going out to schools and we visit all the schools Public and private K through for nice and and you need to start young Now the time not to teach somebody to be fire safe is when they're young and In the formative years when they're learning and and and building those values and beliefs don't play with matches You know if there's a problem go tell an adult. Don't be afraid go tell the adult, you know What do you do if you if your clothes catch on fire? What do you do if there's a fire in your house? You know, those are all the different things that kids need to know and it never fails with those programs There's somewhere you never know directly how you've affected somebody or if it mattered But somewhere down the line, I'll get a call or one of my chiefs will get a call and tell me You know so-and-so. I just got a call from a citizen, you know, she's in her 30s And she remembers going through there and when her you know kids clothes caught on fire They she laid them on the ground and wrapped them up on a blanket and didn't let them run around and things like that You hear that so that's very a very positive message. So that was the biggest one But we also do many other things and you know building inspections for fire safety That's huge and it's we're not It's all about safety. It's a ball of ball preventing fires and When you get into duplexes, you know, you're in a set you're in a building, but there's two separate units Well, what you do in your unit affects somebody else So if you're not fire safe in your lower unit absolutely and a fire starts now Entrances are blacked or exits are blacked You can't get out now, you know, it matters So whenever we're into a house for an EMS run, which is most of our runs we look for working smoke detectors and And we're constantly looking and upgrading and a big thing is having a working smoke detector in your home So that's just another example of what we do. I remember being in school You know that like you said K through floor and it was always Time of the year fire prevention week and that was always fun because then we all drew our posters of you know The fire presentation and we had a contest and we always had visitors on and the same type of things You know we're talked about then so that was really cool. Yes chief. It's about time for us to wrap So any final comments you'd like to make? No, I just wanted to you know The topic of this program is called quality of life and in Sheboygan Obviously fire and police protection is very important, but it's really a team effort with all the city departments There's a lot of what we do that we couldn't do without you like your help or DPW or the police or Really almost every entity in the city if they weren't there for quality of life They wouldn't even exist if they weren't needed. They wouldn't be there. So thank you for having me I really appreciate you inviting me. Thank you. No, definitely chief. I want to thank you For you know for taking the time out of your busy day to join us and talk about you know Fire quality of life medical quality of life how it affects us. So definitely thinking about that It was very informative conversation, you know, so again, I thank you if anybody has questions About something we talked about today or if there's a topic you'd like to see you know on the show in the future Well means contact us and you can get us to us from our website at WSESSheboygan.com For quality of life, I'm Dave Augustine and we'll see you next time. Thank you for watching