 Hello. Thank you for joining us. This is the next installment of the Junction City News. And I am Regina Mahoney, the city manager for the City of Essex Junction. And today I have Essex Junction Fire Chief Gaborio with me, as well as Captain Smith. They are here to talk about the fire department. So Chris and Rick, thanks so much for joining. Let's start by giving our viewers an overview of the Essex Junction Fire Department. Sure. The Essex Junction Fire Department is a paid call department. We are made up of volunteers across the community. Currently we have 33 members on our roster. We are an all hazard fire department providing services for the City of Essex Junction. And we're located on Pearl Street just past the five corners. Okay. So some fire departments in the county are full-time. We are not full-time. Correct. Okay. All right. Can you tell our viewers more about the structure of the department versus how other departments are structured? Sure. Within our local area there are really three different types of department styles. We do have career, volunteer, paid call, and strictly volunteer. Chittenden County right now is, you know, full-time departments would be the larger cities, City of Burlington, City of South Burlington, Williston, and then you have some communities that are using both paid call and they are doing some full-time. Colchester has evolved to some of those positions. But even some of the smaller communities like Underhill Jericho, they do staff some full-time people to cover mainly their daytime hours that Monday through Friday when most people are working. So they'll, they have a couple of positions there. We are paid calls. So meaning our members are paid by the calls they actually run and they actually attend. So members respond to the station and that's 24-7. So we don't have anybody at the station full-time. We don't have anybody that stays there. Members are dispatched by the Essex Police when an emergency call is received and we train weekly and attend multiple county, state, and national courses throughout the year. Great. Awesome. Okay. Other than firefighting, what other services does the department provide? So we're an all-hazards department which means, for the most part, it ingests but in reality, if it's not within the law enforcement realm and somebody calls in an emergency for the most part, there's a likelihood we're going to get dispatched to it. So our department we cover including first response. So first response is probably becoming the larger constraint on all fire departments in the area. So it's either EMS or first response depends on if you have an ambulance or if you have an ambulance agency within your community. On top of the first response calls, we're also working currently. We cover HAZMAT, any HAZMAT releases, any of those type of incidents. And then more citizen assistance is becoming a common one and that is everything from a resident being locked out or having alarms going off in their home and they're not really sure why. And that's become, if you were to look at our call percentage, about a quarter of our calls right now are those type of an alarms going off of my house. I'm not really sure what it is. And we go and we will meter the house. So we'll use a five gas meter to make sure there's no hazards inside the house. And then we'll also use our thermal imaging cameras and just our experience to kind of make sure there's no emergency with the home to put them at ease. Great. Okay. Of all those calls, how many calls do you get typically? And what do they look like? So currently we've been running for the last couple of years very close to 500 calls per year. So that'll be a breakdown. We do first response. So again, first response is Essex Junction Fire EMS getting dispatched when Essex Rescue is committed to another call. So when they don't have resources available to immediately respond, we will get dispatched along with Essex Rescue. And then Essex Police will move along to the next available ambulance. So our EMTs will respond to the scene directly. They'll provide care until another ambulance arrives. So as Rick stated, you know, that was like a 70, they were EMS was like 30% of our call volume. If we look at statistics now, that's moving more toward 40% of our call volume. So that's on the rise. We do have a number of false alarms, no hazards found. Again, going back to what Rick had stated, a lot of, you know, servicing calls from the community where they need somebody to come and check their residents. We had 16 fires. We've done 12 car accidents and 73 other calls. We just classify as other. Okay. Just curious on those number of fires. Does that, is that fairly, does it stay fairly average from one year to the next, or can it kind of go up and down? So for no good rhyme or reason, there's no good average to the amount of fire calls that happen in a year. A lot of times it's new technologies that come into the household that create the new hazards. And then also, one of the other things that we're running into is people, as they move into their first homes, are learning to be homeowners. And with that, they may not know some of the items they use within their home. So a big one recently in the last few years, and it may be costs to be honest, is fireplaces and wood stoves are being used again. And so residents not knowing the inspections they're supposed to do, how to handle those materials after they burned them and get rid of the ash, those type of things can cause it. And then a mix of those fires is also cooking fires. Cooking fires are pretty common. And the don't put water on oil fire that we've all been taught is a very common one. That first moment of somebody catching something on fire, they try to put it out in their kitchen sink and then they catch their cabinets and other areas on fire. So that is the other common risk. But there is no good rhyme or reason. Some years we're really busy and other years we're more slow right around that one fire a month. Okay. Okay. What type of training do you participate in throughout the year? So training is offered by the fire department. We offer training for both fire and EMS. So our fire groups we train on Monday evenings. We also have a group that trains on Thursday mornings. So those individuals whose work schedule does not support the Monday evening training, those individuals will get together on Thursday morning. So we usually try to align our training so whatever happens on Monday night will be followed up and will happen on Thursday morning. Our EMS crew and some members do both roles. Rick is an example of that. It does fire in both EMT. On the EMT side they have to do EMS training as well. So that's two different trainings a month as well. So we will host one and then we work with Essex Rescue to support the other. So that's the weekly training. So outside of the fire station itself we have members, we allow all of our members the opportunity to get a higher level of training. And our big focus is the Pro Board Certifications of Firefighter 1 and Firefighter 2. Our department currently has, I want to say somewhere around about 16 of our members, our Fire 1 Fire 2 Certified. And then our other big Pro Board Certification is the Hazmat Certification. It's getting everybody up to the operations level so we can operate safely within our scope. Technician level is pretty advanced. It takes a lot of extra equipment that our department doesn't have. We also have the benefit of our location being close to IBM that we don't need to or not IBM, extremely global founders who has a Hazmat team right there that it's not a need directly of our own. And then additionally we'll send our members to other courses throughout the state. So a lot of the counties host fire academies throughout weekend events. And we'll send members to those events so they can get more hands-on training. We also have members that went to Fire Instructor 1, also Pro Board Certification. And we've had members in the last couple of years also look outside of the state to find other opportunities to train on skills that we may not be able to provide right in-house. We've had members go to technical vehicle extrication courses outside of the state, those type of opportunities. And we're always looking for those chances for our members to get out and do those extras. Awesome. So one of the things if I could just follow up on the training when people in the community wonder, hey, can I be a member of the Essex Junction Fire Department? It really begins and we have a number of individuals that do come into the department with absolutely no fire background or fire experience. Really it's just that willingness to want to serve the community. So we do start with what we refer to as a county basic course. So we can take individuals, there's a county basic course that's run twice a year and really it's a consolidated, they take a lot of the fire content out of the firefighter one offering and teach that to the individuals. So we do have a county basic course starting up in September. So we take some of our newer members, people with no experience, they start with that course. That's kind of their foundation, come back to the department so they can take the course and basically complete that in about a three month time period. So then they come back, we can get them active on the department from there. They move on to that higher level of training, those pro board certifications. So a lot of that is just, again, once you get an individual to start, really a lot of them take that and want to keep going. That's great. So that's a three month course. How much time does that actually take for a person within that three month time period? Is it like one day a week or how does that work? So what they do is they'll offer it on Thursday evenings. It's usually three hours on Thursday evenings and then every other Saturday they'll do an eight hour hands on. So they'll keep the Thursday evenings to that classroom instruction. The weekend classes would be hands on practical working those skills that they were, they had been studying earlier in the class. Okay, great. I should know this, but I don't. So if we have somebody who wants to do that, I imagine that course costs something and do we pay for it? Yes, we do costs are really minimal. I think they just barely raise the cost of the course to $100 per individual. That's great. And basically it's supported by the county departments. So if your department is sending students to the class, they turn around and look for someone from your department to actually provide some instruction. And we have a number of members that have been active with the program for years and remain active with it. And even if we don't have members attending, they're still there to assist with instruction. Awesome. That's great. Okay, fire prevention. We touched on this a little bit in terms of the fires. So what are some good prevention tips for residents? I mean, the basics are really the biggest tips that we can give. So make sure that you are changing the batteries in your smoke detectors and CO detectors. Make sure you have them first, I guess, is the key. I hate to say, and it is something we notice, the amount of times we've gone into a burning building and you don't hear smoke detectors going off. It is almost an immediate like, oh no, because you don't know if people knew to get out because you know that there's no alarms going off inside the house. So the basic, make sure you have those installed. Make sure each of your bedrooms has a smoke detector in it. Make sure each one of your floors has a smoke and CO detector within that open space to be able to detect those hazards. When you hear them go off, don't just ignore them. The amount of times we actually had a structure fire where the alarm had gone off multiple times, the resident had woken up and taken the detectors down. Trust them, they're there for a reason. Additionally, sleep with your bedroom door closed. There is no animal, like put in a doggie door in your bedroom door before you should ever leave your door open. So the saying is, close before you doze. And your bedroom door, though it feels flimsy, is going to give you an extra 15 to 20 minutes if your house is fully involved. We had a house fire where we walked into the room that the resident had closed the door and you would never have thought that the house would be all sitting in that room. She could have sat there, read a book, threw out the whole fire. We had the fire out in 10 minutes and she would have never known or been in a hazardous situation because she slept with the door closed. So make sure that bedroom door is closed when you go to bed. If you have little ones, anybody that wants to come in when they open the door, make sure you close it behind them and definitely do not let your kids sleep with their door open. Like do not. As a parent myself, it is I understand the kid may have fears and they may want that. You need to work that fear out with them, but keeping that door open should not be an option with your kids. Additionally, practice how you get out of the house. So when the smoke detectors go off, my son terrifies him. He's saying that as a firefighter, but my son is terrified of those noises. So he has a tendency to hide from it. And understanding that your kid is likely to cover their ears and go hide in the couch or wherever they are and practice that with them. Make sure they understand when these go off, this is what you need to do. And then mom and dad are going to come looking for you because that is the key to being a parent. You're going to go looking for your kid. So understand where they're supposed to meet with you so you can get them and you then can get accountability of them. Make sure your street edge, your house is marked with a number that we can actually see. Having colors on your house that are, or a door or a number, excuse me, that is the same color as your house does not help us. At 2 a.m. in the morning, when we're searching for your address, we need something that marks it. And a lot of our neighborhoods have group mailboxes where your mailbox doesn't help alert us to your actual address. So around your door, on your door, above your door should be three to four inch letters that identify your house number in a way that is easy to see at night. And then lastly, just make sure your kids and any family members in your house understand calling 911. We take for granted as American citizens that 911 is just the central numbers, but we have a lot of first-time Americans living in our community and knowing that 911 is how you start the emergency process is key. Make sure your kids know not to call you first. Call 911, get us started, and then call mom and dad. The amount of time that we've had parents call 911 after being alerted to their kids, that's all delayed time and response to your address. So make sure you have those conversations. They're not easy ones. And if you get them wrong, hopefully there's a recourse, but we definitely, those are our big tips that we push. Okay. So I'll ask this just out of curiosity because on a family vacation this week somebody set off a fire extinguisher by mistake in the kitchen. So just curious, recommend that people have fire extinguishers in their kitchens? Yes, but if you're going to have a fire extinguisher, it has to be out in an open spot. When your kitchen is on fire, you're not likely to think to dive underneath your kitchen sink where everybody stores them. You're likely, your first instincts to move away from the fire and that's normally towards a doorway. So if you're going to have them, they need to be in a doorway and they need to be on your way out and fire extinguishers are meant to get you out. They're not meant for you to put out the fire. If you can, great. But if the fire is past like an advanced moment where you're like, I should probably leave. You should probably leave. Like don't try to go in and fight the fire because one breath of the materials that are burning nowadays will put you down. It is one breath you get and then you're going to be on the ground and then from there it's a rescue. So use the air you have and the ability to get away from the fire to get away from the fire. Okay. All right. So we talked about the training a little bit or pretty thoroughly actually, but since we are an all volunteer fire department and if there's anyone interested in joining, what do they need to know? They really just need to have that drive to serve the community. Again, as stated, we have a number of people, a number of individuals that have walked into the station wanting to become firefighters. I think we have a total of four that are attending the county basic class coming up in September. So again, that's four individuals with no real fire experience, but we'll put them through the class. While they're going through the class, they'll be working with us as well. So we do our best to try to expose them to as much as we can to make sure that they're comfortable going through the class as well. So really it's that you want to serve. I mean, we've had individuals that have come that have moved to Essex Junction that have that experience, come to the community with the experience. They want to join the department. That's great. That just expedites the process, if you would. We get them going a lot quicker, but that's not required really. We can take anyone and put them through the course and find them a job. Awesome. And anything in particular about time of day? Like, is it okay if somebody has a full-time job that's outside of the city? Anything in particular you're looking for or, again, just open to folks depending on their interest? I mean, we'll take anybody that's interested and willing to serve. It is a commitment. There is a commitment aspect to it, but I hear all the time people are like, oh, I couldn't do that. You'll be surprised how easy it is with the right team behind you, what you're able to accomplish. And we've seen members who thought they weren't good at certain skills or were nervous about their skills that have just excelled in that moment. So I would hesitate if somebody isn't thinking they shouldn't do it because they don't know how they would respond. We'll get you through the training so you'll know and then you can make that decision for yourself. But we've seen, time and time again, people go above and beyond what they thought they could do when they first stepped onto the department and move up. We've had members join thinking they're going to have an outside role of, you know, I'll be a dispatcher or I'll drive a truck. I'll do that. I don't want to be inside. And then, you know, as they go to more of the cause and they see it, it kind of drives them to be like, well, I want to be part of that. I want to see what that's like and move in that direction. And then we also see as people get a little bit older, you get a little more sore, that we start to see individuals move in the opposite direction as well. So we're looking for anybody that wants the challenge and is willing to put in the time. It is a lot of time up front. When you look at that rookie course, it's about 84 hours of training you're going to end up with. So we're not going to take a very, you're not going to go in with like 20 hours and a pat on the back. You're going to have 80 hours of experience. You're going to come in. We're going to do a checklist. You're going to work with the officers and the engineers within our department to make sure you're up to snuff on our understanding, our SOPs and also what we expect you to be able to accomplish before we're ever going to put you in a situation where you have to worry about putting out a fire or rescuing somebody. Okay. SOP? Standard operating procedures. Okay. Awesome. Yeah, we're very lucky because we have a very diverse roster. So, you know, most everybody has full-time jobs, even a couple of individuals that say they're retired really continue to work. But what you have is you have a mix of individuals. So, again, thus, the training that we have on Monday night and Thursday morning. So we accommodate those schedules. But we're very lucky because we do have, you know, it's, and again, and it's just not everybody's working nine to five Monday through Friday. Yeah. You know, some individuals have 12-hour shifts. So it breaks up. So we've got good availability throughout the, any day of the week, really. Awesome. Okay. This has been great. Is there anything else we haven't touched on or anything else you want to cover? Nope. Just if people want to reach out, they should. Yeah, that is us. If you want to join or even just contact us, there's a contact form on our website so a form for you to be able to fill out to join. And so what that does to become a member, you don't, that is not an application. That just gets you an interview. It gives you an opportunity to come in and speak with one of our chiefs and our new member, our new member officer, which would be Lieutenant AJ LeClaire. And so you'll sit down with those two. They'll kind of guide you, give you an understanding of what it looks like at the department, what's going to be expected of you over your first year. And then from there, you'll move into the true and then additionally I do want to point out we are a paid call department. So when you hear volunteers, sometimes it's like, and we understand, we live in an expensive community. And so this does give you a little bit of an extra income. For about most members, it's about a truck payment. So you're looking between $600, $700 a month that most of our members will make by working on, working in attending calls with the fire department. So there is a little bit of an incentive there as well. Yeah, that's a great comparison because vehicles are very expensive right now. People probably would like a $600, $700 payment. Okay, this has been great. Just a few other. So here, let me just switch over to Chief Gaborio's contact information and that's the Essex Junction Fire Department website if you want to go to look for more information. And just a couple of other city-wide reminders. We have three construction projects going on in the city, but all businesses in those areas are open. So please go and visit those businesses. City tax bills were mailed out on August 15th. Those are due no later than September 15th. Our Tree Advisory Committee has a greatest tree contest, which was very exciting. There's no parameters around it, so leaving it open-ended. It starts on September 1st and goes through the 30th. So if you've got any particular tree in mind in the city that you want to enter into the contest, please do. And also it's an exciting time in Essex Junction right now because we are in the fair. So hopefully everybody will be coming on through and checking out the fair. Okay, thanks so much. Thanks for having us. Thank you. Awesome. Okay, that's it. Until next time.