Colorado Springs Fire Department balancing city growth and response times
The staff at Fire Station 1 in downtown Colorado Springs responded to more than 20 calls a day in 2018, the second most in the city.
The response time of every emergency call is closely tracked electronically at the city’s dispatch center from the time the call is picked up until the time the first unit arrives at the scene.
When it comes to the Colorado Springs Fire Department specifically, the clock starts running as soon as the call blares from the speakers throughout the fire station.
The target time for a crew to drive out the front of the building is 90 seconds. The current response time standards for CSFD were approved by the city council in 1999.
The standards are divided into two categories depending on the type of call.
The first standard is to have at least one unit at the scene of any emergency within eight minutes 90 percent of the time.
In 2012, the department achieved exactly that: 90 percent.
With the exception of 2016, it has fallen every year since 2012.
2013 – 89.7% 2014 – 88.7% 2015 – 88.3% 2016 – 89.7% 2017 – 87.9% 2018 – 84.2%
The 2018 percentage is the lowest in at least 10 years.
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The second standard is for the fire department to have a full squad — two engines and one truck — at any structure fire call within 12 minutes 90 percent of the time.
CSFD has met that standard for the last three years in a row.
When asked about his department’s response times, Chief Ted Collas said, “I am satisfied with where they are right now, but I’m never comfortable.”
Since Collas became the fire chief in 2016, his top priority has been staffing.
“Our staffing levels have been too low,” he said.
Staffing hasn’t necessarily hurt response times, because there is always the same number of firefighters on duty at any given time, but in order to accomplish that, more firefighters are working more overtime.
Overtime is a more dangerous tactic in this line of work than others.
“What we don’t want to do, and what I’m very cognizant of, is overworking our workforce, and getting them to the point that they are spread so thin that we see mistakes start happening, and injuries start happening because our firefighters are fatigued,” explains Collas.
With help from the mayor, CSFD is adding eight positions per year over the next four years.
What the city is not yet adding is a new fire station, and that is a major concern to the local firefighters union.
A recent study by the Colorado Springs Professional Firefighters Association found response times on the edge of town are suffering the most.
John Roy, the deputy campaign manager for the association’s push for collective bargaining, says that includes areas to the east and northeast.
“As we’re in the center of the city, response times were generally OK,” Roy explained. “However, as we start to move to the outskirts of town, that’s really the biggest area of concern. When we talk about city planning, where stations were placed historically, there’s a lot of stations in the center of town, but as we start moving to the outskirts, there are not nearly enough stations to provide a timely manner of service.”
The association believes the need for at least one new station is “indisputable” but the mayor disagrees.
“Until we get significantly more development in the Banning Lewis Ranch area, we’re pretty good on stations,” said Mayor John Suthers, who added that the union is also “trying to generate controversy to help their campaign for collective bargaining.”
Collas pointed out that these neighborhoods to the east and northeast tend to have newer homes with younger, healthy families and don’t generate a large number of calls — at least, not yet.
“But every community ages,” he added, “So we realize that the drive time to some of those areas is right on the edge right now, and we need to prepare for those communities as they age, and make sure we can provide the same level of service to those citizens as we do any place in town.”
To see how response times in your Planning Evaluation Zone (PEZ) compare to others in town, see the map below to identify your PEZ, and then see the following image to see how often your PEZ compares to others.
