AGENDA #4c

BUDGET WORKING PAPER

TO:                  W. Calvin Horton, Town Manager

FROM:            Daniel Jones, Fire Chief

SUBJECT:       Fire Aerial Life Span Projection

DATE:             April 27, 2005

This budget working paper describes the projected life span of a replacement fire department aerial-tower scheduled for purchase this year.  This is response to a question by a Council member on April 6, 2005.

BACKGROUND

The 100’ aerial-tower unit used by the Fire Department and assigned to Fire Station 3 (Elliott Road) is the largest and most expensive piece of equipment in the Chapel Hill fleet.  It is necessary as a life saving (laddering tall buildings for rescue) and fire suppression (elevated water streams for major fire control) tool for a community like Chapel Hill.  The current aerial-tower (Tower 71) was purchased in 1992 and was expected to have a primary usable life span of 15 years.  Due to excessive maintenance costs, dependability issues and out of service time in the last three years, Public Works, Finance and the Fire Departments have recommended it for replacement one year sooner (2006).

DISCUSSION

Tower 71 has for most of its life span been used as the only fire truck available to respond to emergencies from the Elliot Road station.  The unit was used for all responses including trash fires, vehicle fires, medical emergencies, vehicle accidents, fire alarms and building fires.  This type of unit (due to its size, weight and complexity) was not intended for this type of intense use.  The reason for this in Chapel Hill was that the low fire staffing levels did not allow us to staff more than one unit at each station.  In 2000, the Town Council authorized six additional positions to staff a mini-pumper (Squad 33) at the Elliot Road Station to ease response load on Tower 71.  That additional staffing helped ease the load but relief factor (vacation, sick, injury leaves) prevents the Squad from being fully staffed 365 days a year.  In calendar year 2004, there was insufficient staffing for the Squad to relieve Tower 71 of responding to minor calls 157 days.  Therefore, the Tower continued to carry primary burden for response in that area of Town in addition to responding to fire alarms and structure fires Town-wide.

RECOMMENDATION

The replacement of Tower 71 is scheduled for FY 2005-06 and it is anticipated to have bid awarded in August.  It will take approximately one-year from award to build and actually receive the unit.  We project the life span of the new aerial-tower at 15 years if the current recommendations from the Fire Department are adopted over the next several years.

If fire operations staffing is raised based on my recommendations, the Squad would remain fully staffed 365 days a year to respond to minor or routine emergencies in the Elliott Road Station area, thus preventing such a heavy response burden on the aerial-tower.  Full staffing on other units around Town would decrease the number of times fire units must call for additional staff resource from other units, also reducing the burden on this unit.  The primary purpose of the aerial-tower would then be limited to automatic alarms in large structure, building fires, major fires and technical rescues (individuals trapped above ground level).  Although we are unable to project specific numbers of responses or reductions by individual units we can reasonably assume a significant drop in response burden for the aerial-tower.

Public Works Fleet Maintenance has also improved maintenance response to this unit over the last 6 to 7 years over that in the early to mid nineties.  Maintenance on Tower 71 in the early years of its life span was inconsistent which contributed to its ongoing mechanical and wiring problems.  Maintenance schedules now are more closely maintained and should contribute to a longer in-service life for the new unit.