The Taylor Fire Department responds to lot of emergencies, especially in dry summers such as thepresent, but its chief had a chance recently to sit down and respond to questions instead.
Fire Chief Daniel Baum was the featured guest June 13 on the seventh episode of the Taylor Press video interview series with city of Taylor staff, “Taylor Talk with Jason Hennington,” on the Taylor Press Facebook page. The chief went over a variety of questions on city matters and touched on his voyage to Taylor.
“Coming to Taylor was an opportunity but my wife actually encouraged me because she grew up in Holland about 25 miles up Highway 95 from here, so she’s absolutely thrilled to be back home,” said Baum, “and I love it here. I’m happy here.”
Baum has been fire chief since April 2019. Baum talked about some of his previous experience being assistant fire chief in Pearland as well as an emergency medical services chief there and in Buda and the difference being in Taylor.
“In a larger department (like Pearland), the fire chief sets the strategic direction but is mostly an administrator — budget, interacting with the council and city management. Here, I get to do all that stuff but also if there’s a fire, I have to be out in the field in incident command roles,” said Baum. “It does give me the opportunity to have a much more hands-on view from the front type of perspective because we’re thin in staff. There’s not a lot of us. I do have to be out there in the field, and I enjoy that.”
The department has seven firefighters on duty on a given day. Baum wants to increase to 20 firefighters to move toward national standards.
“That’s kind of sticker shock for a lot of people. That’s an expensive operation and it may take us a while to get there,” said Baum, “but based on what we have now, anticipated growth and the growth we don’t even know about yet, we have to have more personnel.”
The fire chief also helped clarify some information about fire departments in general, such as what qualifies firefighters as first responders.
“On medical calls, the fire department is usually the first entity on scene, unless it’s something where the police department would be on scene first, but we’re there to support and provide assistance to the EMS agency,” said Baum, “so that’s kind of where that term comes from.”
As such, fire engines can be heard going through town quite often. They and other emergency medical services based in the city are also sent to neighboring communities.
“There’s two ambulances in Taylor but they have a wide area they cover,” said Baum. “They go out towards Thrall or up towards Granger, so just because you hear sirens through (Taylor) doesn’t mean the event’s actually in Taylor. It could be out going somewhere else.
Baum also answered questions on what he considers his and the department’s biggest accomplishments, being recognized in public, the difference between the Taylor Fire Department and the volunteer Avery-Pickett Fire Department and more.
The first six episodes of Taylor Talk featured City Manager Brian LaBorde, Deputy City Manager Jeff Jenkins, Police Chief Henry Fluck, human resource director LaShon Gros, Parks and Recreation director Tyler Bybee and library director Karen Ellis. The officials discussed their work, upcoming projects, parts about their life and ways their departments connect to the community.
The next guest will be Jeff Wood, Taylor chief financial officer. To submit questions, email publisher@taylorpress. net.
The show is scheduled to broadcast on the second Monday of every month at noon, with this month’s broadcast being an exception. The show complements the Taylor Press’ other live show, “Around the Watercooler,” which airs at 11:15 a.m. Thursdays and primarily covers local sports along with other topics.
To view the full interview with Chief Baum, visit http://www. facebook.com/gotaylortx and scroll down to the June 13 post.
