Taylor is in need of an additional three-person daily fire crew as soon as possible, as well as a third fire station longer term, among other recommendations from consultants in a new Fire Services Master Plan.
This plan, which was completed by Citygate, was presented to city leaders at a specially called meeting of the Taylor City Council Feb. 22.
“It’s good to take a raw look and find out exactly what your weak points are, so that you could act on them for the next budget cycle or just corrective action,” said At-large Councilman Dwayne Ariola. “We have allowed the fire department to be undermanned for probably just a little too long now, and it needs to be addressed sooner rather than later.”
According to the report, the Taylor Fire Department is well-organized and “committed to continuous improvement,” but staffing is inadequate, and response times lag behind the consultant’s recommended best practices, as well as some of the standards of the National Fire Protection Association.
“It was time in the evolution of Taylor to take a forward-looking look at a Fire Master Plan and what fire, first responder and EMS services should be given (based on) your growth plans in the years ahead,” said Citygate consultant Stewart Gary.
What’s more, this data was from prior to the arrival of Samsung Austin Semiconductor, which will only accelerate trends, Gary said.
To complete the plan, the consulting company looked at four years of response data and found that Williamson County dispatchers’ calls, which are not under the department’s control, as well as department’s turnout and travel time, were slower than three minutes over their recommended best practices for a suburban city Taylor’s size.
While turn-out time can be fine-tuned with training, the “the only way to fix travel is to add a third crew in a different geographic location,” Gary said.
Currently, the fire department has between six and seven personnel on duty each day in two stations, which Gary said is insufficient, especially when dealing with structure fires, which requires multiple crews at once.
“Two crews isn’t enough staffing,” Gary said. “You have to wait for the neighboring mutual aid agencies to get there to help you.”
A better number is 10, at a minimum, Gary said.
“Just in a small house fire, a one-to-two-bedroom housefire, it’s going to take a minimum of ten firefighters to go through this list of duties,” Stewart said. “From command, safety, establishing a water supply, stretching hose lines to the building, ventilating the gas, searching, if necessary, for victims, turning off utilities,” Stewart said.
“My analogy here is that I say to my clients, think about playing football six on 11, and in this fire case, the clock is running, and if you hit the fire with insufficient force, it’s going to overcome the attack forces, just like in military combat,” he added.
Gary recommended a third fire station be built in the southwestern portion of the city with an extra daily crew to staff an engine, which could be housed at Fire Station 1 until the new station is built.
The report also recommended adding a fourth four-person crew daily to staff a ladder truck at Station 1 in the longer term.
In addition, the city needs to expand its administrative staffing, according to the report.
City leaders and community members present said starting to implement parts of this fire plan was needed—and overdue.
“This is necessary, obviously we need this,” said District 2 Councilman Mitch Drummond. “But the question is how do we pay for it?”
“We need a plan, (and) we have a plan,” said Mayor Brandt Rydell. “Not one that is going to sit on a shelf though, right?”
Ariola encouraged Taylor Fire Chief Daniel Baum to aim high in his budget requests for the next fiscal year.
“Chief, the only thing I ask from you is that you ask for the moon and allow us to downgrade,” he said.
Some community members also used the citizens communication to express their support for the plan.
“We ask that the council seriously consider the findings and recommendations of the study to help the city build a successful future, so the department can continue to provide the best quality of services that our growing community needs and deserves,” said Cody Kraemer, the president of the Taylor Professional Firefighter’s Association. “We support the chief and his efforts to bring this plan to fruition.” Jeff Sciarretta, a firefighter with Emergency Services District No. 10, which may annex swathes of Taylor’s extraterritorial jurisdiction if approved by voters, encouraged others to support the plan and the annexation effort.
Sciarretta clarified he was only speaking as a resident and not on behalf of ESD No. 10.
“And thank you, City Council, for all you are doing to do your part of that as well to bring life and safety improvements to all the residents around here,” he added.
Despite the support, Fire Chief Daniel Baum said in a subsequent interview it was unlikely all of the recommendations in the report will be completed soon.
“The fire study is the consultants’ recommendations, but ultimately the city council has to determine how they want to apply that from a policy standpoint, and then we are going to have to allocate the resources compared to other city needs of putting it in a place,” Baum said. “I can’t speak for council, but I can assume we cannot implement all of those recommendations overnight. It is going to take time to do.”
To access the plan, go to https://www.ci.taylor. tx.us/ArchiveCenter/ ViewFile/Item/4598.
