NCFPD reviews standards of cover analysis

Joe Naiman

Village News Reporter

A nonvoting item at the Jan. 25 North County Fire Protection District meeting was a presentation on standards of cover analysis.

Terry Lewis from Matrix Consulting Group provided the NCFPD board and audience with an overview on the findings of their analysis. The June 2021 NCFPD board meeting included consideration of a scope of work for a long-range master plan and a strategic plan, and in August 2021 the NCFPD board selected Matrix Consulting Group, which is headquartered in San Mateo and has an office in Irvine, to develop the district's long-range master and strategic plan.

“That was addressing a new standard of cover,” said NCFPD fire chief Keith McReynolds. “It was all participation. No action was taken.”

The typical lifespan for a strategic plan is five years. The long-range master and strategic plan will include a 20-year master plan and a three-year to five-year strategic plan. The scope of work for the long-range master plan will include development of a work plan, acquisition and review of background information, stakeholder input, evaluation of current conditions, development of an overview of the organization and the community, reviewing the planning process for fire protection and emergency medical services, reviewing the status of existing major capital assets and analyzing needs.

The long-range master plan will also include reviewing current and anticipated future staffing levels, reviewing levels of performance, assessing future demand and risks, facilitating public input meetings and an intra-organization planning workshop, reviewing current response standards and targets, recommending a long-term strategy and strategies for shorter periods, and providing a final report.

The scope of work for the shorter-term strategic plan includes a community survey to obtain feedback, development of a vision statement and mission statement, assessment of strengths and weaknesses of the existing organization, assessment of threats and opportunities, facilitating the establishment of goals and objectives, establishing performance metrics, facilitating the development of a short-term work plan, and producing a strategic plan document.

The January 2019 NCFPD board meeting included adopting new response time standards for North County Fire Protection District emergency calls. The district set standards of nine minutes for urban areas, 13 minutes for suburban areas, and 18 minutes for outlying response areas while targeting 90% of all responses to be within those standards. The total response time consists of three measurements. Call processing time is the time elapsed between when the communication center receives the call and when the information is processed and given to the first responding units. Turnout time is the time between when the station personnel receive the call and when they leave the station. Travel time is how long it takes to drive to the incident location.

All three of those response measurements have standards which are supposed to be met at least 90% of the time. The standard is one minute for the call processing time and two minutes for the turnout time. The travel time standard varies based on population density and a community's expectations. The National Fire Protection Association has a five-minute response time in NFPA standard 1710.

In 2008 the fire district and Citygate Associates worked on standards of cover assessment and report. The Citygate report indicated that NCFPD personnel could meet an emergency response time of eight minutes 90% of the time in urban areas, a response within 13 minutes 90% of the time in suburban areas, and a response within 18 minutes 90% of the time in the district's outlying areas.

Rather than having different response times based on population density, a single response time with different compliance rates for population density was adopted. The standards the district had been using called for eight-minute response times 90% of the time in areas with a population density of more than 1,000 people per square mile, 80% of the time for areas with population densities between 500 and 1,000 per square mile, and 70% of the time for areas with population densities below 500 people per square mile.

The fire district provides Advanced Life Support services and has an exclusive operating area contract to provide ambulance service. The contract stipulates that the fire district must respond to emergency incidents in the urban population zones within 10 minutes and to incidents in rural or suburban population zones within 15 minutes. The contract does not stipulate a response time for outlying population areas.

In December 2017, the county Board of Supervisors approved an implementation plan to improve emergency medical services in the unincorporated county's backcountry which included emergency medical service boundary adjustments and a unified service area intended to update response time standards to reflect population patterns and integration.

The ambulance response time standards for calls are 10 minutes for urban areas, although if a fire agency paramedic arrives within eight minutes the ambulance response time is 12 minutes, 16 minutes for rural areas (20 minutes for ambulance arrival if a fire agency paramedic arrives within 15 minutes), and 25 minutes for outlying areas (30 minutes if a paramedic arrives within 23 minutes). An exclusive operating area contract with a 15-minute response standard for rural and suburban areas would supersede the 16-minute unified response area standard.

The eastern part of DeLuz has a rural zone classification under the county's plan while the western part of DeLuz is an outlying zone. If the North County Fire Protection District receives a call for medical service in DeLuz the ambulance from Station 1 on Ivy Street is dispatched if it is available. Including the trip to the hospital, a call for service in DeLuz places an ambulance out of service for other needs for approximately two hours. Approximately 50% of NCFPD calls for medical service are in the area which would be served by the Station 1 ambulance if it is available.

The NCFPD standards adopted in 2019 define urban as more than 500 people per square mile, suburban as 100 to 500 people per square mile, and outlying as fewer than 100 people per square mile. According to the most recent data the district is meeting the new standards. The 90th percentile for the first arriving unit is 8:48 for urban areas, 10:41 for suburban areas, and 16:20 for outlying areas.

Matrix Consulting has created various maps which demonstrate drive time and weight of response for suppression and total personnel. The fire district plans to use the standards of cover analysis to make decisions on fire station improvement projects, new fire station locations, apparatus type and placement, and current and future staffing.

The North County Fire Protection District currently has five fire stations. “We wanted to make sure that they were in the right spots,” McReynolds said.

“We’re starting to address whether we need another station down the road,” McReynolds said. “If so, where do we need it?”