Christi and Reece sit down with Fire Chief Ken Watkins and hear about the evolution of the fire department, future growth, recruitment efforts, fire safety and more for this month's Full Circle Podcast!
If you prefer to watch to your podcasts, head over to our YouTube page to watch this and all our podcasts!
Christi and Reece sit down with Fire Chief Ken Watkins and hear about the evolution of the fire department, future growth, recruitment efforts, fire safety and more for this month's Full Circle Podcast!
If you prefer to watch to your podcasts, head over to our YouTube page to watch this and all our podcasts!
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Speaker 2:The Full Circle podcast, compelling interviews and incredible tales from Colorado's Western Slope, from the mountains to the desert. Christy Reese and her team here from the Movers Shakers, and characters of the Grand Valley and surrounding mountain towns that make the Western slope the place we all love. You'll learn, you'll laugh, you'll love with the full circle. Hello everyone, I'm Kristi Reese. Welcome back to the Full Circle Podcast. I'm here with my co-host re Stanley today. Welcome Reese.
Speaker 3:Thank you Kristi .
Speaker 2:And we are excited to have as our guest , uh, fire chief for City of Grand Junction, Ken Watkins. Welcome, Ken.
Speaker 3:Oh, thank you. Excited to be here and to do the podcast with you. Yeah . Thank you.
Speaker 2:Um, so usually we start off when , uh, uh, with our guest , talking about kind of how you ended up in Grand Junction. How long have you lived here?
Speaker 3:I've lived here almost 17 years. Um, I have a little family history here that's kinda what brought me here. But , uh, my mom and her side of the family , uh, was raised in Quebec. Oh,
Speaker 2:Wow. Not a lot of people can say that.
Speaker 3:No, <laugh> <laugh> . Um, so she left for Denver when she was 18, and so I grew up in Denver. Uh, what brought me back here, well, brought , brought me here was , um, I was interested in becoming a fire chief. I was already working for quite a while for a fire department on the front range, and I wanted to be a fire chief, so I applied for the job here in Grand Junction, and I had the family ties. Um, and so I also had a family that , uh, an aunt that I was close to that , um, had some medical issues that I wanted to come over and help take care of. So those few things brought me over here to Grand Junction.
Speaker 2:What was it, what's the difference, the major difference between being a firefighter and a fire chief that made you seek that position?
Speaker 3:Sure. So , um, um, I started out as a , as a firefighter, went up through the ranks. Um , essentially worked in every position on the fire department, but at some point I decided I wanted to get into leadership and management. And so I went back to college and finished , uh, uh, my bachelor's degree and then a master's degree also. And then , uh, that basically set me up for a fire chief's position. So, you know, the position itself is , um, is leadership management. It's an administrative job. Um, people ask me all the time, you know, how often I go out , out on fire. It's pretty rare for me to go on a fire. I mean, if I go out on a fire two or three times a year, that's a lot. So, you know, we have , uh, excellent staff that cover all that. And if it's a large incident or something like that, that I might end up on a fire. But , uh, really that's up to the operational chiefs that are on the department. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> .
Speaker 2:And , um, you mentioned before we got started recording , um, that your fire department is city based , but you also contract out with the rural fire areas. Can you explain how that works?
Speaker 3:Sure. And maybe it helps to understand the county itself maybe. So, Mesa County has , uh, 10 different fire departments. Um, most of them are in the Grand Valley. Of course, there's a fire department. Uh, Quebec has its own fire department , um, plateau Valley, which is up on , uh, covers Powder Horn in the Mesa. Um, and so Grand Junction itself, we cover the city of Grand Junction, all the city limits. And then we've had a contract agreement for service with the Grand Junction Rural Fire Protection District for a long time, since 1944. So it's been in , yeah, so they don't have , uh, fire stations or people or fire trucks . And so we provide all that for them under this service contract. And that essentially is , um, three different sides of the city. They surround us on three different sides , uh, up north. A lot of the areas in the Redlands is the rural district, and then some of the areas in Orchard Mesa. Mm-Hmm, <affirmative> .
Speaker 2:And what year was it when , uh, the fire department took over a lot of the emergency services that were happening with ambulances alone with ambulance contractors?
Speaker 3:Yeah. Thanks for the question. So , um, that was right before I came. Um, so in , um, what set up that change was in 2004, the county wrote a , uh, emergency medical service resolution. And that set , uh, basically what it did is divided the county into ambulance service areas, and they roughly followed the fire district boundaries. And so the county wanted to do that because there was some concern about the , uh, coverage throughout the county for medical services. So by , uh, basically dividing the county up into area , uh, service areas that provided that , uh, ability to provide ambulance service in those areas. Um, in 2006 is when the city , uh, in that resolution, the city had the ability to select who the service provider would be in the city. So in 2006, they selected the fire department to provide that service. And so , uh, the Grand Junction Fire Department has been providing ambulance service since then. A lot of people don't realize that the fire department had ambulances before then. Uh, just they served as a backup to the ambulance providers that were already here. Um, and so it's, it's not new to the fire department. We were providing that service. We had paramedics, we had EMTs, all that. So,
Speaker 2:And Reese, you were on the fire department for a number of years?
Speaker 4:I was, yeah. I was under Chief Watkins leadership as well as , uh, a lot of the other great employees over there for just shy of five years, both as an EMT and a firefighter. Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> , um, you know, with, with you being leading the, the department for 17 years, you said Chief, just about, yeah. I , I imagine you've seen a lot of changes both in, you know, the size of personnel, how many stations , uh, call volume, all those things. What does that look like in, in your time as , as as chief?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's been exciting, really. And , uh, I'll just start by saying, Reese, we miss you <laugh> . So , um, if when you want to come back, let me know. No , no . <laugh> <laugh> Reese was a great employee for us. So we , uh, we hate to see people leave, but we always wanna support people's passions. So , um, yeah. So in my time, I came in 2007, right after the ambulance , uh, service started for the city. Uh, the department at that time was around a hundred employees. Um, we had , um, five fire stations. We had recently built Fire Station five in the Redlands. Um, and so , uh, now we are 185 employees , uh, seven stations. We're , we're just getting ready to build the eighth station, actually. Uh , we're going through the design process right now. So , um, when I arrived here, I recognized right away that we were short of fire stations , um, be based on the call volume and the size of the city. So we attempted to do that earlier on than when we're currently doing it. But we needed to secure the funding. And so that funding was secured in 2019 with the first responder tax, thanks to our, our , uh, grand Junction citizens that voted for that. Um, so yeah, a lot of change with the additional stations , uh, additional personnel , um, additional apparatus. Um, uh, budget wise , my budget, the fire department budget has grown from who, I'm trying to remember what it was when I got here. It was around maybe 10 million, eight to 10 million this year. My budget is 33 and a half million to run the fire department. So that's a big budget. Um, you know, most of our budget is , uh, people, 'cause we're a service agency. So , um, and then the call volume, like you mentioned, the call volume's gone from about , uh, uh, 10,000 calls to , uh, last year we ran just under 22,000 calls. So
Speaker 2:I have a couple of questions. Number one , um, I'm sorry to say that I'm not , uh, up to speed on that. The tax , uh, is that ongoing funding for, I mean, that's consistent ongoing funding for the fire district?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. So it's a half cent sales tax. And so when people shop in Grand Junction and buy something, then um , it's , uh, additional half cent over our , uh, existing sales tax that we had. Um, but it is ongoing and the reason it's ongoing is , um, because it is the main purpose of the, of the funding is to pay for the personnel , uh, that we've hired for those fire stations. And then the other part of the first responder tax is for the police department. So it's a shared tax , um, the, it's same kind of thing that it's to , uh, pay for additional police officers , um, civilian personnel at the police department also.
Speaker 2:And is the expansion driven by a number of factors? Is it population based ? Is it call based ? Is it , uh, geographically based ? I mean, you can only cover a certain area with one fire station. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So for us, for the fire department, the fund or the , uh, growth, I'm sorry, could you repeat that again? I think I went down the wrong path. <laugh> ,
Speaker 2:No. Um, so the expansion of , um, you know, new structures and things like that and hiring more people, how do you , um, what do you base that on? Is it because of the volume of calls? Is it because of this population? Is it because of these geography of the, where the station sits? Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Let me go back to , um, when I arrived here in 2007 and started to look at the service that we were providing , um, with my experience that I came , I, I was with , uh, another fire department for 25 years. I was the deputy chief of , uh, administration when I left there to come here to be the chief. So I had a lot of experience already. Um, and I started to look at the volume of calls that we were running and also where we were running them from. The issue that we had here in Grand Junction at the time was we were a , and it's, it's not unlike other communities that have grown, basically , uh, all of our fire stations were in basically a core circle area of the existing community. But the city had grown exponentially outside of that circle. Basically, station five was built, so that was fine. It was, it was helping to cover the Redlands, but we really didn't have any close fire stations up to the north , um, or out toward Orchard Mesa, we had a station, station four that was kind of in Orchard. Mesa is right on the edge of it. Um, and so the issue with that is response times. So when we have a critical call, cardiac arrest , uh, major accident, you know, something that we really need to get there quick, we had , um, response times that we really couldn't affect because our, our locations were too far away. Um, as the community grows, the , the call volume goes up, which, you know, creates a kind of a , it exponentially , uh, makes that an issue because then as units are going out of the area to cover other areas, then their areas are getting uncovered. So , um, so we started looking at where do we need the additional fire stations. The other thing that we look at for fire station location is we , um, just about everything that we do in the fire service is under guidelines from the National Fire Protection Association. And so they have guidelines for , um, how fast we should respond on a call based on the size of our community, the type of community. Um, that's all of our response times. And there's, you know, there's detail related to that. Um, and then we also try to fit into what is called the Insurance Service Office regulations, which affects , um, communities fire insurance rating and in turn affects people's insurance premiums. And so that agency will also say, you need a fire engine to respond within this distance, or you need a ladder truck to respond within this distance. So we put all that together and decide, okay, where's the best location for a fire station where we can meet these criteria to improve this, the , uh, service that we provide to the community? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>.
Speaker 4:Yeah. Um, to speak to that point about expansion, where is the new , uh, fire station located that you guys are gonna be
Speaker 3:Building? Yeah, so this is our Northwest station. It's at , uh, 2351 H Road. Okay. Uh , right on the corner of 23 and a half . And h
Speaker 2:Lot , lot of new residents out in that area.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly. We actually , uh, did a heat map a couple years ago. We did a heat map , um, of where all the predicted growth was gonna be , and the two areas were northwest and southeast. We built Station eight , um, uh, la we opened it last year. It's in the southeast area. And so it's covering that growth and then this will cover the Northwest growth.
Speaker 2:Awesome. And are you having to go and , and maybe it's a combination of both. Are you having to go acquire properties as well as , um, have some that are owned by City County? Or does the, has the fire department been planning for a long time and have parcels around the valley?
Speaker 3:Yeah, good question. We do all of that <laugh> . So , um, we, so I'll give you some examples of what we've done with that. Um, 'cause I think we've been pretty creative and we really try to save taxpayer dollar when we're looking for , uh, property or , um, when we're trying to build these stations. So , um, station six, which was the first station that we built under the first responder tax was , um, um, part of a , uh, the city owned park property that was undeveloped up on 27 Road Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> just north of G. And so , uh, you know, we met as a city leadership team. I talked about , uh, the need to have a fire station in that area. You know, talked one-on-one with the park director, could we carve off an acre and a half , uh, for a fire station on that park site. That seemed to work well with their master plan for that park too. So that's how we, that's how that location was decided, you know, so there was no cost to the community. Um, the park ground had originally, you know, it had been in the city's , um, inventory for a long time. So , um, station, the la the station we just opened, we actually purchased the property from a private owner or worked with them in a negotiation. Um, well actually the last two sites we've bought, we , um, purchased through , um, through buying through a private owner. Mm-Hmm , <affirmative> , um, station three, which was , uh, not part of the first responder tax, but we did build a new station to replace an old station , um, that was a , um, a land swap agreement with the school district. So there was no money that changed hands, but the school district had property right there that they were using as a parking lot. And it made sense that we put the fire station on the parking lot , and then we, in turn, what we did was we , uh, built a new parking lot for the school for Pomona Elementary. So,
Speaker 2:Wonderful.
Speaker 3:And just to finish that, I guess we do try to plan in advance, you know, so if I know , um, we have a station coming up or some , then it's like looking out in advance way before we're gonna build a station a couple years before, you know, where's the land available? Where do we need the land ? You know, what location do we need to look for? Um, this station that we are just getting ready to , um, that we're in the design phase for right now. We, we looked at , uh, six or eight sites in that northwest area. We did have a , we were working with an OUTTA state developer for a while on a, on a land donation that fell through. But that was another option. We were trying to move down the path of , uh, getting the developer to donate land , uh, for the station. Yeah .
Speaker 4:And then obviously with additional stations requires additional personnel. What does the recruitment efforts around that look like? And then what, what does that time period look like for bringing on new , uh, new employees in , in , in those roles?
Speaker 3:Yeah, great question. 'cause um, that's a struggle I think for , um, many businesses. Um, and in including the government , um, you know, government in the city. And so , um, so we have a , uh, ratio that we look for, for the number of employees, we needed a fire station. So obviously a fire station is a 24 7 operation, 365 days a year. So , um, if we're gonna put a fire engine or ladder truck at a station, then we , um, have a certain number of people that we need to staff that with. Uh, and if we're putting an ambulance at the station, same thing, certain number of people to staff that ambulance with. So we look for 21 people for each of these new stations, because that's what we need for both a fire truck and an ambulance. Um, and the , when I say 21 people, that's for the, around the clock, 365 days. That doesn't mean there's that many over there every day , every day . There might be anywhere from five to seven people , uh, in that station, but ultimately we need 21 people. Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> . Um, so , uh, we do our own , uh, fire academy. So in Colorado , uh, fire academies are, are a local effort. There's some states they have state academies that do all the , uh, recruit training, but not in Colorado. So , uh, so that's a piece that we , that we also were involved in. But going back to recruiting, so we will open up a recruitment for firefighter , uh, if we're gonna do a , uh, spring Academy, which is what we have going on right now , um, we start recruiting around May, the May before we open up recruitment. 'cause it does take about four to five months to get through the recruiting process. Um, as you can imagine, it's , uh, there's a lot of steps to go through the recruiting , uh, there's physical requirements, there's, you know , um, uh, background requirements , um, uh, we do interview processes, all those things. But , uh, so we try to get through that process , um, sometime in late fall and make job offers to people so that they know, you know, when the academy's starting, especially these last few academies, we've had a number of people that are coming from outta state. So we wanna make sure that we're being, you know, aware that they need to move, you know, and find a place to live and all that kind of thing.
Speaker 2:Obviously , um, some of the roles are very , um, demanding physically. And you , so they have to go through a physical test as well, correct. That's part of the academy.
Speaker 3:It's actually part of the recruitment. So , um, we are using , uh, a national , uh, sanction test. That's probably not the right language that I'm using, but it's called CPA, it's a candidate physical ability testing for firefighter. It's a recognized test that is used all over the country. There are a number of standards, well, first of all, we have to be certified to even run that test. So we have , um, uh, people on the department that have passed certification to run that test. Um, the beauty of that test is someone can take our test or a test somewhere else, and if they have their certificate, they can just bring it and show that they've proven that they can do that test. But , um, there are parameters that we have to offer. We have to offer , um, practice sessions to the candidates , uh, before they're actually tested. So they are familiar with the test, and then they run through the test. The test essentially is , um, testing someone on firefighter skills in a way that you, you don't have to have the experience as a firefighter yet, but you have to show , you have to demonstrate that you can do , uh, firefighter techniques to pass the test. Um, and so that's part of the recruitment as I was, as I was saying. And then , uh, once someone gets into the academy, it's extremely physical. I think Reese can probably help answer that question from his academy. But , um, uh, physical fitness is a critical part of being a firefighter. I don't know how many people realize how physically demanding the job is when you're actually on a fire scene. It's a , it's a different environment because you were , you were doing so much physically in such a short time to make a difference on a , on a fire. And so , um, and what it really, what's really important about it, if you're going to be a firefighter, is you have to adopt a , uh, fitness lifestyle. You can't just pass the test and get on the fire department and then not do it. So you have to, fitness has to be part of your lifestyle every single day. And we encourage that. Uh , all of our fire stations have gym equipment. Uh, we have , uh, you know, we, under our standard operating procedures, there's a , a certain amount of time that people have to, that are allowed to work out on duty. Um, and then they, we have testing , uh, you know, for our incumbent people, making sure they're, yeah.
Speaker 2:Ongoing.
Speaker 3:Mm-Hmm . Ongoing. Yeah .
Speaker 2:You didn't , if you didn't fail one of those , uh, ongoing tests .
Speaker 4:No. Thankfully it never fails on of those tests <laugh> . No . Uh , but you know, to , to your point about having to stay physically fit, you know, there's firefighters, well , you guys have some , uh, a couple young firefighters now, right? I think I heard you guys hired like maybe a 20-year-old or something, which isn't real common in , in the department, but upwards of, I think when I was there, there was a , an engineer that was 62 when he left. So, and all of all the personnel have to pass that test, right? Right. So it doesn't matter what position you're in, if you're gonna be out on the fires, you gotta, you gotta be able to be fit
Speaker 2:In
Speaker 3:Addition . It feels like when I, when I see the young, it's like they're 12 when I see <laugh> . Oh my
Speaker 4:Goodness. Yeah. I walk by college campus and like middle schoolers, <laugh>
Speaker 3:<laugh> . Yeah,
Speaker 2:That's great. Train training 'em early though. It's gotta feel good to get some , um, folks in there that have that dedication at an early age and Yeah . Wanna be in that role. Uh, in addition to physical fitness, you , uh, firefighters also have reputation for being great cooks. You do a lot of cooking while they're on the job, right?
Speaker 3:Yep . So not everyone understands that environment. But , um, so our firefighters work , um, well now they work a 48 hour shift. So that's a fairly, well, I shouldn't say fairly new, but it's a shift that we moved to a few years ago. So
Speaker 2:From, what, what was it before?
Speaker 3:We had a 24 hour shift where they worked 24 on, 24 off for three days in a row. And then they had , um, additional days off the , um, we moved to what's called the 48 96 shift, which is 2 40, 2 24 hour days in a row , uh, on duty. And then they get four days off. It's essentially the same amount of hours they were working before. But it allows, it's a , uh, it allows the firefighter the ability to have more weekends , uh, with their family. Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> the other shift there , you know, the weekends were basically always broke up. You were either working a Saturday or a Sunday. So, so that's a helpful thing for families. Um, it's, it , this doesn't affect us very much, but , uh, a lot of fire departments move to it , uh, for commuting purposes, or a lot of the mountain departments use it because people can , people , people can't afford to work as a firefighter and live in Vail or, you know, so they commute from a farther distance away. Um, but that can be, you know, so you're on duty 48 hours, so obviously you're gonna eat. Um, contrary to what some people might believe, the city does not pay for the food. <laugh> , the firefighters supply their own food. Um, and so they will go shopping on duty. So you may see our fire crews at the store shopping. I have
Speaker 2:Seen, yes. Yeah . I'm always curious about what they're, what they're making too. Yeah . What are
Speaker 3:They buying? And , uh, and to your question, Christy , yeah, they , uh, we do have some really good cooks or , and , uh, even people that maybe haven't cooked, but they get to be good cooks. And , um, re this is another question that Reese can probably answer. I can talk about it from my days in the firehouse, which are a while ago. But when I was in the firehouse, you know, if you, if you were good at a specialty, then you cooked your specialty. Um, so it's not always the same person cooking. It just depends on, you know, what the crew wants to have that day. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I wanna , um, talk a little bit about , um, safety aspects of your job and how , um, how we can inform our citizenry in , in Grand Junction and Mesa County to be more safe with fire and all the things that can potentially cause a fire and focus maybe on fire as opposed to, you know, the, the ambulance type calls that you go on. So there's a lot of reasons for that, but talk a little bit about fire safety and what people can be doing better.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thanks. Um, I think still , um, probably, I, I haven't seen our statistics yet 'cause we're working on , on our annual report, but if I had to guess, I would say our normal, our most common fire cause is probably still kitchen fires. That's pretty much across the country. Um, you know, safety in the kitchen , uh, food on the stove, fires, those kind of things. Um, sometimes those are minor , um, you know, someone realizes it and calls and we get it out quick. Sometimes it takes off from there. But , um, yeah, most of our fires are gonna be , um, human caused either through, you know , um, something that happens like that. Maybe it's carelessness, not paying attention, those kind of things. Certainly we do go on fires that are related to , uh, maybe an electrical fire, some kind of electrical problem. Those happen too . So, but , um, when you really think about safety, I think our citizens really have a lot to do with that. And a lot of that is, you know, paying attention. Um, if you're burning candles, making sure those are out. Um, being careful around the stove. Um, we do have some fires that are caused outside , um, sometimes , um, smoking where people are , um, throwing a cigarette into, into , um, landscaping material next to their house. And then we have a fire on the outside of the house. Um, just trying to think of some other examples that happen that are fairly common that our folks see. But those are, I would say those are the most of we and other types of smoking fires too, you know, smoking in the house, those kind of things. Mm-Hmm . <affirmative>
Speaker 2:And obviously good working smoke and fire alarms are super important and I know , um, uh, the local Red Cross helps with that. Um, fire extinguishers also. What other , um, things can people do to make sure they have the equipment available to help them if a fire starts?
Speaker 3:Yeah. For , um, number one is smoke detector, because a smoke detector, if you do have a fire, and especially at night, you know, you want to be able to be alerted to get out. So , um, making sure you have a working smoke detector that has working batteries. Um, smoke detectors mostly are rated for 10 years. There are , uh, better technology smoke detectors now that , um, where you don't have to change batteries. And so if you're changing your smoke detector, I'd recommend looking into those. Um, but yeah, once you have that , uh, certainly fire extinguishers , um, um, around the kitchen area, garage area is always good to have. Um, another important thing to think about is a exit plan for your home, especially if you have a family. And so sitting down with your kids and having a discussion about, okay, if we had some, if we had a fire or something happen , how would we get out and where is our meeting place so that we know where to go. Um, so , um, our folks that work in , um, community outreach, they are constantly going out to schools and other facilities to, to make sure people understand these , um, ways to keep themselves safe.
Speaker 2:I feel like that's something that we could talk about with our clients. You know, like, I don't know how many of our clients do have a plan for exiting their home. I don't, yeah . Yeah.
Speaker 4:Um, they , bringing you back to real estate a little bit and , and the way that we intertwine with the fire department. Um, how do you guys play a role in like, new developments and fire code and, you know, just building con uh , construction as a whole, you know, where the fire hydrants are placed? How do you guys play into that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, great question. Um, a lot <laugh> , so under the fire code , which , um, is adopted basically every three years, it changes, but we adopt it every six years. Um, uh, there are a number of requirements that are related to , um, both, you know, the built the built environment, I would say. Um, and then to the , um, to the neighborhoods as far as access, those kind of things. So I'll start with that. So the first thing that happens, let's say a , a new neighborhood's going to go in or a new , um, commercial building or something's gonna come in. So our, we have a fire prevention bureau , um, number of employees there, six employees that , um, that we'll meet with the developer or the , um, builders which whichever , um, that project is being , uh, managed by. And they'll start to talk about access. How do we make sure that we have access into that , uh, neighborhood for firetruck? So there are requirements how wide a street can be. Um, you know, if the, if, depending on the development, if they're trying to make it more of a, what we call a skinny street development, which happens sometimes, then there's other requirements that the , the developer will have to meet, which could be turnarounds or, you know, places for the firetruck. 'cause we have to be able to get the trucks in Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> and to be able to get 'em out. And so , um, so that's part of the process. Fire hydrants also , um, if there's regulations for how far a fire depart , a fire hydrant should be from the next fire hydrant, how far from the street, those kind of things. So that all gets looked at early on in the process before anything is ever built. Um, if it's a residential development , um, then really we kind of back off from that. So there's , um, certainly the building department has the building code and that's , uh, we here in Mesa County, we're under a county , uh, building code through Mesa County Building Department. And our fire prevention people will certainly work with them. But , um, uh, they basically , um, have all the regulations for the building itself. Um, if it's a commercial building, we get involved again with, if there are , um, we get involved with , uh, exiting somewhat, but that's also part of the building code. The main thing we get involved in is , um, fire protection systems. So if it's a commercial building and it's gonna require fire sprinkler systems or um, um, fire alarm system , uh, if it's, you know, some kind of a special process, some kind of hazardous materials process, then we get involved in that. Um, even like it rooms where we get involved in those. 'cause sometimes those systems are pretty complicated.
Speaker 4:Yeah. And then the, the fire department constructs annual , uh, fire inspections ongoing from there. Right. Um, which allows for the firefighters to familiarize with those buildings in the event that they were to respond to an event there. Um, and, and how often do the buildings have to be inspected? Is that every year or
Speaker 3:It , um, it depends. So yeah, you're correct. We do have , uh, uh, an inspection program. So for our inspection program we don't do residential inspections, so a lot of people are maybe confused with that. So we have a , um, a voluntary residential inspection program. Um, so if someone wants us to come to their house and do a fire inspection and basically a safety review, we will offer that and we will do that. But , uh, that in the fire code, we don't require that. Um, but in commercial businesses where there's gonna be people that are coming in and out of the business , um, you know, that don't live there, then uh, we do get involved in that. And so our inspection program is based on , um, uh, the danger, I guess involved in the occupancy and the operations going on there. So some businesses are inspected every year. Um, those are gonna be businesses that have , um, like , uh, assembly areas where there's a lot of people congregating. And you could have an incident there that , um, you know, a lot of people could get harmed. Um, they're gonna be the ones that have a hazardous material operation that has a higher chance of a fire. Um, a lot of our hospital assisted living where you have a population that can't get out on their own, those are gonna be the ones that we inspect , uh, more frequently. And then all the way down to like , um, just the office areas where the only thing we really are looking at is , um, its , uh, exit lights, signage , um, extension cords, those kind of things. That might be every three years. Okay . So
Speaker 2:I wanna shift , uh, a little bit and talk about wildfires and what are you all , uh, how are you involved in the wildfire fighting and what's your role? Yeah,
Speaker 3:Great. Um, 'cause we are Western Colorado where we see a lot of wildfire <laugh> , it's an interesting question 'cause when I arrived here , um, one of the questions that I was asked by my boss, <laugh> was what are the things that keep me up at night? And I said, well, wildfire keeps me up at night. Is one of the things, because we didn't have an organized wildfire response team in Grand Junction, which surprised me coming from the front range. I thought for sure there would be a organized wildfire team. Um, and so all of our firefighters are trained to fight wildfires. But we have, since about 2011, I believe is when we started the wildfire team. We have a group of employees, about 30 employees that are, that have higher level certification in wildland firefighting. And , um, those employees we also deploy out to other fires. And so, and there's a reason we do that. I'm glad you asked the question 'cause sometimes people don't understand why we do that, but if there is a wildfire , uh, in an area, then the local fire department is first on the scene and they're gonna do what they can to put it out. But at some point, if the fire is too , is too big or is continuing to get bigger, then they will have to ask for assistance. And it usually the first step is to ask to ask for assistance through the county that opens up , um, state funding to help with the fire. And then it might, then the fire might just be a state fire. And so then you'll start to get , um, responding units from across the state. Um, but if it continues to grow, then it'll turn into a federal fire. And then that brings in federal resources, resources from all across the country. And so our wildland firefighting team, we deploy them , uh, during the wildland season to help other agencies with those type of fires. So our team , uh, and we only send four people at time on one unit. So , um, they've been all over the west , uh, in the time that they've been in existence. Um, uh, California, Idaho, Montana, Washington, all of all of those, we get completely reimbursed for all of that. So the , our costs from the, from , uh, for sending the team, we get reimbursed for through the state and in turn through the federal government. Um , but what that brings us is it brings our firefighters the experience to work in a large incident like that and how that works, the whole command to control , um,
Speaker 2:Invaluable for them to bring that back here
Speaker 3:And , and they bring that back. But then it also allows, you know, if we have the large incident, then we are, then we're on the receiving end of that, you know, so, and we have had large fires here, not necessarily right in the city area, but just outside of the city , um, um, where we've had large incidents and units from all over the country have come to help us. So it is a shared , um, uh, way to fight fires across the, the region and across the country.
Speaker 2:And are those crews provided with vehicles that are locally based ? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>
Speaker 3:Also ? Yeah. They take our, our vehicles. We have , um, essentially , um, three while land firefighting , uh, uh, brush trucks basically. And they will take , uh, one or two of the trucks. We always keep one of them here in case we have a fire here. Um, and, and it's kind of rare for us to send two teams out at the same time. Mostly we send one team, but if it is a , if it is a bad fire season, then sometimes we will see send to , um, we also get reimbursed for the truck. And so the, the , uh, state of the federal government rents the truck from the city, and so we get reimbursed for our, you know, cost for sending the truck. And so that actually provides some funding that comes back to support the team . Um , our second brush truck that we bought for the team was basically paid for with reimbursements for fires that they were on the couple seasons before . So it's a good use of, it's a good use to bring in funding, help the team, and then in turn that helps the, our local community because we have that, that those trucks right here for service also. Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> .
Speaker 4:Um, on that same note, as far as multi-agency response , um, grand Junction Fire Department's, the largest fire department in the Valley. Uh, but you guys often will respond with , uh, lower Valley or Clifton. Um, what does that look like? And do you guys do some training with those departments and then just speaking forward, you know, five, 10 years from now, what , what do you see the valley, how, how that shapes up? Is there gonna be one large department in any given point, or do you just see, see it staying , how it's,
Speaker 3:Yeah. Um, so we do train together , um, for , um, so it, it really boils down to a couple agreements that we have , um, which are not uncommon , um, in the fire service across the country. So if you think about it, a , um, a fire department really can't staff up , um, or have enough apparatus for the largest event that could happen. There's just, you know, it just wouldn't make sense to do that. And so across the , uh, United States fire departments use mutual aid and automatic aid agreements to , um, have the support for those large incidents , um, or when , uh, either the large incident or when the call volume is so high that they are having a hard time keeping up with it. So that, and that happens right here in Mesa County. So we have a countywide mutual aid agreement that all of the fire departments are signers on , uh, including the airport fire department, which is interesting. So if we have a large event , um, then we would get support from, basically what the agreement says is we're gonna send , uh, units and firefighters to help as long as we can provide it from what's going on in our own jurisdiction. Um, we also have two automatic aid agreements, which means, and that's with , uh, lower Valley and Fruita and with Clifton. And those are basically says that if they have this type of incident, then we're automatically sending people. And so those are set up, preset up so we don't have to worry about anything legally or , um, liability wise . Um, but there is a lot of that that goes on every day . And so , um, um, either we're providing service to another agency or an agency might be providing service to us. Um, that's less, you know, usually we're providing the service 'cause we are the larger department, we have more units available , um, to go help the other departments. Um, that's how that system works. Um, to your question, to your larger question about where do I see it going in the fire service , um, there's been a lot of consolidations. The front range is a great example of that where , um, a lot of departments have merged together. Um, it's good government to take a look at that, I think , um, try to provide less layers of government. Uh, it's more efficient to do it that way. Um, however, there are some parameters that make it difficult to do so. Um, the community might remember that last year we spent basically the entire year looking at whether we should , um, essentially merge with Clifton. That's really not what we were looking to do. We were looking to , uh, provide a service agreement for Clifton , um, and then we would be , uh, working together , uh, for a response. But that came to fruition where it just wasn't quite right for the time for that to happen. So I think everything is , uh, you know, when's the right timing to do something like that. There's politics involved, there's finances involved, there's people involved. Um, and so , um, I think , uh, at some point in the future that could happen, you know , um, we've had a couple small consolidations with, with small fire departments that have consolidated together here in Mesa County. Um , but I think the trend will be to, to try and merge, move that way over time because it , it does make sense and it is probably more efficient for , uh, to provide the service in that way.
Speaker 2:Yeah . As we , um, as we're wrapping up Ken , um, what do you think are the biggest challenges facing your department right now? And, and maybe it's , uh, fire departments in general, or maybe it's your specifically, what do you see this year? What, what are you worried about besides wildlife and fire <laugh>?
Speaker 3:Yeah . Well, well I , I mean, we always have challenges certainly, but , um, we also always have opportunity. And so , uh, I think we gotta keep that in mind. So I'm excited about the new fire station , um, getting that , uh, construction started and built so we can provide service in that northwest north area for the community. Um, a challenge that we do see , um, we do have some recruiting challenges. Um, it's , uh, we do get quite a, quite a number of people that apply for the job, but once we get down through the whole process, then we end up with a limited number of qualified candidates. And so , um, you know, back in the day, <laugh> , uh, we used to get hundreds and hundreds of applicants for a firefighter. When I was hired as a firefighter , um, I tested against 700 people for five jobs. Wow . So , um, it's not quite like that anymore. Um , some of the larger departments, Denver, la , they would get thousands of people that would apply. And, and so that's a little bit of a challenge. So , um, for us as a fire, as a fire department service , um, we need to get our message out better about what the job is because I think people have some misunderstanding about the job. Um, the job is safe, it pays well, it has good benefits. Um, it's a great family friendly job. One of the things we hear is it's not family friendly because of the schedule , um, but it really is family friendly. Um, so that's one issue that I think that , um, we need to work on just getting those applicant numbers up. Um, we have an issue like a lot of businesses or , uh, industries right now with supply chain that is really causing us issues with , um, actually purchasing our, what we call fire apparatus, which is fire trucks , uh, and ambulances and that kind of thing. So , um, it's the same thing that other , uh, businesses are seeing where either there's certain parts that are being delayed or Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> . And so we used to be able to, if I was gonna buy a new firetruck, I used to be able to turn in an order for a firetruck and I'd see it within a year or so. Um, we just met with our manufacturer and our, our fire apparatus dealer. And , uh, for the type of fire truck that we buy right now, which all of our trucks are custom , uh, we're looking at 52 months from the time that we order to the time we get it. Wow . That is really unacceptable. We can't wait that long. Um, you know, we need to be able to get back to some timeframe of a year to two years when we order a fire truck . And it's a really challenge because , um, you know, we're tying up money , um, to buy that truck that it could be used for other purposes. And so we're trying to figure out a way to , um, make sure we can get the trucks ordered and get 'em, you know, online and, and , uh, so working with working with , uh, our dealer for that. Um, see some other challenges. I see. Um, finances is always gonna be a challenge, I think for government. Um, there's always, everybody wants a lot of things to happen. And so , um, the first responder tax is, while it's been a great , um, it's just been a godsend for the fire department to get the new stations and the people we need, but it's what I would call plateauing out. And so it'll, it'll continue to pay for , um, these personnel in these stations that we're building, but we're gonna need additional stations in the future and we'll need more people in the future as this community grows. And so , um, I don't, you know, right now it doesn't look like the first responder tax would be able to pay for much more expansion. And so , um, we'll have to come up with, you know, the city will have to work and figure out how do we continue to afford expansion of , um, certainly public safety services, but all the services that the city provide. Um, so
Speaker 2:It's a lot. So yeah. People watching listening , uh, feel free to , uh, jump in city council, county commissioners, right. <laugh> , don't complain. Unless you've been , uh, involved in making the decisions, it's really challenging to figure out a budget and make everything flow and make sure everybody's safe in our community. Well, we thank you , uh, Mr. Watkins for , uh, chief Watkins, I should say , um, for joining us today and , and sharing a lot of your expertise , um, for Reese. You wanna close us out?
Speaker 4:Yeah. Thank you for coming today. It's been really fun seeing the, the growth in the fire department and , uh, it, it always puts a smile on my face when I see a fire apparatus out there, so, yeah . Yeah. Thanks for all you guys are doing.
Speaker 3:Well, thanks. Um, if I could just close with them , one thing, I, I got a great job. I got a great team. So , um, I go to work every day and the best thing that happens to me in my day is when I hear from a citizen about a service that our folks have provided, 99% of the things I hear are good and they're really positive. So , um, I just appreciate , uh, the team that we have here and the work that they do every single day and keep things , uh, our community safe. So.
Speaker 2:Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you. Again, this is Christie Reese and Ree Stanley signing off for the Full Circle podcast. We'll see you next time . Thanks . Thanks for listening. This is Christie Reese signing out from the Full Circle Podcast .