Success Story: Replacing an Aging Fleet

In 2009, Portsmouth (Va.) Fire Rescue and Emergency Services found itself in an all-too-common dilemma: An aging fleet of emergency vehicles were frequently out of service for repairs and fire trucks were occasionally borrowed from other departments to keep run areas covered. Yet a crumbled national economy made those holding monetary funds cling to them even tighter, and creditors were hesitant to lend.

So, how could an urban fire department replace 48% of its front-line emergency vehicle fleet in the span of just 15 months?

Challenges & Demographics
Settled in 1752 where the Elizabeth River meets the James and opens to the Chesapeake Bay, Portsmouth, Va., covers 33 square miles and boasts 76 miles of shoreline. Lying crosswise on the Hampton Roads Harbor from the Norfolk Naval Base, Portsmouth’s navigable waterways, military bases and seaports have been a dominant force in America’s history and economy.

Portsmouth is the home of one of the oldest professional fire departments in the eastern seaboard, Portsmouth Fire Rescue and Emergency Services (PFRES), which was organized in 1830. The department employs 255 highly trained firefighters, paramedics and support staff who respond to approximately 17,000 calls for service each year. PFRES operates from eight stations staffing nine engine companies, three ladder companies, one technical rescue company, five ALS paramedic ambulances, one EMS supervisor and two battalion chiefs, 24 hours a day. PFRES also staffs two fireboats as part of a regional Maritime Incident Response Team (MIRT), and two hazmat trucks as part of a regional hazmat team.

A modest city, Portsmouth is home to just over 100,000 citizens, whose income and education levels are below state and regional averages; the population’s average age, housing density and unemployment rates are all higher than state averages. Further distressing the city: Much of the land is non-profit and federally owned. In fact, 56% of the non-wetland land mass is nontaxable.  

Changing of the Guard
Betty Burrell was hired as the city’s CFO in December of 2007. One of her first priorities was to quickly bring Portsmouth’s revenue-to-debit ratio from 15.3% to 12.3%, returning to the financial department’s set policy. During her tenure, which ended in June 2011, the city amortized its debt significantly, reduced expenditures and increased its credit rating to a “high-grade” of AA. In 2010, Fitch Ratings credited Portsmouth’s stable outlook to “strong and improved financial management,” as reported by Reuters, sighting efforts to decrease one-time revenues, successfully balance the city’s budget, establish future conservative budgeting plans with surpluses, and restructure debt, which was accomplished in part by selling $30 million of general obligation (GO) bonds in public credit markets.

When Don Horton came on as fire chief in March 2009, he became acutely aware of the condition of the fire department’s aging fleet and began to urgently press for replacement vehicles. Helping him was City Manager Kenneth L. Chandler, who had taken office in July 2007. Chandler’s efforts were also fundamental in improving the city’s credit rating.

These new department heads strategized and then boldly executed a plan to finance 11 new vehicles. Approval was gained by the city council to borrow $3.1 million from a $4.3-million fleet fund held by the city garage’s fleet management, by way of a procedural request for procurement. Secondly, with Portsmouth’s new outstanding credit rating, this fund was paid back in full through a Master Lease Program (MLP) loan through the. Bank of America, who won the city’s bid. BOA will hold the vehicle titles until the loan is repaid.

The funding paid for two battalion pickups, four pumpers, one “quint,” one ambulance and three fire marshal trucks, all of which are brand new. The new engines will replace engines 2, 3, 4 and 7; the quint will replace ladder 10.

New Trucks
The new Battalion 1 and 2 vehicles are Ford F-250 Superduty, four-wheel-drive, four-door pickup trucks with A.R.E. truck caps. An “extendo-bed” slides out the back of the truck’s bed, housing a state-of-the-art Mobile Fleet command box and console where Toughbook mobile data terminal computers access myriad information, such as fire preplans, real-time dispatch screens with vehicle-locator mapping, building plans, satellite maps, emergency response guides and SOPs. The command box is specially designed to help manage incident personnel accountability, a critical safety concern on the fireground. The new battalion vehicles were ordered through Blue Ridge Rescue Suppliers and were placed in service in June.

Each of the new Pierce trucks were ordered from the Pierce Ultimate Configuration (PUC) line with Arrow XT chassis. The PUC design allows for increased storage space because the fire pump is low-slung. The pumps are also easier for mechanics to work on, so maintenance turnaround will be shortened from days to hours. TAC 4 independent suspension improves the vehicle’s stability, allowing for a safer response. Brighter LED emergency lights add to the safety. Another exciting feature: “pump and roll” technology, which allows for the trucks to be driven while pumping water, a design attribute previously only available on airport rescue vehicles.  

Rapid-deploying hose crosslays are lowered to chest height and an additional larger diameter hose has been added to the department’s current configuration to speed up deploying bigger hoses on large fire calls. Each new pumper’s wheelbase is only 177″–shorter than the current pumpers in Portsmouth’s fleet, giving a noted increase in maneuverability. The quint features a 100-foot steel ladder and a 256.5″ wheelbase.

Atlantic Emergency Solutions managed the order from Pierce. All vehicles were in service by mid-August 2011.

The new fire marshal vehicles are four-door Chevy Colorado pickups with four-wheel-drive. Tonneau bed covers were added because the investigators often transport off-gassing evidence from fire scenes. Prior to these pickups, the investigators drove sedans and could potentially have inhaled off-gassed chemicals from evidence placed in the trunk. All three fire marshal pickups were paid for by the MLP.

In addition to the new fire fleet, PFRES made enhancements to its EMS vehicles. Through a matching grant to replace an ambulance lost by fire, the department purchased two new Type I Ford F-450 ambulances with Wheeled Coach boxes; they were placed in service in the last half of 2010. A third ambulance was paid for under the MLP and was placed in service May 2011. These vehicles replaced medics 1, 3 and 10.

Kenny Strickland, Portsmouth vehicle service superintendent, says the new vehicles will create “an overall relief in downtime due to aged vehicles, and the reserve fleet of fire trucks will be doubled from three to six. That will alleviate the problem of borrowing apparatus from sister cities.”

Chief Horton agrees: “The arrival of this new state-of-the-art equipment will ensure that Portsmouth Fire Rescue and Emergency Services can continue to provide timely, world-class service to a city and population deserving of the same.”

A New Page
Cooperation by motivated department heads, new to their posts and cognizant of the risks of continuing to operate with an aged emergency apparatus fleet, worked beyond traditional financing methods to strengthen critical services. They used enlightened fiscal planning and forward thinking to enable the department to purchase these new vehicles.

The arrival of replacements for nearly half PFRES’s front-line emergency fleet marks a breath of fresh air for the men and women on the department’s front lines, and will no doubt serve to increase moral and enhance the department’s focus on its community.
 

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