Berrien Fire Chief’s Association

1-20-10

Meeting called to order by Chief Davidson at 0837 hours.

ATTENDANCE:, Davidson-CFD, Richcreek WFD, Lamb-NFD, Stiles-ECPTFD, Burkett-LTFD, Knuth-BFD, Stover-BSOFD, D-Stover – Fire Grants, Maynard-SJTFD#1, Corteville-BCEM/SJTFD#2, Pletz-Cook, Sexton-BC911, Agens-BC911, LaBamBard-BC911, Gowen-BFD, Brovold-NTFD, Burks-BCEM, Spiegel-NBF-RO, Taylor-NBCFFD, Koebel-RTFD, Heyn-LTFD,

TREASURER’S REPORT – The treasures report was approved with all in favor at $1082.17. Lamb distributed dues notices for 09 and 10 to those in attendance.

MINUTES – The minutes were approved as e-mailed.

PRESENTATION – Chief Davidson asked the group to take a moment of silence for the people of Haiti and as well as those rescuers that have arrived to search or care for the servers. Jeff Hischke from Chikaming fire and now the Fire Wise Program presented his services to the Group. Fire Wise was developed to work with residents to limit their exposure to wildland fire incidents through mitigation efforts. He can be contacted at .

COMMUNICATIONS / BILLS – Non

COMMITTEE REPORTS

911 – Director Agens let the group know that the 911 Committees have approved the South County Fire Transmitter move from the Buchanan Water Tower to the Bertrand Water Tower on Mayflower road. This move should provide slightly better coverage with no reoccurring phone line costs. He also discussed the Dispatch Centers new “Initial Dispatch System” which will help our dispatchers quickly and efficiently dispatch the variety of initial dispatch configurations required by all those agencies that they serve. It basically lists call types together on a single sheet, with each departments initial dispatch requirements together for easy access. When they receive a call for a Structure Fire in Baroda they would turn to the Structure Fire page then find Baroda. This line would list what resources are due on the initial alarm. Dave expressed his opinion that once his dispatcher are comfortable with the use of the Matrix he would be comfortable allowing departments with Cards that are ready to begin to utilize MABAS. Following a Card Review Process that will assure uniformity in use departments can schedule a radio drill or two with dispatch to make sure we are ready.

The joint use of call sign numbers between Police and Fire agencies was also discussed. It these is a possibility of confusion it was suggested that we use a fire or F in front of our unit or personnel number. IE “Fire6701 Berrien County” or “F4601 Berrien County” in most cases it should be obvious but in those cases where ambiguity exists the fire tag should also be used.

Additional discussions relating to the current Communication Plan in place. There were some variations that exist with those departments that utilize 800 mHz more exclusively. Some questions relating to the requirement that incident commanders request an 800 channel to be used as a Command Net also needs to be clearer. Currently ICs are asked to respond on a primary channel and roll all scene work to a fire ground as quickly as possible. They are then asked to open up a Command Net by calling dispatch on F911 and requesting that still another UIC talk group be opened. There were questions with everything from the Title UIC to the apparently excessive use of F911 by EMS crews. A committee was initially proposed to look into the issues but Dave asked that instead we refer the matter to the 911 Tech committee to gain more consensuses across disciplines.

DNR – Mike Pine from the new and improved DNR-E was in to discuss everything that’s going on at the State Level. He will be in county quite a bit over the next year working with several area departments. He has been battling some health issues but is finally doing better. He did make the mistake of stating that he has yet to fight a wildfire in Southwest Michigan so be on the lookout. Seriously he did say that due to last years above average rain and lower than average temps excessive growth of fuels is predicted. He also offered to provide 2 hour Wild Land Refresher Courses to those departments interested. His group can respond with a plow unit and a wild land pumper and 2-3 firefighters if needed.

Funeral Protocol –.Kits back at Berrien Springs.

EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT –. Corey discussed the updated Emergency Operations Plan that will be distributed in the next few weeks. He also went over the details regarding the upcoming Palisades Drill. They will be trying to staff the Public Reception Centers with Civilian Volunteers to help free up our firefighters. He also offered refresher Rad Pro Classes for those interested. Just contact Emergency management for more details.

LEPC – Chris discussed that Tier 2’s are beginning to come in. If any department would like to see their areas reports please call Chris. Chief Spiegel presented an After Action Report to the LEPC which received high marks from all in attendance.

SHERIFF- None

BCFFA - None

BCYF –. Chief Stover plans to update the special events plan for the Fair. There will be two distinct variations, one for the Fair Week and the other for the other weeks of the year when the Youth Fair is not in operation. Due to storage the Chief said there is more fire load actually when the fair is not in session.

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TRAINING –There are still 32 students in the 1&2 class. There will be an incident Safety Officer Class in Portage on February 6&7th. Firefighters who were signed up for the class that was canceled will have the former class price honored. Contact Stacy French at Portage Fire Department for more information.

MABAS- Larry announced to the group that those departments that have signed on to MABAS are now officially MABAS Division #3501. There were also 2 other new divisions approved, Oakland County which becomes Division #3201, and Ottawa County which is now Division #3601. The MABAS Departments in the county met at the Empire Complex on the evening of the 14th to finalize the details that are needed to go live with the new system. Chief Lamb has put together a short MABAS Officer Training program that can be presented to departments that are interested in getting started. The need to do a few radio drills with dispatch prior to a department going live was also discussed. Finally a review process to assure cards are uniform was proposed. Chief Brovold sort of volunteered….OK he was nominated while he was out of the room to review new cards as they come on line. Finally, the members agreed to hold a MABAS subcommittee meeting on the opposite month as the Chief’s committee. It was originally discussed that it would be held in Berrien Springs on the 3rd Wednesday of the month at 0830 however Director Agens thought that it might interfere with one of the 911 committees. Dave will look into that possible conflict and get back to the group for scheduling.

OLD BUSINESS -.

Dale Stover was in to remind the group of the changes in the upcoming Fire Grants. Safer will again be increased with Fire Act continuing to receive less funding.

Little Squirt is still out of gas and not doing shows. If you like to visit swing by the storage building between New Buffalo and Three Oaks. The Board has yet to find a Director.

Chris reminded everyone to update their Tactical Interoperable Communication TIC Plan with him as they purchase new radio equipment. He specifically wanted to remind everyone that he still needs help getting data from Public Schools, Public Works. Chris will email a list out of those agencies that he still needs info from. It is our hope that Chiefs in those areas will outreach to those agencies.


It was recommended that he Local Emergency Planning Team (LEPT) meet to plan for the future.

NEW BUSINESS-. Chief Stover, Stiles, and Brovold reported on a rash of fires that they have experienced with a single family. More info will be e-mailed to the Chiefs as the investigation progresses.

An idea was presented that came from the roughly 24 hour incident experienced by North Berrien Fire on the transformer. Chief Spiegel discussed a unit called “Crapper 1” that was a resource available at his last department. It would be nothing more than a few “port-a-potties” on a flat bed that could be brought out in a pinch so to speak. Though no one thought the idea stunk, no one agreed to pump the project out to their department either. If anyone can wipe their calendar clean and take on the project it would be a great big deposit for our agencies and take a huge load off of Emergency Management at future incidents.

There are new interoperable frequency’s that should be installed as departments can. See Chris for a list of frequencies.

Meeting Adjourned 1103 hrs.

Respectfully Submitted,

Larry Lamb