To Our Friends, Neighbors, Employees and Members of the CyFair Vol. Fire Department

We were recently contacted by Jeremy Rogalski, Investigative Reporter for KHOU-TV. He has been reviewing reports obtained from the Texas Department of Insurance that we refer to as Texfirs. These reports are made by our employees and members of the department when we respond to calls for service or emergencies. These reports are made available by way of the Freedom of Information Act.

Texfirs are a report of action taken and/or estimated damage for fires, accidents, or other emergency calls made by a fire department. Texfirs contain information on response times, type of call, dwelling information and many other items deemed pertinent. The investigative reporter focused on response times from 2003 thru 2007. Our department reports our response times from when our dispatchers take the call until the first arriving unit is on location. Since we have our own dispatching system we feel that the time processing the call is as important to the service we provide as is the time getting to the emergency location. National Fire Prevention Administration (NFPA) allows for a processing time of 1.5 minutes having responding units dispatched. Our dispatching system has an average of 45 seconds from call taken to first units dispatched. Many departments do not dispatch for themselves and do not track the processing time.

Mr. Rogalski originally approached us to comment why our response times were slower than the recommended times by NFPA. Unfortunately Mr. Rogalski did not read the guidelines carefully enough to note that NFPA 1710 refers to the 6 minute goal in response times is for full-time paid departments. Our department which is considered a combination paid and volunteer department is recommended to comply with NFPA 1720. The difference being stations are manned full-time by paid firefighters compared to partially manned stations with volunteers and some paid staff. We staff some of our stations with paid staff during the daytime. Highly trained volunteers are available to all stations day and night with some of these volunteers being career firefighters for other departments, all of whom donate their time to their community.

NFPA 1720 is the standard that relates to our department and most of the departments in Harris County. This standard recommends that units, in suburban areas such as ours, are on scene within 10 minutes, 80% of the time. Our department during the time period reviewed responded over 6 minutes 63% of the time but outside the 10 minute limit only 16% of the time using the numbers that the reporter obtained from Texas Department of Insurance. Also the runs that were examined did not take into account when we provided mutual aid to other departments outside our coverage area. We complied with NFPA standard 1720 84% of the time and we were within our department goal of an 8 minute response time within the last year. During the last 2 years we have worked to improve our responses even more by adding some additional volunteer personnel in the evening using our Night-time manned district pumpers and area Squads. These 2 programs have improved our response times even more that we now have an average response time of 7.9 minutes 90% (2008) of the time from time of receipt of the request for service.

We have some concerns about Mr. Rogalski’s focus on rapid responses. Safety is one of our main concerns. Last year nationally 114 firefighters lost their lives in line of duty deaths. Nearly 25% of those deaths were directly related to motor vehicle accidents during responses. Secondly, we are your neighbors and live in the same communities that we are responding. You and your families safety is also our concern. Responding in large vehicles faster than we currently do is risking the lives of others. Our focus is rapid response in a manner as safe as possible.

Response area is also a factor in quick responses. We currently have 12 stations in our response area which covers 156 square miles. That equals one station every 13 square miles. We also have nearly 400,000 people living in our territory. Traffic congestion in an area our size is also a factor. The city of Houston has 2.3 million people living in 656 square miles with 93 stations or one station per 7 square miles. The city of New York has 221 fire stations with one station per 1.4 square miles. Distance to a call is a factor but so is congestion. This is why NFPA classifies departments and their coverage areas different and they take into account the different response variables.

Mr. Rogalski also wanted to know why we have not raised taxes to provide quicker responses. The CyFair Volunteer Fire Department is the service provider to Harris County Emergency Services District #9 (HCESD #9). We as the service provider do not have taxing authority. The elected commissioners of HCESD #9 do an excellent job managing the tax revenues and overseeing the operation of the department. They are also limited by the legislature to the tax rates that can be levied. It was only the last legislative session that allowed Harris County ESD’s to increase their tax rate (with local voter approval). We previously were capped at 6-cents per $100 appraised property value. The current capped rate for fire protection is 10-cents per $100 appraised property value. Our commissioners are constantly reviewing our tax rate and have no plans to request an increase. HCESD#9 is currently just under 6-cents per $100 appraised property value for which we also provide Emergency Medical Services. We are one of the few departments that also provide both EMS services and fire protection. We work very hard to make sure that our tax dollars are used wisely and it is with the help of our volunteers that we can maintain the great level of service without needing additional funds for salaries. Using a formula supplied by the National Volunteer Fire Council estimates that the value of our volunteer’s service would require additional 20-million dollars in salary costs to offset their services. We also are rated by the Insurance Services Organization (ISO) to have a fire protection rating of 3. We were previously a 5/9 and by improving our rating the homeowners insurance company should reduce their rates up to $75 - $200. This reduction in insurance costs effectively gives most homeowners fire and EMS services at no cost. Full-time career departments have a much greater cost factor and in many cases 5 times what our community pays for services.

Our department provides excellent services to our community. We have many dedicated volunteers and employees that provide professional services. Our motto of “Saving Lives and Protecting Property” as well as our slogan “Neighbors helping Neighbors” is something that all of our members and employees live on a daily basis. Trying to portray hardworking men and women in a negative light may improve ratings but fair and unbiased reporting is also a way to service the community. Focusing on the positive aspect of our services and the services of other volunteer departments in Harris County would encourage more volunteer participation. All departments and the entire community would benefit from an increase in volunteers and a story of this nature would be better served to encourage people not focus on our departments in a negative way. We hope that this gives some insight to make Mr. Rogalski’s investigative report more informative and give the rest of the story to any interested parties.

Joe Davis, Fire Chief

Cy-Fair Volunteer Fire Department