HomeMy WebLinkAboutGranito Study - Guidelines for Locating Nantucket Central Fire Station_2014012811284327621
GUIDELINES FOR LOCATING
THE NANTUCKET CENTRAL FIRE STATION
Prepared for the Board of Selectmen
Town and County of Nantucket, Massachusetts
John and Dolores Granito
October 2013
2
GUIDELINES FOR LOCATING THE NANTUCKET CENTRAL FIRE STATION
Background
Nantucket officials currently are considering options which may become available to enhance or replace entirely their Central Fire Station at its present location, or to relocate to a
different Island site and have a new Central Station constructed there.
In addition to its current location at 132 Pleasant Street, possible alternate sites have been identified as: 1. The Police Station and Emergency Dispatch facility at 4 Fairgrounds Road;
2. The Cottage Hospital area at 57 Prospect Street;
3. The Sheriff’s Office area at 205 Water Street;
4. The Wannacomet Water Co. area at Milestone Road The purpose of this document is to provide Town Officials and Nantucket residents with
information regarding the generally accepted criteria for station site selection, the type of
central station necessary for adequate emergency service delivery to this Island, and the
interrelationships among the character of Nantucket, the combination fire department, and the department’s emergency response workload. This document is limited to information and observations only to station location.
As an autonomous Massachusetts Town and County, decisions regarding its fire
department and its resources—certainly including stations—lie with Nantucket elected Town officials and the Administrator, plus the residents and taxpayers, with guidance provided by the Fire Chief. This document hopefully provides useful information and observations but
recognizes that the most important aspects of the Central Station’s future only can be
determined locally, based on Island history, finances, conditions, growth projections, and
master plan aspirations. The Nantucket Fire Department
The Fire Department (NFD), actually by workload a “fire-rescue” department, has the
following emergency response resource base reported for 2012: Personnel
: As full time employees, there are a Chief, Deputy Chief, Fire Prevention
Officer, Fire Alarm Superintendent (all certified firefighters), and approximately 20
firefighter-emergency medical technicians. Four career firefighters and a Captain are
assigned to each of four shifts, with a minimum manning level per shift of three. The department has approximately 25 call personnel-including “call officers”. Approximately 16 call personnel respond only to emergency medical calls, and 9 cover fire calls, all
when activated by pager.
Stations 1 west end satellite station at Madaket : 1 Central Headquarters Station on Pleasant Street
3
1 east end satellite station at Siasconset
1 garage type structure on Tuckernuck Island
Major Vehicles: 1 Aerial Ladder 5 Pumpers
3 Ambulances
1 Heavy Rescue
2 Water Tenders (tanker)
The NFD is organized in a cost-effective organizational structure which has the Chief,
Deputy Chief, Fire Prevention Officer, and Alarm Superintendent, when available, each able
to respond to emergencies as certified responders. Further, each of the four shifts has a
Captain assigned as “station officer” and as shift commander, unless relieved by the Chief or Deputy Chief upon their arrival at the scene.
Initial response to a fire call can be as high as nine (five shift responders plus the four
“senior staff”), or as low as three (minimum shift manning). The same “career” response
numbers hold, as well, for serious or multiple casualty medical calls. If “call responders” are paged at the same time as the initial dispatch of career personnel, initial response numbers
increase accordingly. Response numbers are increased as well whenever off-shift career
personnel are paged and activated.
All on-duty personnel are based at the Central Station, thus the vehicles kept at the other stations must be staffed by call personnel responding from wherever they are to the nearest
remote station, or to the Central Station.
2012 NFD Emergency Response Workload (Annual Report)
Fire Calls……………………….. 41
Emergency Medical Calls ……... 1,255
Hazardous Condition Calls ……. 324
Service Calls ……………………. 358
Alarm Activation ………………. 990 Inspections ……………………… 713*
*Considering the absence of mutual aid to the Island, and the relatively limited
staffing, both comprehensive code enforcement and comprehensive fire and safety
education are essential activities.
Timely Response
The preponderance of emergency medical calls and the absolute necessity for the
quickest possible response to both them and fire calls necessitates locating the only “staffed”
NFD station in the most advantageous location. National Standards for fire response and emergency medical service, including those promulgated by the AMA, the AHA, and NFPA,
4
call for an initial response within four minutes and a full response within eight minutes, for
whatever type of response resource is dispatched to a particular emergency. Therefore,
because time is of the essence, alarm handling, dispatch, station location, and certain station
design features are critical elements in effective service delivery. The following diagram is used frequently to illustrate the advantages of shortening as many of the pre-arrival
sequences as possible in order to begin quickly whatever type of action is necessary to
protect life, property, and the environment.
The alarm-response sequence of events, the same for medical, rescue, and fire calls, points out the several sequential steps which, by careful planning can be shortened by local
provisions, which are listed below.
NFD Central Station Site Selection Criteria (approximate priority order)
1. Suitability for co-location with existing public facility; add-on structure, separate
structure, shared services & utilities
2. Distance and response time to target hazards and known high workload areas
3. Ready access to higher speed response routes: N/S & E/W
4. Site size and configuration, ramp length, drive-thru bays, single or multi story, nature of
neighborhood and close-by structures, potential impacts, antennae tower
5
5. Immediate traffic conditions, congested intersections, blockages, one way streets, effect
of any necessary traffic control signal for exiting of emergency vehicles
6. Sight lines for exiting and entering; speed of normal traffic near site exit and entrance
7. Proximity to effects of possible natural or manmade large incidents, flooding, wind
damage, power loss, major accidents
8. Topography of general area, needed site grading and compaction
9. Competition for projected site
10. Value and disposition of existing site
11. Cost estimates, funding possibilities, grants
12. Neighborhood objection to removing “their” station
13. Time delay in opening the station
14. Need for temporary station
In considering these criteria, it sometimes is helpful to use a score sheet for each of the
alternate locations. Following is an actual example of such a score sheet, used by a city
which needed to construct two new stations. Instructions for use are:
A. For each possible fire station location, score each of the criterion as 1 – 5 with 5 being
the best score. Duplicate scores are allowed.
B. On the weighted score sheet: multiply each raw score by the agreed weight, 1, or 2,
or ?, and record the weighted score. Add together the weighted scores for each
potential site. A higher final score is better. (This step recognizes that, while all
variables are important, some are more crucial than others and should carry more
weight in the decision process.)
C. Using the cumulative weighted score for each of the sites, rank them.
6
7
Computerized Response Mapping for Nantucket
Computer response mapping is provided to illustrate the road distances reached by responding apparatus traveling from the current NFD Central Fire Station and four
additional, possible sites at average speeds of 25 mph, 30 mph, and 40 mph. These speeds
reflect seasonal traffic conditions.
The following technical information provides further understanding of the computer-generated response maps:
The computer maps are based on digitized representations of streets and roads within the
Island of Nantucket area as prepared for the United States Census Bureau (“Tiger Maps”).
In some cases, there may be newer built out areas not covered in the Census material. In
the Tiger Map system, the original computerization divided all streets and roads into
segments of specific lengths (called “links”), tied together by “nodes”. The errors are not
significant in this Nantucket analysis of fire coverage and distance/time maps, because the
distance and time segments typically used in the mapping are relatively short, with many intersecting streets, and normally coincide quite closely with Tiger Map links. Small errors
may occur, and generally happen randomly and across the entire mapping area. The effect is
that, while all mapping distances and times are approximate, and based on our experience
with many applications, the impacts of any discrepancies which might occur appear
insignificant.
• The U.S. Census Feature Classification Code describes street and road characteristics, and a mathematical matrix (ArcView Network Analyst) enables a calculation for driving time on each segment of a road-street network. For example, a primary, limited access
road indicates 45 mph. A secondary connecting road indicates 35 mph, and local
neighborhood roads indicate 25 mph.
Considering local street speed limits, the size and weight of fire vehicles, and accident liability considerations, careful review of response speed limits is essential. Very little
research, if any, demonstrates that a few mph results in significantly less fire loss.
• NFPA Standard 1710 (“Standard for the Organization and Deployment of Fire Suppression Operation, Emergency Medical Operations, and Special Operations to the
Public by Substantially Career Fire Departments”, 2010 edition) calls for a road travel
time of no more than 240 seconds for the fire due engine company and four responders,
or ambulance for EMS, plus the entire first alarm fire assignment (approximately 15 personnel minimum) within 480 seconds, to 90% of annual calls.
8
Methodology Used for the Nantucket Mapping
On a base map of the island, nine Emergency Response Locations (ERL) were identified.
The numbering is clockwise and has no effect on the mapping results.
The following sites (Fire Department, Hospital, Police Department, Sheriff, and Water
Works) were then located. From each of these five sites response distances reached were
covered in two, four, six, eight, ten, and greater than 10 minutes, at averages of 25 mph, 30
mph, and 40 mph. The following chart shows the percent of links covered for each of those times, for each of the five sites.
The US Tiger files for the Nantucket base map contain 3239 road links, which are
surrogate indicators of the Island’s total roadway system.
9
In the above table, red indicates the highest percent of links covered from that
specific location at the indicated average speed, at the time critical 4 minute mark. A
higher percent indicates more links covered.
• The entire section of links above #4 Emergency Response Location (ERL) is included
in the total number of links. No site can reach that general location in less than ten
minutes.
• The low initial percentages from the Water Works location likely are due to the
several road links needed to access Milestone Road.
• The zero to two minute percentage from the Sheriff’s Office location is created by the
high number of very short links in the immediate vicinity-the downtown area.
However, it generally is safer, tactically, to respond into a target fire zone than to be stationed within it.
• The Police Department site and the current NFD sites offer similar coverage.
The following addresses were used for the response target locations (ERL):
#1 ERL - 26 Gosnold Road #6 ERL - 27 Wanoma Way
#2 ERL - 1 Henry Street #7 ERL - 166 Surfside Road
#3 ERL - 12 North Road #8 ERL - 326 Madaket Road
#4 ERL - 120 Wauwinet Road #9 ERL - 137 Eel Point Road
#5 ERL - 115 Baxter Road
Computer response maps are at the end of this paper.
Fire Station Features Favoring Quick Response
1. Location near fast response routes
2. Tactically safe and non-locking traffic position
3. Full-length ramp with clear sight lines
4. Spacious apparatus bay areas with room for protective gear 5. Frontline, nearest doors, consisting of the “jumped” vehicles
6. Adequate view of outside conditions
10
7. Day rooms and bunk rooms close to apparatus bays—flat floor
8. Inside control of exterior street traffic signal
9. Reachable controls for overhead doors
10. Loud and clear alarm and dispatch – Rip and Run
Observations
Three of the five possible locations appear, “on paper”, to be more advantageous.
Typically, converting older smaller stations to contemporary larger stations meeting
code requirements, functional design characteristics, and sprinkler protection proves both
costly and lengthy. Additionally, adequate and safe temporary quarters compensating for
any tear-down is most troublesome.
Close proximity to the emergency communications and dispatch facility is
operationally useful.
Close proximity to another “open 24/7” facility is useful for fire stations which
frequently have all personnel responding out-of-the building.
Close proximity to another public safety agency encourages jointly used training
rooms and programs such as A.E.D. use, and responding to active-shooter and bomb
calls.
11
Dolores Granito
643 East Lake Road 2961 Bowsprit Lane
Penn Yan, NY 14527 e-mail: granitomapping@AOL.com St. James City, FL 33956 Phone: (315) 536-3439 Phone (239) 283-2438 Fax (315) 536-6595 Fax: (239) 283-2464 Computer Mapping services using Topologically Integrated Geographic encoding and Referencing Digital Map Data for response station locations, initial and sustained attack response times, ISO evaluation, Emergency Medical Services, Technical Rescue and Hazardous Material Response for a variety of clients including continuing service to MMA Management Consulting Group, Inc. of Boston,
Neville Associates of California, Ross Architects of Voorheesville, NY, Illinois Fire Chiefs Association,
Thorne Associates in Idaho Falls, and Hughes Associates, Inc. of Baltimore. Computer mapping services
to Fire-Rescue departments (listed below), including D.O.E. Hanford, Rocky Flats, Los Alamos, Argonne
National Laboratories (East), Idaho National Labs, and the Port of New Orleans.
Description of my work: Computer mapping for fire, rescue, and EMS station location and response mapping for fire departments and/or for consulting firms. This may include ISO requirements, NFPA 1710, volunteer home response to stations and NFPA 1720, full first alarm assignments; station covering; automatic mutual aid; new station locations; effects of station closings; station consolidations, etc.
Mapping completed in the following locations: In California – San Mateo County In Colorado – Greater Brighton In Connecticut – Newington, Norwalk In Florida – Cape Coral, Jupiter, Miami, Lehigh Acres, Pine Island
In Hawaii – Island of Oahu-Honolulu County
In Illinois – Argonne, Bloomington, Bourbonnais, Bradley, Carbondale, Coal City,
Columbia, Crystal Lake, Dupage-Cook County, E. Dundee, Elwood, Franklin
Park,Manhattan, New Lenox, Plainfield, Pleasantview, St. Charles, University of
Illinois at Urbana/Champaign, Warrenville, Winfield
In Iowa – Sioux City In Louisiana– New Orleans In Maine – S. Portland In Massachusetts – Acushnet, Easton, Harwich, Ipswich, Scituate, Seekonk, Shelton, W. Boylston, Yarmouth In Nebraska – N. Platte In New Jersey – Cherry Hill In New Mexico – Los Alamos, White Rock In New York – Armonk, Buffalo, Croton, Eastchester, Fire Island, Geneva, Hauppauge, Melville, Penfield, Perinton, Portchester, Queensbury, Rochester, Town of Barrington, Town of Brighton, Town
of Colonie, W. Brighton, Woodbury
In Ohio – Clearcreek, City of Springboro
In Oklahoma – Sapulpa
In Rhode Island – Cumberland, E. Providence
In Texas – Huntsville, Georgetown
In Utah – Provo In Washington –Hanford, Puyallup, Trendwest (a new resort area), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
12
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16