Memo # 3 INTER DEPARTMENT ... - City of Duluth

January 4, 2013
TO: All Personnel
FROM: Bryan Bushey, Deputy Fire Chief
INTER DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENCE
City of Duluth, Minnesota
Fire Department
SUBJECT: January 5 th , 2013 Operational Changes
I am writing this to summarize changes that will occur effective at 0700 hours, tomorrow,
Saturday, January 5 th .
Memo # 3
1. Vehicle Changes – 8 Engine and 8 Truck will be out of service. 8Quint, Squad 244, and
Squad 248 will be in service. I have requested that 8 Engine be moved to headquarters
basement on the 7 th after all the 1 ¾” and 2 ½” hose is removed to the hose tower at 8
station. This rig will be become 6 Engine in the next few weeks. There is still no final
decision on which engines we will keep as reserves and which vehicle we will keep long
term as an extra truck/quint. When the new 4 Quint arrives, the existing 4 Quint will be
relocated to 8 Station at least temporarily.
2. Personnel Changes – 10 Engine and 6 Engine will be staffed by 3 personnel. 1 Tower, 7
Engine, and 8 Quint will be staffed with 4.
3. Dual Staffing/EMS Response in 4’s and 8’s District – See Chief’s Order 2012 - #69.
St. Louis County Dispatch will most likely dispatch 244/248 to all medical calls in 4’s
and 8’s districts – See Item #6 below.
4. Equipment on Squad 244 and Squad 248 – On January 5th, this rig will have: med bags,
safety glasses, knox keys, cell phone (244 – 218-522-0908, 248 – 218-522-0909), door
spreader, c-collars, hand light, blankets, 10# extinguisher, safety vests, , , map book,
MDC.
The following items are on order: CO monitor, spotlight, additional blankets
The following items are approved for purchase and to carry (to be coordinated/further
discussed with Deputy Chief and 4Q/8Q Captains): set of irons, small bolt cutter, new
handlight, tool set/box, spanner wrench, shovel, lift tarps, .
Any items to be carried on this rig MUST be authorized by the Deputy Chief.

5. District Changes – Review 2012 memo #67 and the green book. There are now auto
alarm districts for: 1E, 2E, 1T, 4Q, 8Q, 10E, 11E.
I will attach a pdf copy of the entire green book to the electronic version of this
memo. It can also be found on the web server under itsa own category “ District
Book – New”
6. Dispatch – They are still working on getting all our district changes into the CAD system.
While you need to always pay attention to radio dispatches, until all the changes are
completed, you need to be hyper-vigilant.
If a “wrong” rig is dispatched, you need to begin a response to be sure the correct rig
recognized the mistake. At that time, depending on the time lapse and type of alarm the
rig best positioned to make an emergency response should complete the response.
Contact your Assistant Chief if this is not clear.
At this time, all medicals in 4’s and 8’s districts will most likely be dispatched for Squad
244/248. It is our policy, as detailed in 2012 Memo # 69 that defines the appropriate
response rig, not the dispatcher. We will fine tune this dispatch process once all districts
are properly configured in CAD.
7. District Books – All green district books have been updated. I needed to revise the new
automatic alarm response policy already and new copies of this policy will be coming
this weekend for your books.
8. AutomaticAlarms – While the green book policy has been updated and describes our
policy as of January 5th, the Operations Manual has not been updated (this holds for all
policies related to our organizational change) but should be by the end of January. In
summary:
Response will be an Engine and a Quint/Truck. Districts are detailed in the green
book. There are special auto alarm districts for most rigs.
Squad 251 will not respond to automatic alarms.
If the first unit on the scene reports “nothing visible”, the additional response
unit shall automatically slow to code 2. It is not necessary to do this on the
radio…just do it.
If you are advised to cancel and an alarm cause is provided, you may do so. If no
alarm cause is given the closest unit shall continue code 2 to check it out.
9. Fill – In’s, Fire Call Back, Out of City Response, 10-52 Response: Review Green Book

10. Portable Radios at 4’s and 8’s: I have two portables and spare batteries to 4’s for Squad
244. Once things settle down, I will have those reconfigured so they are correctly
designated and labeled.
For 8Q/248 – The 3 radios from 8 Truck will be reassigned to 8 Quint. Portable radio’s
from 8 Engine should be relocated as follows:
SU-DFD-8E-3P – to the Quint for the junior firefighter
SU-DFD-8E-1P and 2P – assigned to Squad 248
Again, I will have the labels and alias’s changed as soon as possible.
If you have any questions---please let me know.
Thank-you for your cooperation during this difficult change process.
Termination Date: February 2, 2013