Redmond EMS Abstracts.indd - IAFF

Residential Fireground Field Experiments
Rocky Hanes
President
IAFF Local 1660
Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue
PO Box 1904
Lake Oswego, Oregon 97035
503-449-5758
pres1660@iaff1660.org
Background:
Rocky Hanes is a lieutenant/paramedic for Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue (Oregon) and is President
of Local 1660. Rocky has been a fire fighter for 13 years and was instrumental in helping secure a
local option tax to increase staffing to a four person minimum on key companies throughout the
Tualatin Valley Fire District. Rocky’s local represents 10 different fire departments, each with its
own labor contract. As president of his local, Rocky has negotiated more than a dozen contracts
for these departments in the past eight years. Prior to his election as president, Rocky was the
local secretary and had served on various committees at the local, state and international level.
Rocky has been a Partnership Education Program instructor since the program began in May
2002. He also conducts new member orientation and training for shop stewards on their roles
and responsibilities.
Abstract:
Many fire departments across the nation are being challenged by budget crises, rising call volume,
personnel and equipment shortages, security issues and the overall expectation to do more with
less. These and other factors, all too often, have our responding crews encountering increasing
line of duty risk of injury and death as they continue to work to reduce civilian injury and property
loss. Even with the technological advances of the last decades, we have not yet been able to
scientifically quantify our experiences to determine what staffing levels, asset configurations and
response time frames are best when responding to various levels of fire or EMS events so that we
minimize risk to the fire fighters, paramedics and the public. We believe the time has come to
change that.
With major grants from the research section of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s
Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program (the Fire Act), five top fire research organizations continue
collaborating to develop tools that will help local fire departments better assess the risks in their
local communities and plan to respond to them more effectively and efficiently.
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