2007 Annual Report - Town of Wilton

Fire DepartmentThe Wilton Fire Department takes pride inits service to the community and strivesto provide the highest quality and mostprofessional fire protection services possible.Our mission statement says it all: “Ourmission is to protect the lives and propertyof our citizens by providing the highestquality fire suppression, emergency and nonemergencyresponse assistance, life safetycode enforcement and education. We willstrive to lessen the impact of disasters, largeand small, man-made or natural on the peoplewe serve. We will provide all services to thebest of our abilities in the most humane andcaring manner possible.” We are pleased toreport that we continue to meet our missiongoals and we stand ready to continue to meetthem every day.We are pleased to report two major additionsto our firefighting vehicle fleet. The Townpurchased and the Department placed inservice two new frontline fire engines. Thenew engines are state of the art firefightingvehicles and replaced two twenty-year-oldpieces of apparatus. We anticipate the newapparatus to serve well the residents ofWilton for years to come. In addition to thenew fire engines, the Department applied forand received a competitive grant from theU.S. Department of Homeland Security. The$115,000 grant was to develop and implementa mandatory firefighter wellness and fitnessprogram aimed at reducing the risk of thenumber one killer of firefighters, cardiacrelatedinjuries and to help reduce the risk ofon-the-job injuries to our personnel. The grantfunds purchased physical fitness equipmentfor both fire stations and supervised wellnessprograms for all our firefighters. This successfulprogram has better prepared our firefighters toface the challenges and risks associated withour firefighting profession.To accomplish our mission, the Departmentis organized into three divisions: Operations,Office of the Fire Marshal, and Office of theFire Chief. Each division has a unique andvaried role to play in the accomplishment ofour overall mission but rely on each other toget the job done.The Operations Division is the traditionalbackbone of the Department’s organizationand is usually what first comes to mindwhen people think of the fire department. Itis responsible for fire suppression, rescue,hazardous materials mitigation and nontransportemergency medical services. TheDivision operates from two fire stations,Wilton Fire Headquarters and the MarhofferFire Station on Ridgefield Road in NorthWilton. The Operations Division is made upof twenty-four career firefighting personnelsupplemented by a small cadre of volunteerfirefighters. In addition to responding tofire-related emergencies, the Division isan integral part of the Town’s three-tieredemergency medical response system. Fireengines at both stations are equipped withemergency medical equipment, includingautomatic defibrillators, for use duringcardiac emergencies, and are staffed forquick response. To help ensure the bestPublic Safety & Welfare16