Rierson shares 2022 fire report with city council
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Marshalltown Fire Chief David Rierson and Lt. Nick Hanus came before the city council on Monday night to share their annual report for 2022, offering some highlights from the previous year and renewing a call for increased staffing in the future.
For the fourth straight year, the MFD saw a higher number of requests for service, which, Rierson added, was the sixth time in the last years it had increased.
"It's not a trend that is strictly a Marshalltown thing. It is an issue that's nationwide. In speaking with other fire chiefs in the state of Iowa, they're seeing 15 to 20 percent increases in their calls, so it's not anything that's new to us," Rierson said.
He then segued into discussing a slew of suspicious fires set in 2021 and 2022 and noted that two second degree arson arrests had been made along with additional trespassing charges. In those cases, intent to burn could not be proven, but the individuals were proven to be on the properties where the fires occurred.
"It wasn't everything. It didn't solve all the arson cases that we had, but I think we sent a message that we weren't gonna tolerate it and that we were going to address it as best as we could," Rierson said.
The report also broke down where the calls for service in 2022 came from by quadrants, with the northwest section of the city from Olive Street north and from Center Street west far and away accounting for the highest number. Of the total calls, 80 were fires, and among those, about half were building fires.
According to Rierson, 43 of the fires were unintentional, three were arson and three were intentional. The rest were either "undetermined" or "acts of nature." Although the number of total calls for service was again up, the number of actual fires went down slightly from 2021 to 2022. The fire loss in 2022 was estimated at $449,000, and the value of those properties was about $2.6 million. He estimated the department saved about $976,000 worth of property.
The chief reported a 17 percent increase in the number of overlapping calls, with 841 in 2022, making up about 25 percent of all of the calls for service. An overlapping call simply means the department is responding to more than one request for service at the same time, with as many as three calls sometimes occurring at the same time.
"That trend has gone up almost every year for the last four years, and I can't stress how important it is for us to look at ways to resolve those issues because, in the end, it could mean the difference between somebody getting a firetruck to their house to put out a fire or not," Rierson said.
He shared an example from last week when firefighters were on an EMS call, and they couldn't send an ambulance. Ultimately, the patient was transported in the back of a police vehicle with an EMT taking care of them.
One positive note Rierson highlighted in the report was a 47 percent increase in the number of building inspections in 2022 -- a total of 308 compared to just 164 in 2021. The department also continued a partnership with a private company to inspect sprinkler systems and fire extinguishers at businesses. In 2022, there were 726 inspections completed, and 61 -- around nine percent -- were noncompliant.
After wrapping up some of the highlights, Rierson opened the floor for questions, and Councilor Gary Thompson sought clarification on what the noncompliance meant, both for the building inspections and the system inspections contracted through the private company.
"It could be that a hood system wasn't clean or it didn't have its annual inspection or the fire extinguisher wasn't serviced. For sprinkler systems, it could have been that it hadn't had its annual inspection tests or, every five years, they're required to have the internal components inspected. It could have been that they hadn't had a five-year inspection as well," Rierson said. "When it comes to building inspections that we do, a lot of times it's just simple stuff. An exit sign isn't working. The emergency lighting isn't working, just simple things like that."
Hanus, who serves as the president of the firefighters union, had a chance to comment and thanked the members of the council who have visited the station, inviting more to do the same.
Nonetheless, he spoke of a concerning trend.
"I guess brass tacks (is) we need more help. I know nobody has a magic bullet. I know that there are some solutions we can work through to get us some more people. The increase in calls is real," Hanus said. "My guys are getting tired. I hate to be that plain about it, but if we can find a way to spread this load out, it'll be better for everybody involved... We've had such an increase in medical calls that it takes away from our ability to respond to fires, which is ultimately what we're here for."
According to Hanus, other cities are often responding with twice as many firefighters as Marshalltown. A roster provided as part of the report showed the MFD currently has 18 full-time firefighters, three lieutenants, three captains, Rierson and Deputy Chief Christopher Cross on staff along with Fire Marshal Josh Warnell, Chaplin David Shearer and Administrative Assistant Maria Ramirez.
"I will say the people I work with, and I'm happy to work with, are some of the best people in the world. But we're playing a numbers game, and I would hope we don't get caught," Hanus said. "I'm not up here to ask you to hire 10 more people tomorrow because I know that's not the reality, but we can all work together to try and figure out a way to increase the staffing. It's gonna be better for everybody involved."
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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.