Operations
The Buffalo Fire Department responds on average to 30,000 calls a year. General call types include fire, EMS, and hazardous materials incidents. The Buffalo Fire Department also has mutual aid plans with many local municipalities as well as Canadian fire agencies. For FY' 2005-2006, the BFD responded to 9,844 fire alarm activations, 1,483 confirmed working fires, and 23,543 EMS calls. The call volume has increased since.
EMS calls are the most frequent calls the BFD respond to. In its current capacity, the Buffalo Fire Department acts as a first responder only. The BFD responds to mostly "life threatening" squad calls. Calls such as cardiac arrest, respiratory arrest/distress, chest pain, maternity, MVA's, medical alarms, etc.
Most Buffalo firefighters are trained to the certified first responder level (CFR-D) while many others are Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT-B). There are a handful of Buffalo firefighters that are Intermediates (AEMT-I) and Paramedics (AEMT-P), however due to state protocols they can not render services higher than their agency level, which is Basic Life Support (BLS).
The department does not transport patients to hospitals. This is done by Rural Metro Medical Services, a commercial service. Ambulances are dispatched by ADI (Ambulance Dispatch & Inspection), which work hand in hand with the fire department. Ambulances are dispatched to all alarms of fire as well as Level 1 Hazmat responses.
The Erie County S.M.A.R.T. (Specialized Medical Assistance Response Team) aids the fire department on bus accident calls, MCI's, and Hazardous Materials Incidents. S.M.A.R.T. is staffed by ER doctors from the Erie County Medical Center which allows for quick MD access to patients.
The Buffalo Fire Department has been looking again into providing their own ambulance service as well as implementing a revamped Squad company that would be an ALS flycar to assist the commercial ambulance service at peak times, but so far those talks are preliminary.
Hazmat calls are specialized responses handled by specific crews in the BFD. The crew of Engine 3, where Hazmat 1 is now quartered, mans the specialized truck on all Level 1 Hazmat Responses as well as simple spill calls. If Engine 3 is unavailable, the crew of Rescue 1 will respond with Hazmat 1. The Buffalo Fire Department also responds to Hazmat calls for the Town of Elma which is in the eastern suburbs. Elma, home to companies such as Motorola, Moog, signed a contract a couple of years ago with the City of Buffalo to provide Hazmat response in the event of an emergency.
Buffalo on average battles a structure fire once a day. The city is heavily laden with wooden balloon style framed buildings, multiple vacant warehouses and industrial buildings. In some cases these structures are just inches apart and since many are vacant they are very attractive for arsonists and firebugs. The city has begun a process to demolish the over 10,000 vacant structures. The city in conjunction with several city departments has begun marking vacant structures with a uniform system. Any structure marked with a red square (city inspector) or yellow square (fire dept) means an interior attack, if needed, is safe to enter. However structures marked with a square of either color with an X in the middle mean that the structure is unsafe and an interior attack is ill advised and only an exterior attack is warranted.
Buffalo's Arson Investigation Unit is one of the busiest arson squads in the country. Buffalo's Fire Marshals are armed firefighters invested with the powers of arrest. They respond to all structure fires when requested by the command officer as well as investigate small fires to determine if it was accidental or an arson was committed. They were quartered out of Engine 20 (Fireboat) on Ohio Street but have moved into Engine 2's quarters at Elmwood and Virginia.
The BFD has seen much restructuring within the ranks during the past decades with the population in the city dwindling from a high of 600,000 in the 1950s to less than 292,000 in 2006. Since 1994, the Fire Department has disbanded six engine companies (10,13,16,18,24 and 30), four ladder companies (1,9,11 and 12), and a heavy rescue company (2). However, the Fire Department still uses some of its closed firehouses. Engine 18 (Annex 18) on Fillmore Avenue is used by the Training Bureau as an offsite location.
Engine 10 (Annex 10) on Ganson Street is used as a HazMat office, storage for reserve apparatus, as a well as a Haz Mat Training site. BFD is maintaining Annex 10. Engine 24 on Leroy Avenue has been heavily vandalized since it was closed as an active firehouse. However it is utilized as a storage facility for the various support trailers as well as home of the department's spare Rescue, old Rescue 1. B-56's old SUV is quartered along with the old Shop Van.
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