BOX 341 
CITIZENS FIRE ACADEMY Est. 2002 Welcome to the information page designed with the IFDCFA Alumni in mind.
We called this page “ Box 341” because this was the fire response box for the Fire Administration building, which is where all of the information about your Irving Fire Department comes from. Here we hope to be able to keep all of you more up to date on IFD events, fires, statistics, equipment, personnel, and anything else that seems interesting to report. November 21, 1980 Las Vegas, Nevada, 84 dead. From the 07/08 Annual Report In fiscal year 2007 to 2008 your Irving Fire Department; had 15,269 fire/rescue responses of which there were 13,811 EMS responses all with an average response time of 4min. 36 sec. and an average number of alarms per day of 41.83. Fire loss was $8,836,527 ($2,506,230 in private residence loss) with one civilian fire death, 2 civilian fire injuries, and 84 fire fighter injuries. 10,866 fire inspections were made, 6,965 fire and life safety hazards were corrected, 1,587 plans were reviewed, 123 fire investigations were made, 1,287 educational programs were presented with 29,645 people attending, and 688 fire drills were witnessed. The largest number of fire department responses was between 5 and 6 PM, and the day of the week with the most responses was Monday. The most loss was in January of 2008 with $2,446,145.
Also in 2007 - 2008 your Irving Fire Department accomplished the following; Implement ePCR System for patient and treatment information in a digital format to save on labor cost and increase ambulance billing collections, Increase staffing levels at Station 8, purchase Fire-Rescue boat for Lake Carolyn, implement Bike Paramedic program, implement Tactical Paramedic program, New Daily uniforms for fire fighters, replace extrication tools on 4 trucks, maintain fire and ambulance response times of less than 5 minutes, replace 2 ambulances with new apparatus, purchase new engines 4 and 7, purchase new Rescue vehicle, replace engines 1 and 11, enhance Honor Guard program, implement new rescue tools on 11 engines, replace 4 sets of rescue air bags. From the State Fire Marshal’s office “Fires in Texas 2007”
(The State of Texas Fire Marshal’s Office is always at least one year behind in reporting) In 2007 a fire occurred every 7↓minutes, a residential fire occurred every 32↓minutes, two fire deaths occurred in a residence every week, there was $867↓ in property loss from fires every minute, $533↑ in residential property loss every minute. The month with the most fires was December (8,959). Most fires occurred between 12 PM and 4 PM. Fireworks caused 626↓fires in 2007. Of the causes that are known, Cooking is the number one residential cause state wide with 4,308↑, causing over $8↑ million in loss. The Dallas / Ft. Worth area (Region 3) led the state with 25.5% of all fires reported in Texas with a total of 5,303 fires in 2007. Most fatal residential fires were from heating. Out of the 16,398 ↓ residential fires in 2007, 3,558↓ smoke alarms were present and operated, however, in 3,834 residential fires there were NO smoke alarms present at all. In 2007 there were 79↓ civilian fatalities in residential fires; most of them were males 65 and over years of age. In 2007 there were 683 Fire Service injuries and 2 Fire Service deaths. More “Fires in Texas 2006” information can be obtained at http://www.tdi.state.tx.us/fire/fmtexfir.html#firesbook . Note: ↑indicates an increase over the previous year, ↓indicates a decrease from the previous year. July 24, 2008 the Irving City Council approved the purchase of two new fire engines. These engines will replace engine 4 and engine 7 when they arrive. These engines will be Crimson-Spartan engines just like the last two ordered. They will have; a 1500 GPM pump, a comprehensive safety air bag system, LED lighting system, On-Spot ice/snow chain system, dual rear view camera system, top operator panel walkway, metal diamond tread plate hose bed cover, and a Knight Light Tower remote system. These two engines are now in the final stages of acceptance inspections and should be delivered November 15, 2009. The City Council approved the puchase of a compact all-terrain ambulance unit that will be utilized during special events. The new truck to replace Truck 2, a 103 ft. Crimson Aerial Quint should be delivered January 31, 2010. The heavy rescue apparatus to replace the Technical Rescue van is due on January 31, 2010. Two new ambulances are on order and both should be here by January 31, 2010.
Applications to attend any future Citizens Fire Academy class, (Fall 2009 is now full) Spring 2010 or beyond, can be found on the Irving Fire Department web site or can be requested at (972) 721-3695. The Citizens Fire Academy is open to anyone that is 18 years of age or older and a citizen of Irving or works in Irving and is free to attend. 164 people have graduated from the Irving Fire Department Citizens Fire Academy as of 2008. Irving Fire Department Citizens Fire Academy Class # 16 will graduate on November 14th, 2009, congratulations to all!
FYI: Of the 306(+/-) members of your Irving Fire Department; 231 have 10 or more years of experience, of those 231; 187 have 15 or more years of experience, of those 187; 148 have 20 or more years of experience, and of those 148; 25 have 30 or more years of experience, and of those 25; 8 have 35 or more years of experience, and of those 8; 2 have 40 or more years of experience and of those two, only one has 50 or more years of experience, Captain "Shakey" Holder (E1B) with 53 years. From the NFPA Estimates show that there were 1,148,800 firefighters in the U. S. in 2007. Of those 323,350 (28%) were career firefighters. 35.9% of career firefighters were ages 30-39, 31.6% were ages 40-49, 16.5% were under age 30, and 16.1% were age 50 and up. There are an estimated 30,185 fire departments in the U.S. Of these 2,263 (7.5%) are all career departments with no volunteers. The all career fire departments protect 45.4% of the U.S. population.
Estimates on the number of apparatus and stations in the U.S. for 2005-2007 indicate that there were 68,050 pumpers (engines), 6,750 aerial apparatus (trucks), 74,350 other suppression apparatus, and 51,950 fire stations. Battalion Chief Dick Grigsby retired from your Irving Fire Department on July 31, 2009 after 30 years of service to the City of Irving. A reminder to all IFD Citizens Fire Academy graduates. Please come to the ICFAAA meetings and join the association if you can. Help support your fellow graduates, your community and your Irving Fire Department.
Meeting dates and locations:
November 12, 2009 at Station 9
December 10, 2009 at Station 8 ICFAAA elections were held at the April 2009 meeting. The President of the ICFAAA is Wally Banks, the VP is Ken Johnstone, the Secretary is Carrye Johnstone, the Treasurer is Larry Lane, and the Historian is Darcy Neal. The new ICFAAA official web site is now up and running. Visit it at www.icfaaa.org. DON’T FORGET TO TEST YOUR SMOKE ALARMS EACH MONTH. 2009 Fire Prevention Week Theme 
2008 Fire Prevention Week Theme 
2007 Fire Prevention Week Theme 
"Reproduced from NFPA's Fire Prevention Week Web site, www.nfpa.org." UP COMING EVENTS; November 14 - CFA #16 Graduation.
Questions or comments contact, Mike Harris at (972) 721-3695, mharris@ci.irving.tx.us. |
