Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 17, 1993 TAG: 9303170387
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
RESPONSE TIMES STUDIED
Roanoke County may develop separate reaction-time standards for emergency calls during early morning hours when most county fire and rescue stations are unstaffed."This is something that hadn't hit us in the head - now it has," Fire Chief Tommy Fuqua said.
County officials have taken a closer look at reaction times since an early morning fire destroyed part of the Holiday Inn-Salem on Feb. 28.
It took nearly seven minutes - more than twice the countywide average - for volunteer firefighters from the nearest station to get a truck en route to the motel.
County officials said the reaction time was acceptable given the circumstances. Officials acknowledged that it generally takes longer for volunteers to get an emergency vehicle en route in the middle of the night because they have to wake up, leave their homes and drive to the station.
Roanoke County's goal is to hold average reaction times under three minutes.
Most county volunteer fire companies do not meet the three-minute goal between midnight and 7 a.m., according to statistics obtained under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.
Only two rescue companies managed to get ambulances en route within three minutes of being notified in the middle of the night, the statistics show.
County officials say they are willing to accept higher reaction times at certain hours when stations are not staffed. The alternative, they say, is to spend millions of dollars a year to pay firefighters to work around the clock.
Under the county's hybrid system, career firefighters staff most stations on weekdays between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. Volunteers are responsible at all other times.
Only two fire stations - Hollins and Clearbrook - require volunteers to be at the station around the clock. As a result, volunteers from those two stations logged the best reaction times between midnight and 7 a.m. for 1992.
The bright side was that reaction times were under three minutes for six of the seven structure fires that were reported during early morning hours in 1992.
County officials have been hesitant to institute a sleep-in policy for volunteers, particularly those in rural areas with a low volume of early-morning calls.
Catawba, for instance, had only three fire calls between midnight and 7 a.m. for all of last year.
County officials had operated on the assumption that it took volunteers longer to react to early morning calls. The computer data requested by the newspaper confirmed their assumptions.
No one was injured in the Holiday Inn fire, but an estimated $750,000 damage was done to the lobby, restaurant and conference rooms.
It took volunteers from Fort Lewis an estimated seven minutes to get a fire truck en route to the 2:45 a.m. blaze.
The fire was out of control by the time firefighters arrived - but not because of the slow reaction time.
Officials say volunteer firefighters never had a chance to stop the blaze because they were not notified until 20 minutes after the motel manager dialed 911. The call went to Roanoke dispatchers instead of Roanoke County.
\ EARLY-MORNING FIRE CALLS IN ROANOKE COUNTY\ AVERAGE TIME FOR VOLUNTEERS TO GET A FIRE TRUCK ON THE WAY TO A FIRE BETWEEN\ MIDNIGHT AND 7 A.M.\ \ STATION NO. OF CALLS REACTION TIME\ Vinton 24 2:54\ Cave Spring 46 2:52\ Catawba 3 4:58\ Hollins 49 2:29\ Mount Pleasant 3 4:11\ Clearbrook 20 1:44\ Bent Mountain 11 7:05\ Fort Lewis 24 3:19\ Mason Cove 18 4:05\ Back Creek 8 2:56\ Read Mountain 4 5:31\ \ SOURCE: 1992 figures