Jefferson Fire Fighters Association

DRUG TESTING

Fire personnel have been subjected to random, post accident, probable cause and pre-employment drug testing since the early 1990's and are not opposed to mandatory drug testing as Jefferson Parish administrators falsely suggest.

Lawsuits filed by Jefferson Parish Fire Fighter's Association opposed unannounced changes in the drug testing policies and Jefferson Parish's medication reporting policies.

Fire employees were being ordered to report all medications (prescription and over the counter) to unqualified line supervisors in violation of privacy rights.

Some were facing possible termination because they were not aware of this newly enacted rule change. Fire personnel have simply demanded that medications be reported directly to the Jefferson Parish physician.

Fire personnel recently discovered Jefferson Parish had not been following some federal testing guidelines for the past 10 years.

The program director admitted under oath that she is not very familiar with all of the required guidelines.

This is the same program that has caused injured fire personnel to be denied pain relievers during emergency room visits until they had been drug tested.

Fire personnel have been recently relieved from duty and placed on sick leave for taking DayQuil, a common over the counter, cold medicine.

SAFETY ISSUES

We are currently using a radio system that is dangerously flawed.

Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Norman uses the same radio system with an extremely high transmission success rate and has offered his office's assistance and expertise, but to date CAA Deano Bonano has declined his help.

Primarily, the system suffers from an echo which renders transmissions difficult to understand; in some locations the radios are totally inoperable. 

In the Lakeway Buildings, the new radio system required repeated attempts, in addition to physical movement throughout the buildings, to facilitate a successful broadcast. Additionally, at East Jefferson Hospital problems were encountered and radio broadcast were totally unsuccessful. This presents a danger on the fire scene because vital messages may not be received or transmitted.

As we learned during the 9/11 attacks, the lack of dependable communication resulted in massive loss of life to both fire personnel and the public, alike.

The majority of our firefighters have no radio equipment available to them during firefighting operations, which renders them incapable of communicating with incident commanders.

Until recently, we had several fire trucks that were not equipped with mobile radios compatible with the new radio system.

In response to our concerns about the faulty radio system, which were reported to CAA Bonano prior to its full implementation, Mr. Bonano simply suggested we could use hand signals when the radios aren’t functioning properly.

Common sense dictates that hand signals and intermittent radio transmissions are not acceptable, and they are not a substitute for a reliable communication system.

CAA Deano Bonano continues to report the radio system fully operational, and a simple investigation would prove it is not.

Adding to the inefficiency of operations on the fire scene is the lack of SOP’s and SOG’s to provide standards for personnel to instinctively follow, which should be expected of any Class I Fire Department.

Firefighters use air packs which allow them to enter contaminated atmospheres.  This life saving equipment should never be neglected.

Air packs are required by law to be serviced and tested annually, yet haven’t been tested for two years. Interim Superintendent Saunders has failed to address this issue in the amount of time he has been in charge of the Fire Department.  In the past our maintenance personnel were trained and certified to perform these tests and repairs; however, Mr. Saunders refused to have them certified until late February of 2008, when a class was finally offered in New Orleans.

The Property Insurance Association of Louisiana (PIAL) evaluates all fire departments to establish their insurance class ratings.

The East Bank Consolidated Fire Department is required by the (PIAL) to maintain a minimum of 1spare ladder truck.  The former spare ladder truck was purchased by the East Bank Consolidated Fire Department in 2001, at a cost of over $500,000.00.  In January 2008, our spare ladder was placed in service in Terrytown, leaving the Eastbank Consolidated Department without a spare ladder.  Fire administrators just purchased a new ladder truck that cost the Eastbank Consolidated Fire Department an estimated $1,000,000.00, making our oldest ladder truck purchased in 2000, the spare ladder, replacing the one we gave away.  The loss in (PIAL) points for this spare truck could lower our rating.

Prior to the delivery of a new ladder truck in October 2008, when one of our ladder trucks was out of service, it was replaced with a spare engine, instead of a ladder, which did not comply with (PIAL) requirements for our community.

The Eastbank Consolidated Fire Department purchased and installed on-board computers in all fire apparatus and chief’s vehicles. The computers are not operational. They lack the ability to communicate wirelessly. On-board computers are common in the fire service and can be beneficial, yet after incurring the expense for the equipment, Jefferson Parish administrators refuse to make them operational.

The fire scene personnel accountability system was purchased and never placed in service. The system is now obsolete, has bad batteries, and needs to be refurbished or replaced.  When fire personnel were recently trained on this system, the trainer readily admitted that the antiquated system would probably never be placed into service.

With the introduction of red light cameras, Interim Superintendent Saunders threatened disciplinary action and enforcement of driving regulations without considering minimum safe stopping distances as required by IFSTA fire apparatus guidelines. Many of our apparatus are not designed for legal street use and require extended safe stopping distances.  

MANPOWER

Currently, there are more than 19 budgeted firefighter positions that have not been filled because  recruit classes had not been conducted since 2005. Vacancies that are not filled within 30 days are in violation of Fire Civil Service Law. The current 17 candidate rookie class is not scheduled to graduate until February 2009. 

Fire trucks are frequently placed out of service due to manpower shortages. There are no provisions to call in overtime personnel when needed to maintain the manpower levels our Class 1 Fire Insurance Rating was based on. In the fire service, injuries to fire personnel increase as manpower decreases, which causes additional manpower shortages. Due to the unprecedented amount of vacancies and injuries, annual leave is frequently denied, exacerbating the unauthorized use of sick leave. 

NFPA Standards 1710 (minimum staffing) and 1071 (emergency vehicle technician) have been ignored and need to be addressed.