Lexington Fire-Rescue Department, provides fire suppression, Advanced Life Support services, hazardous materials response,and fire prevention/code enforcement activities to the Town of Lexington out of 2 stations with 55 uniformed personnel. Personnel include the Chief, Assistant Chief, four captains (shift commanders) fire prevention inspector, 8 lieutenants, and 40 firefighters, 25 of which are paramedics.

Lexington has a population of 31,000 and is 16.5 square miles and dissected by 19 miles of divided highway. The department responded to 4076 emergencies in 2007, transporting over 1700 individuals to area hospitals. ROLE: To protect the lives and property of the community from emergencies involving fire, medical, hazardous materials, and environmental causes. This mission is achieved through public education, code management, and emergency response. The Chief of the Department also serves as the Emergency Management Director whose responsibilities include providing assistance to the community following natural disasters and other emergencies.

Highlights

2007 continued to be a busy year for the members of the Lexington Fire Department, once again topping the 4000 threshold for call and hitting a new high for transports to the areas hospitals. Additionally, the department has introduced an intense training program, relating to fire suppression, rescue techniques and pitfalls, and EMS procedures.

The Insurance Services Organization (ISO) reviewed the department for the first time in over 20 years; this evaluation included a review of the Town's fire water supply system, the department's communication systems, and finally the fire department staffing, training, and response procedures. The Town maintained its Class 3, a rating maintained by less than 15% of the communities across the country. The department is utilizing this examination to improve its training procedures, equipment and personnel needs.

Two pieces of equipment were finalized with the prospective vendors. Including a replacement for Engine 1, awarded to American LaFrance, to be delivered in April of 2008, and the replacement for Engine 5, awarded to C&S Specialty Inc of Smithfield R.I., this truck to be identified as Forestry 1, and is also to be delivered by April of 2008. Continuing to upgrade the departments Self Contained Breathing Apparatus has been ongoing, and continues, providing for enhanced firefighter safety.

Incidents of Significance

In 2007, the Department responded to 4078 calls. 2632 of the calls were medical emergencies, with 1721 resulting in transportation of one or more patients to a medical facility.

The following is a brief summary of incidents of significance:

January 10: Working fire 317 Katahdin Drive, fire in a large multi unit apartment building, confined to two rooms.

February 24: Second Alarm, Route 2 at the Lincoln line, single-family residence.

May 7: Working fire, 9 Oxbow Road, single-family residence under renovation, fire in the attic.

July 6: Working fire, 48 Solomon Pierce Road, contractor struck the underground electric service while excavating setting off multiple transformer fires.

July 26: Working fire, 20 Ellison Road.

August 8: Working fire, 4 Turnberry Hill Road, kitchen fire.

December 29, 2007: Second Alarm, 549 Marrett Road, single-family residence.

Grants
The Department received a grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for the replacement of the Amkus Rescue tool, providing the Town with two hydraulic rescue tools.

The fire department received a grant from the state Executive Office of Public Safety - Department of Fire Services to continue the Student Awareness of Fire Safety (SAFE) program, in conjunction with the Lexington Public Schools.

A fire equipment grant was received from the Department of Public Safety, and was utilized to purchase training equipment along with putting an additional thermal imaging camera on Engine 2.

Fire Prevention Division

The division has been active with four major construction projects ongoing in town. Avalon at Lexington Hills, which is the old Metropolitan State Hospital site off Concord Avenue, two Starwood Hotels at the former Sheraton Hotel site on Marrett Road and the redevelopment of 300 Patriot Way the former Raytheon site off Spring Street.

The fire prevention division has oversight over all fire protection systems such as sprinkler and fire alarms, which include smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and occupant notification. In addition, fire department access and hydrant locations are critical.

Although the above represents the division's responsibilities over these large projects, the same holds true for smaller construction projects such as tenant space renovations in many of the town's commercial buildings and also residential sites. The division has reviewed 160 building construction plans transmitted to us from the building commissioner's office for building permits. These entire plan reviews ultimately results in fire prevention inspections for compliance with the requirements of the state fire code and the fire protection system requirements in the state building code.

The division has also issued 500 permits in accordance with the state fire code for: the installation of sprinkler and fire alarm systems, oil burners, above and below ground storage tanks for storing flammable and combustible liquids and propane gas and for performing explosive blasting and cutting and welding. For every permit issued there is at least one inspection required to determine compliance with the fire code and any conditions of the fire prevention division.

The department continued the Student Awareness of Fire Education (S.A.F.E.) Program with some reimbursement funding through the state Executive Office of Public Safety-Department of Fire Services. The mission is to enable students to recognize the dangers of fire and more specifically the fire hazards tobacco products pose. This program is administered by trained department personnel and presented to grade one children in the six elementary schools. The objective is to reduce fires, burns and deaths and encourage the children to see fire fighters as role models.

We are presently in the process of converting the municipal telegraph fire alarm system to a radio based reporting system. Many of the red fire alarm boxes you are accustomed to seeing on buildings will be replaced while others will remain and be connected to a radio box. The present boxes transmit a fire alarm from a building directly to the fire and police department dispatch center via either an overhead or underground telegraph line. The telegraph system has its origin in the late 1800's and was introduced in Lexington circa 1910. The new radio box system will transmit an alarm instantaneously to our dispatch center via a radio frequency.

We have approximately 25 radio boxes installed in town at the time of this report, and will be converting the town owned buildings over through the spring of 2008, with completion of the entire radio box system scheduled for July 2008.

Finally, Lieutenant Ken Tremblay has been appointed to the Fire Prevention Division and will assist the assistant chief in performing the functions of the division.

Juvenile Fire Setter Intervention Program

The Juvenile Fire Setter Intervention Program (JFIP) was established through the Middlesex District Attorney's office in 2001. In 2003 the Lexington Fire Department joined the coalition and trained one Firefighter to handle all of the cases that involved youths between the ages of 5 and 16. The fire department works closely with the police department, state police, Department of Social Services, State Fire Marshal's Office, Department of Mental Health, and the Middlesex DA's office in investigating these cases.

Over the course of the last two years the fire department representative has screened over 35 youths for various fire offenses ranging from illegal possession of fireworks to homemade bomb building and detonation. There are as many open cases still pending that have no suspects. The fire department also takes phone calls from concerned parents whose children are involved in this type of risky behavior and urges parents to voluntarily involve the child in the JFIP.

Here is a breakdown of the number of screenings performed over the past few years. Again, there are several open cases for which either no suspects were ever charged or not enough evidence was available to charge suspects that were not included in the screening audit.

2005 2006 2007

3 Cases 7 Cases 18 Cases

Emergency Medical Services

Transports of patients continue to increase, reaching in excess of 1500 for the calendar year. Firefighter-Paramedics now staff the first Rescue-Ambulance on a full-time basis, while the levels of staffing have exceeded the 60% mark for the second Rescue-Ambulance.

During this past year the department applied for and received a license from the Office of Emergency Medical Services to operate if need be an intercept vehicle for ALS operations. This approval will come in handy during special events such as the Towns Patriots Day celebrations, and the 4-th of July festivities in Town.

The level of personnel trained to either the paramedic level or the intermediate level has risen to over 50% of the department. The department has affiliated with Mount Auburn Hospital to provide medical control, along with enhanced supervision and training of our advanced emergency medical corps.

Advanced equipment has been placed in service, which includes a Carbon Hemoglobin detector, which enables the Paramedics to more readily detect, the presence of Carbon monoxide poisoning in patients without the need of an invasive procedure. Further, the updating of our EMS reporting procedures, which include electronic reports and a main hub for them to be stored in, brings us in compliance with new State and Federal reporting requirements.