Texas Fire Chief - Spring/Summer 2008 - (Page 31)

Tomball Fire Department: More than the Wet Stuff on the Red Stuff Chief Randy Parr, Tomball Fire Department ounded in 1934, the Tomball Fire Department depended solely on volunteer members to provide fi re, rescue and emergency medical services to its customers. This was possible because most of the community’s residents also worked in the area. As with most of Harris County, growth and progress occurred in the Tomball area and the Department began to experience a lack of members available to respond to emergency calls, especially during the daytime hours. In 1995, the City hired its fi rst paid fi re chief/fi re marshal and administrative assistant. This was followed in 2001 with hiring part-time paid fi refighters and fi re inspectors. Today, the Tomball Fire Department operates as a combination department. Monday through Saturday, the Department is staffed from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. with four paid fi refighters. In addition, the Fire Chief, Assistant Fire Chief, and Fire Marshal, all paid positions, are on duty and available to respond to emergency calls. The Department also employees an Administrative Assistant who divides her time between secretarial duties and public education programs. During the daytime hours, this paid staff is supported by many of the approximately 35 volunteer fi reTEXAS FIRE CHIEF Spring/Summer 2008 F fighters that reside or work in the area. During nighttime hours, the Department is staffed by volunteer members and officers with additional support from the Fire Chief and Assistant Fire Chief. This mixture of paid and volunteer staffi ng is from where the term combination department is derived. Today’s fi re service is much more than just “putting the wet stuff on the red stuff”. Firefighters are being tasked with providing rescue services at motor vehicle accidents, handling hazardous material responses, responding to technical rescue situations involving collapsed buildings or trenches, providing emergency medical services, and responding to terrorists events. In addition we are asking our fi refighters to learn and adhere to a multitude of federal, state and local standards and guidelines, provide public fi re education programs, enforce local fi re codes and ordinances, provide emergency medical services, spend significant hours in training and evaluate existing buildings in order to prepare plans to be used by responders in the event of a fi re or other emergency. Even with all of these tasks, our agency must still perform various equipment inspections and complete an enormous amount of related documentation including: incident 31

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Texas Fire Chief - Spring/Summer 2008

Texas Fire Chief - Spring/Summer 2008 Contents Executive Director’s Report Region Realignment Map Above and Beyond 2007 Conference Highlights ‘Service Above Self’ Texas Commission Implements Southwest Fire Rescue Conference Program Membership Application Who Are Those Guys? Alarms for the Hearing Impaired Recent Calls Index to Advertisers

Texas Fire Chief - Spring/Summer 2008

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