Editor’s note: Chief Adam K. Thiel says that in these economically difficult times, fire departments need to expand their notions of cooperative agreements.
As our slow economic recovery continues across the United States, there’s a lot of discussion in local and state governments about various shared-services arrangements, mutual-aid agreements, and outright consolidation of fire departments and/or EMS agencies. Many of these efforts can become quite complicated, for both political and financial reasons, and we know that sometimes building a bigger organization doesn’t necessarily equate to better service.
As this story demonstrates, however, there can often be great gains in both efficiency and effectiveness through fairly simple cooperation agreements between neighboring fire departments.
I’ve had the good fortune of working in several states and regions where fire-EMS mutual- and automatic-aid agreements were very strong between jurisdictions that didn’t always cooperate on other matters. In some of those places, the collaboration that has always existed on the fireground is now extending to other areas.
Just like these departments in Pennsylvania, I know fire departments that are doing joint training, writing apparatus and equipment specifications together, and making major capital purchases through joint-purchasing agreements or group-purchasing organizations. Many departments share radio systems and communicate through regional communications centers.
I even know departments with cooperative staffing agreements where firefighters from multiple agencies work in jointly owned fire stations!
Whether or not these types of agreements will work in your community depends on a wide variety of factors, both internal and external to the fire department. But as we continue adjusting to the “new normal,” exploring the range of collaboration options for everything from operational response to group purchasing is probably worth your department’s time.
Stay safe!
