County must address issue of maintaining aging fire-rescue fleet

In Oct. 2003, County Councilman Michael Knapp presented a bill to create a fire chief and significantly change the fire and rescue service in the county.

During the legislative debate, the condition of the fleet of fire engines, ladder trucks and ambulances was cited as an example of why we needed a fire chief. The local fire and rescue departments (LFRDs) took much of the blame for the lack of maintenance despite the fact that the level of effort on maintenance and purchase of apparatus is a direct function of the amount of money allocated in the county-driven budget process. The LFRDs did their best to keep the apparatus in service with the same number of mechanics and the budget dollars as they have had for the past 10 years.

The Office of Legislative Oversight addresses this issue and prepared a report that recommended a substantial increase in maintenance funding and centralization of maintenance resources. There are several recommendations in that report that the LFRDs would like to champion.

First, is to have a standardized maintenance schedule for all fire and rescue apparatus. Second, is to create a centralized repair facility that would handle large and complicated repairs. Third, is to track all repairs and maintenance to apparatus using a centralized computer database. These recommendations will reduce out-of-service time and increase safety of the fire and rescue fleet.

We urge the continuation of the current LFRD mechanics and maintenance bays as an extension of the centralized facility. Locating facilities at the LFRDs will allow units with minor problems to sometimes be repaired while they remain available for calls. In other cases, it will reduce the amount of time personnel must spend shuffling units to gain access to repair services. The central repair facility should be designed to handle major, long-term issues.

The newly appointed fire chief, Tom Carr, does have a positive vision and plan to fix the maintenance issues. As he takes control of the entire fire and rescue service on Jan. 1, we want to pledge our cooperation so that we can end the finger pointing that has made the maintenance issues more difficult to solve.

The Montgomery County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association urge the County Council to adopt Chief Carr's full proposal to address the aging fleet problem. This program must be funded without regard to action on Bill 32-04, EMS Transport Fee, which we oppose.

Kenneth Holden, Rockville

The writer is president of the Montgomery County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association.