Westchester Fire Department

Jeffrey LeBega

1199a and 5 Questions completed

Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program
Project Narrative
Grant request to fund multimedia presentation equipment in the area of fire prevention and education, and to develop a Citizens Fire Academy to benefit the residents of the Village of Westchester, Illinois.

The Westchester Fire Department is a career department located eight miles west of the City of Chicago, Illinois. The department employs 30 sworn members and serves a resident population of approximately 17,000 residents. The community is mostly middle class residential, with a light manufacturing area and a large corporate high-rise complex. The population may triple at times during business hours. The Westchester Fire Department responded to over 2400 emergency requests in 2001. The Village of Westchester has two fire stations, geographically positioned to provide optimum response. Our operations include suppression, emergency medical services, technical rescue and hazardous material response and mitigation and the fire prevention and public education bureau. We actively participate in the MABAS box alarm system in Illinois and are members of MABAS Division XX. MABAS Division XX serves a geographical location directly west of Chicago, Illinois, from O’Hare International Airport on the north, The Tri-State Expressway Interstate 294 on the west, The Village limits of Westchester on the south and Rte. 171 or First Avenue on the east. This area is known regionally as the suburban west Cook County area. The department operates one ladder company (quint), and an engine company from its headquarters station located at 10240 W. Roosevelt Rd. and one engine company and one MICU Ambulance company from its station two located at 10760 Cermak Rd.

On September 11th 2001, the fire service and the nation became acutely aware of how vulnerable we have become. One of the resultant effects of the September 11th tragedies was President Bush’s initiative to create the Citizens Corps. This organization would help prepare the public to become self-sufficient in times of emergency. The Westchester Fire Department realizes the importance of this effort and would like to create the first Citizens Fire Academy in our immediate response area. This Academy would give the public, at no cost, the basic understanding and education to become self-sufficient. By creating awareness of the fire and emergency medical services and basic emergency operation procedures to the target group, they may find themselves relying less on the emergency services, and assisting others with minor emergencies. The basis of understanding the fire service in and of itself leads to behavior modifications that create safe thinking. We ask that FEMA recognizes our efforts and provides assistance to the Westchester Fire Department in providing necessary funding. We propose to purchase multimedia projection equipment, a digital camera and sound system, to improve our public education efforts, and necessary supplies to facilitate the Citizens Fire Academy, as we wish to provide for high quality education for our community.

The grant outlines two areas that require attention prior to instituting the Citizens Fire Academy. Both areas will assist the program instructors and participants. The first area is the addition of multimedia equipment to our training room. The department is seeking funding to purchase one LCD projector, one digital camera capable of still and video streaming (MPEG), and one public address system with wireless microphones. The introduction of this equipment will allow for the instructors to present information in a format that is easily seen and understood. The LCD projector is capable of projecting digital images from a computer, specifically PowerPoint. The LCD projector we seek to purchase is portable, allowing our public educators to bring their shows on the road. Programs such as NFPA’s “Remember When” for seniors, the USFA’s “Get Out and Stay Alive” for graduating high school seniors, utilizes a PowerPoint program. Many other programs we deliver, such as fire extinguisher training and high- rise office safety would be presented using this medium. Video and other applications can be fed through the projector enhancing the student’s ability to learn, and comprehend the principles taught. The use of digital projection equipment and programs has been accepted as an industry standard in presentation media. The use of a digital camera with the capability of recording MPEG format video can provide immediate evaluation of performance objectives covered in the academy. The portable public address system will give the class the ability to hear the instructors clearly when performing outside evolutions, where background noises may cause interference. The multimedia equipment can be utilized at open houses, the creation of department brochures of information and other operational goals.

The listed equipment, although primarily used for the public education division, can also be utilized by the training division, in their quest to provide a high standard of instruction to the members. While the equipment would be located in the Westchester Fire Department training room, the members of MABAS Division 20, specifically the fire departments of our two immediate surrounding communities of Broadview and Hillside, would benefit greatly by the addition of multimedia equipment, as those departments along with Westchester, regularly share training and community efforts.

The second part of the grant request focuses on the Citizens Fire Academy participants. We would like to provide them with specific uniform shirts, to promote the program and give the participants a sense of belonging to the group. This alone can produce great group cohesion and pride. The office equipment necessary is in the form of individual student binders, compiled with all class outlines, performance objectives etc.

The addition of a Citizens Fire Academy to Westchester’s public education efforts promotes community awareness in the fire service, as well as community involvement in self-sufficiency. The recent events in our nation have directed the fire service to seek ways to help our customers in new and creative ways. A recent community inventory has recognized the need for continued binding and cooperation with the various adult based organizations, service clubs and local groups. It is by including these groups in our departmental missions, we anticipate an overall reduction of direct and indirect fire losses. This is the primary area of benefit our community would realize.

The department will benefit by having the support of local government, various service organizations and community groups, by creating a favorable and positive relationship within the community. The multimedia equipment can also facilitate other operational goals of the department. The training division would benefit the greatest, allowing for the use of various computerized training supplements. This would benefit the firefighters of Westchester, and the surrounding communities; as other departments in MABAS Division 20, and the regional Emergency Medical Services System on a monthly basis utilize our training room.

Our division of fire prevention and education have received multiple awards for fire safety, such as those from the Northern Illinois Fire Sprinkler Advisory Board, for our ordinances requiring sprinkler systems in all new non-residential construction. We are quite proud of our efforts to educate children, and have received awards from the National Fire Safety Council for those efforts. We have purchased and maintained a Children’s Fire Safety House, and it has been in service for over 10 years. Annually over 2,500 children visit the trailer and receive quality education from our staff of fire and life safety educators. The area this grant addresses is the adult population of our community. We have realized that it is a paramount effort to target and include adults into our programs. It is a known fact that people, and their actions, are the cause of fire and our goals have been to modify those behaviors to create safe thinking individuals. By the introduction of the Citizens Fire Academy, the adult population is targeted. The involvement of classroom and practical applications of objectives, and the utilization of effective, professional media presentation should attract and keep the adult learners attention throughout the program.

Attempts at funding various public education programs have been attempted, but the rising cost of operations, manpower and equipment has left our public education efforts under funded. This is a recognized area of concern from the United States Fire Administration. Over the past four years, our annual operational budget averages 1.9 million dollars. Of that, the public education budget averages only $1,200.00. A majority of that funding provides educational materials for children. The adult population is a necessary target group that we wish to address, unfortunately the current budget does not address the additional needs outlined in this request.

The Citizens Fire Academy would run twice annually with a class size of 20-25 persons. This group would meet weekly for three hours and would receive education and awareness in many areas of service that the Westchester Fire Department provides. At no time would the education allow for those to operate in emergency situations, but would allow them the ability to understand and anticipate the actions of the emergency services. Topics of instruction would include, but not be limited to the history of the fire service and the department, basic first aid and CPR, Fire Suppression (Extinguisher Training), Fire Prevention and Education (understanding codes and standards, participation in public education events), Automobile Extrication, (hands on), Technical Rescue and Hazardous Materials (Awareness). The members of the class would have supervised hands on participation, and will witness actual fire suppression in a live burn tower. After completion of the program the students would be allowed to ride along for a four -hour tour of duty prior to graduating. A requirement of their graduation is simple, future participation in the various public education events that the Westchester Fire Department Offers.

The program evaluation would be initially completed by the use of class and instructor evaluations, along with the comments and suggestions from outside observers. Their knowledge and input would be valuable to the future development of the program. Overall reduction in direct and indirect fire losses of 25% are reasonable to expect, and would be measured by annual NFIRS compiled statistics. We anticipate the program to continue initially for three years.

We ask that the United States Fire Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency recognizes the efforts of the Westchester Fire Department in the area of public education, and awards the grant to fund multimedia presentation aids, and supplemental equipment to create and maintain the communities first Citizens Fire Academy.

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