By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post
The Ellis County Commission approved changes to the fire department’s standard operating procedures at Monday’s commission meeting.
Ellis County Director of Fire and Emergency Management Darin Myers said some of the previous procedures were more than 20 years old, noting the changes improve safety measures.
Among those are the two in-two out policy. Myers said when you send a firefighter into an immediately dangerous situation, the policy states you have to send at least two people in and have two people out. An incident commander also has to help run and organize the scene that is not directly involved in the emergency situation.
They also have added new checklists that lay out the requirements.
“It starts from the initial training,” Myers said. “It gives them a certain set of training, what he or she has to qualify on before they can actually respond to an emergency.”
Myers said once the firefighter completes the initial checklist, they can move to driver training checklist, which is individually specific to each truck in the county. These also apply to what each person does when they arrive on scene.
The largest portion of the SOP, according to Myers, is the emergency operations portion, which shows how the six different crews work together if they are all working on one scene.
Myers said it provides a level of safety for all firefighters and “that all fire companies start learning to have an initial response of what they are going to do immediately and then they have the authority adjust that.”
Updating the SOP has been a collaboration among a number of agencies. Myers said all of the fire departments in the county helped draft the changes.
“Unfortunately, we’ve had a lot of fire this year,” Myers said, “so we’ve been able to change it a little bit throughout the year and make it better for us.”
The Ellis Fire Department plans to adopt the procedures and some area mutual aid departments are also looking at adopting them as well.
In other business, the commission voted 2-1 to approve the CIC Annual Peopleware Agreement for $60,265. Computer Information Concepts provides the county’s tax and financial accounting software and support. Commissioner Dean Haselhorst voted against approving the payment. He has consistently voted against payments to CIC because of problems the county has had with it in the past.
The commission got an update on the Courthouse Preservation Work and a preview of a magnet with information about waste services in Ellis County.
They also approved two proclamations, the first recognizes April as Nation County Government Month and the second recognizes Fair Housing Month.
The commission also met in executive session to discuss non-elected personnel matters. No action was taken.