A 1991 Pierce fire engine the Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory has been using for training will be donated to the Macy Volunteer Fire Department.
Fire Chief Brian Mayo told the WWFT board at their meeting Tuesday, “This is our engine that sits out at the training facility, which is really the wastewater treatment plant with our facility behind it.”
The truck failed its pump test and “has really been put out to pasture,” he said. There’s really not a whole lot of value to it.
Mayo and WWFT attorney Andrew Grossnickle discussed the truck and how to dispose of it properly. It was offered to other entities in the county first as a donation, but no other agencies in the county wanted the truck. When it was offered to other fire departments in the state, Macy Volunteer Fire Department wanted it. Macy had a fire engine “go down,” Mayo said, and they didn’t have the funds to replace their engine because they’re completely volunteer.
“This engine will be a replacement for them,” Mayo said, but they will have to give it some “TLC” to use.
Mayo previously resigned as chief effective May 1. He said Tuesday that when the new administrator comes, the new chief will have the reserve apparatus rotating out at the training facility to fill in for the 1991 Pierce engine that they’re donating to Macy.
Grossnickle confirmed the conversation he had with Mayo, explaining the truck could be donated, first having to be offered to other departments in the county. If there’s no takers in the county, then it could be donated or gifted to any other department in the state of Indiana, and Macy was interested.
He said it probably would be a good idea for each of the units in the fire territory to give their blessing on the donation. The donation will go before the Warsaw Board of Public Works and Safety at 10:30 a.m. Monday.
The WWFT Board approved the donation by a vote of 3-0. Mayor Jeff Grose and City Councilman Mike Klondaris were absent from Tuesday’s meeting.
In his report, EMS Chief and CARES (Community Assistance, Resources, Emergency Services) Director Chris Fancil told the board that the CARES team had 45 interactions in March.
“Mental health still seems to be the big one as far as what CARES is doing, and then we add into that some substance use as well because, sadly, they go hand-in-hand quite often, so they’re dealing with a lot of things,” he said.
Fancil also pointed out to the board the CIT (Crisis Intervention Team) training that CARES is pushing forward on and being led by Tanya Jackson and Mikaela Bixler, CARES team members.
“Through NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness), we’re trying to do it so that this program gets certified through NAMI so we’re doing a Crisis Intervention Team. We’re starting out with law enforcement in that. That’s going to start the first part of May. They’re going to do a one-week class,” he said.
Warsaw Police Department and Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office are going to send some officers, Fancil stated, as well as jailers, home detention and others.
“What this is, is basically a de-escalation program where we’re going to work with law enforcement folks to start with. Over time, it’ll be open up to all public safety, but we’re going to start with law enforcement on de-escalation dealing with people who are having a mental health crisis,” he explained. “Sadly, our law enforcement folk are seeing a lot more of that, so this should give them some more tools to take when they’re called upon to deal with situations and maybe de-escalate the situation and hopefully end it peacefully and give people the help that they need.”
The Kosciusko County CIT Training is 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 6-10 at the WPD Training Facility, with another session being planned for September. The hope is to do two classes a year and to expand the number of people that can be trained.
In her report to the board, Alicia Mediano, Lutheran EMS director of operations, said they taught 218 people CPR and first aid in February.
“That’s incredible when you start talking about, those are people in your community; those are people that you could be interacting with at the restaurants, at stores; those are people that could be involved in that first response before even a fire department personnel or a first responder would show up in that community, which, obviously, is super important,” she said.
During those CPR and first aid classes, Mediano said they talk about things like stopping bleeding, tourniquets, Narcan and other similar healthcare information that also is important outside of CPR and using an AED.
Along with the 218 people taught CPR and first aid in February, 116 were taught in January for a total so far this year of 334.
As for car seat installations, there were 11 in January and eight in February, which are usual figures for the current time period until about May, Mediano stated.
“These are, in fact, seats that were given away. That does not include the total number of inspections that we do,” she said.
Mayo gave the monthly fire activity report for the WWFT for February, noting of the 265 incidents, 65 (24.53%) were overlapping.
Calls the fire department responded to included the house fire at 757 W. Center St. and a small incident on a Sunday evening at Warsaw Community High School.
In other business, the board approved:
• For the WWFT to host two Dive Rescue International classes in September. The Warsaw Board of Public Works and Safety approved the classes at their last March meeting.
Board member David Allbritten asked Mayo if he had a sense as to how many other agencies may be participating in the classes outside of the fire territory.
Mayo said they usually get a number of participants from Goshen, Elkhart, Fort Wayne and other surrounding areas because they’re good classes and are pretty expensive if a person has to travel out somewhere else to take the classes.
• The travel requests for March through May, which also were previously approved by the Board of Public Works and Safety.
• The operating and equipment replacement funds, which Mayo said didn’t include anything out of the ordinary.