Fire chief to enter heated debate

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BY DEENA WINTER / Lincoln Journal Star

Jon Camp remembers exactly what time it was — 12:15 in the morning.

He and the rest of the Lincoln City Council had listened to hours of testimony about whether the city should keep its ambulance service privatized or let the fire department take it over.

And then, at 15 minutes after midnight, the councilwoman next to him, Coleen Seng, reached into her purse, pulled out a crumpled piece of paper and read it: “I hereby move that the city take over the ambulance service.”

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Niles Ford

Niles Ford

The city hasn’t stopped talking about its firefighters and ambulances since that 4-3 council vote in 2000.

On paper, the firefighters’ proposal to take over the ambulance service looked good, said Camp, a businessman. Except for one fatal flaw: “They don’t know how to run a business.”

His opposition to the takeover- and frequent criticism of Lincoln Fire & Rescue since — has made him a pariah among firefighters.

Firefighters may have won the battle, but the war seems to have no end in sight. Entering the fray soon will be the city’s new fire chief, Niles Ford, named Friday by Mayor Chris Beutler. He begins Oct. 1.

Since the voter-approved takeover, the ambulance service has lost more than $1 million and owes the city more than $1 million, although this year it began to pull itself out of the red with the help of substantial rate increases.

Camp still keeps a pro-privatization yard sign in his Haymarket Square office. Featuring the image of a Rural Metro ambulance, the red and blue sign urges people to “VOTE YES.”

Camp is thinking about having the sign framed.

He’s never been shy about questioning how much the city spends on firefighters, paramedics, fire stations and firetrucks.

The way he sees it, improved building construction and codes and sprinkler systems and fire prevention have reduced the number of fires nationally, so the city ought to scale back spending.

He says we don’t need as many fire stations and firefighters as we used to. We send gas-guzzling, quarter-million-dollar firetrucks to minor incidents when a couple of paramedics would do. We put too many firefighters on each firetruck.

Indeed, statistics provided by the fire department show the number of fires in Lincoln has dropped 78 percent since 1978, despite the city’s growth, while the number of fire department employees has increased 24 percent.

It’s time to reduce staffing on firetrucks to three firefighters, Camp says. “They over-deploy personnel and equipment.”

This year during budgeting, he planned to propose a $500,000 cut to the fire department. By the time he made a formal motion, he’d reduced it to $250,000. Ultimately, he compromised to $100,000, but that was still enough to incense his fellow councilmen, Dan Marvin and Jonathan Cook.

They accused him of proposing deep cuts because he’s had a vendetta against the department since his side lost the ambulance battle.

Before it was over, Camp was calling for an apology from Cook for his “tirades” and threatening to have him censured by the council.

He won’t get one. Cook says that until this latest “crazy cut” proposal, he tried to hold his tongue when Camp made controversial statements.

“He’s said many outrageous things,” Cook said. “Usually, most of us ignore those things. We just say, ‘Well, that’s Jon Camp being Jon Camp.’ But it reaches a point where it is having a real effect on the fire department and the policies of the city. I think it’s irresponsible language.”

He and Camp were both elected in 1999, and Cook says Camp has been on a mission to tear down the fire department since the ambulance takeover.

“It’s nearly eight years later since that vote. I guess I’m wondering, ‘Does he ever move on?’”

Councilman says it’s his job to ask questions

Firefighters may be among the most beloved public servants nationwide, but Camp has not been shy about questioning everything from their salaries and benefits to work schedules, their fitness program, grocery shopping, work injury claims and their roles during national emergencies.

Over the course of a two-hour interview last week, he expressed disdain over a recent situation in which a fire captain on sick leave recovering from a broken collarbone rode a bicycle across the state as a tribute to the department’s fitness program.

He lamented multiple costly work injury claims by firefighters who got hurt while lifting weights or playing basketball or volleyball.

He mentioned that firefighters’ schedules give them so much time off they often have second jobs. He noted the department tried to get a new fire station built by falsely claiming the Airport Authority was evicting them.

“I was taught in law school to ask questions,” Camp said, “and that’s what I do.”

Cook says Camp cherry-picks such incidents to embarrass the department. Rather than address the issue with city officials, Cook says, Camp rants and raves to the media.

Fewer firefighters per truck

Camp has a lot of opinions about the fire department. Among them:

* The city should stop using “1890 methods” to fight fires.

* Not all calls require a cavalry. He questions the need for so many fire and ambulance personnel to respond to certain calls. He says people sometimes remark on the high number of firefighters that respond to minor incidents.

* Car fires could be doused by police officers or firefighters using fire extinguishers.

* Firetrucks should carry three firefighters, rather than the four recommended by national guidelines and preferred by the department.

*  The fire department is proud of the fact that 22 percent of 134 cardiac arrest patients were revived by Lincoln firefighters/paramedics last year and survived. But Camp suggests the city devotes too many resources toward saving these people, considering “80 percent are dead-on-arrival.”

* When fire officials warn that fewer resources would hurt response times and endanger people, Camp has been known to say things such as, “Life is fatal.”

* The city should have the flexibility to try having firefighters work, say, 12 hours during which they do not sleep rather than the 24-hour shifts now used. Perhaps some stations could be closed for 12 hours a day, he says.

It’s time to face the facts, Camp says: “We don’t have fires today.”

Of 646 fires in Lincoln last year, he says, 20 to 30 were major fires.

“Buildings are made much better,” he says.

Fire union chief defends department

Dave Engler, head of the local firefighters union, said the number of fires is down nationally, but the number of structure fires has remained relatively steady in Lincoln, and this year property losses because of fires are up considerably — in part due to a large church fire.

Engler may agree with Camp’s assertion that the fires that do occur are usually caused by human recklessness. “There are three causes of fire: men, women and children,” Engler said.

But fires today are much more dangerous than years ago, he says, because buildings are more lightweight and fires burn more rapidly.

“We have less time to put them out before construction failures,” Engler said.

He says he has offered to show Camp what firefighters do.

“I’d love to be able to show him why we do what we do and what we do, but every time we’ve invited him, he’s failed to show up. He doesn’t want to know the facts.”

Rather than staff fire stations full force 24 hours a day, Camp says the city should use “system status management” to allocate resources. Calls are prioritized so if workers are busy with a true emergency, “somebody with a broken leg can sit there for two hours,” he said.

“We’re sending nuclear bombs to squash molehills in some cases.”

Engler says the city already does that. And he notes that people who call 911 expect good service.

“The fire department is an insurance policy. You hope you never have to use it, but we’re there if you need it. When you call, you want an adequate level of service.”

Role of firefighter is changing across country

Even if there are fewer fires, every major city needs a fire department with enough strategically located stations to get firefighters to house fires within eight minutes in order to rescue people. You might as well get your money’s worth and have those firefighters fill multiple roles, including emergency medical service, Engler said.

Camp has called the fire department “an ambulance service that occasionally fights a fire.” Indeed, many fire departments have evolved into emergency responders who deal with hazardous materials, explosions, accidents of all kinds.

That’s why not long after the fire department took over the ambulance service, it changed its name to Lincoln Fire & Rescue.

“We’re not an ambulance service that occasionally fights fires,” Engler said. “We’re an emergency service organization.”

A fire engine and ambulance respond to 911 calls because there are more fire engines and stations in Lincoln than ambulances, and they can get there faster.

Fire engines are staffed with at least one paramedic, and they have an average response time of 3.2 minutes. Interim Fire Chief Danny Wright says that number is creeping up because the city is growing. The national guideline is 4 minutes or less.

Engler says it’s not unusual for fire engines to respond to medical incidents. “That’s the way it’s done all over the United States.”

However, some cities are trying to cut costs by finding other ways to avoid sending trucks and ambulances to minor incidents.

Firefighter unions often fight attempts to staff firetrucks with fewer than four firefighters by citing the National Fire Protection Association’s standards for fire and ambulance deployment, which recommend a minimum of four.

They usually don’t mention that the standards were the result of an unprecedented six-year push by the International Association of Fire Fighters. Members of the fire union joined the NFPA — whose members included fire chiefs, consultants, manufacturers, legislators and architects — in huge numbers and packed the 2001 NFPA annual meeting with members from across the country and Canada, providing more than enough votes to sweep the standards into passage.

So many attended that it set a record for the largest meeting of IAFF union members at any event in the union’s 84-year history.

Critics said the union was just trying to create more jobs and union members, but the IAFF said it would save the lives of both firefighters and citizens.

Even with the standards — which provide ammunition for lawsuits if firefighters are killed in the line of duty — the role of firefighters has evolved as fires become fewer.

Camp says the fight to take over Lincoln’s ambulance service is playing out in other cities. Firefighters often promise — as they did in Lincoln — to deliver the ambulance service “better, faster, cheaper.”

It’s all part of the union’s legislative agenda to keep firefighters’ jobs secure, Camp says. He says the fire union uses age-old scare tactics everywhere to protect jobs, claiming cuts will endanger firefighters and citizens.

It’s all a smoke screen, he says, to obscure the real issue: We don’t need as many firefighters as we used to. But understandably, they want to hold onto their jobs.

Which, by the way, he adds, are very good, high-paying jobs. Lincoln firefighters make an average of more than $56,000 a year. So many people want the jobs, Camp says, that applicants fill The Cornhusker ballroom when there are openings.

Engler notes that while a recent Omaha study indicated Lincoln firefighters are well-paid, it didn’t take into account the entire compensation package. He said the union enforces contracts and tries to ensure that Lincoln provides the same level of service other cities do.

“We’re not looking to grow our membership, we’re not looking to save jobs,” Engler said. “It’s based on the need of the community.”

The union head notes that despite Camp’s considerable ability to get his message out — particularly on local like-minded radio shows — he hears little of that rhetoric when he’s wearing the badge on the street.

Most people are very grateful when he shows up.

“Obviously, he’s got an issue with the fire department,” Engler said of Camp. “He doesn’t believe that public employees should have a say in politics. Councilman Camp has created a perception that we are more than what we are. He wants to make it look like we’re running the city.”

Reach Deena Winter at 473-2642 or dwinter@journalstar.com.