The Southlake Fire Department has presented its 2022 Fire Annual Report, which provides an overview of the hard work and dedication of Southlake Fire staff during the calendar year of 2022.
The Fire Annual Report highlights services provided to Southlake's citizens through emergency response, emergency management, and community risk reduction through fire inspections and fire public education and prevention.
Fire Chief Michael Starr spoke about the amount of experience lost through retirements and the inspiring new leaders that have been promoted. “Although we lost quite a bit of experience to retirement, we continued to enhance our advanced cardiac arrest initiative. “It now shows a 33% cardiac survival rate compared to a 12% national average. This really brings home the "why" of what we do here. To be able to save someone's life, someone's family member, or someone's friend," Starr added.
In the notable achievements, the Department recognized the public education event “It Takes a Village,” where Fire Prevention, Emergency Management, and White Chapel Church partnered to create a fun, resourceful, and educational event that catered to the special needs community.
Another pinnacle is the Department's stance on mental resiliency by entering into a partnership with F1rst to provide training for fire first responders to cope with the mental health and resiliency challenges of a high-stress environment. Lastly, the Office of Emergency Management worked with internal and external stakeholders to update the City's “All Hazards" Emergency Operation Plan. The “all hazards” approach allows the ability to respond to various emergencies varying in scale, duration, and cause.
“As an accredited organization, measures and numbers matter,” says Chief Starr in reference to the 4,071 calls for service in 2022. “We assess how long it takes us to get out of the station, the travel time to a call, and how quickly it was dispatched. These numbers allow us to be successful and show that we are giving the best possible service to our citizens." The report shows that the Department responds to fires within 7.14 minutes and medical calls within 6.23 minutes, 90% of the time. The City of Keller dispatches calls for service within 46 seconds 90% of the time.
The full report can be found online. For more information about Southlake's Fire Department, please visit www.CityofSouthake.com/Fire.
During the September 20 City Council meeting, the Southlake Fire Department, along with City Response Personnel and Mutual Aid Response, were recognized for their recent actions and pre-planning efforts regarding the DalDen Corporation fire.
On August 17, crews responded to a fire incident at 4285 T.W. King Road. The DalDen Corporation is a manufacturing company for hazmat chemical filling and packaging.
Due to the severity of the fire and the presence of chemicals, a total of four alarms were requested. Other resources in use that day include:
Approximately 75 fire personnel arrived at the scene to combat the fire.
“Thanks to the pre-planning process and working with different departments and agencies, the fire was under control within 90 minutes,” Southlake Fire Chief Mike Starr said during the City Council presentation.
The pre-planning process played a significant role in containing the fire at DalDen Corporation. Before firefighters began putting out the fire, crews identified onsite chemicals and investigated how they would respond to water to avoid any reactions. Crews were also able to bring in equipment from Public Works to build dirt damns and stop the flow of hazardous run-off into creeks.
By implementing these procedures, the City and all partners can take precautionary measures and respond to emergencies effectively and efficiently.
“We enhance our response by our mutual aid part of the NEFDA group,” said Chief Starr, “Most of the cities are part of our NEFDA resources, and we trained with them constantly to make sure that we understand their capabilities; they understand our capabilities, and we had those specialty resources.”
“We had everybody from Public Works to PD to the building department,” Chief Starr said. “Our City team really steps up.”
To learn more about the City of Southlake’s Elements for Effective Fire Response, please watch the City Council presentation online.
During the September 20 City Council meeting, the Southlake Fire Department, along with City Response Personnel and Mutual Aid Response, were recognized for their recent actions and pre-planning efforts regarding the DalDen Corporation fire.
On August 17, crews responded to a fire incident at 4285 T.W. King Road. The DalDen Corporation is a manufacturing company for hazmat chemical filling and packaging.
Due to the severity of the fire and the presence of chemicals, a total of four alarms were requested. Other resources in use that day include:
Approximately 75 fire personnel arrived at the scene to combat the fire.
“Thanks to the pre-planning process and working with different departments and agencies, the fire was under control within 90 minutes,” Southlake Fire Chief Mike Starr said during the City Council presentation.
The pre-planning process played a significant role in containing the fire at DalDen Corporation. Before firefighters began putting out the fire, crews identified onsite chemicals and investigated how they would respond to water to avoid any reactions. Crews were also able to bring in equipment from Public Works to build dirt damns and stop the flow of hazardous run-off into creeks.
By implementing these procedures, the City and all partners can take precautionary measures and respond to emergencies effectively and efficiently.
“We enhance our response by our mutual aid part of the NEFDA group,” said Chief Starr, “Most of the cities are part of our NEFDA resources, and we trained with them constantly to make sure that we understand their capabilities; they understand our capabilities, and we had those specialty resources.”
“We had everybody from Public Works to PD to the building department,” Chief Starr said. “Our City team really steps up.”
To learn more about the City of Southlake’s Elements for Effective Fire Response, please watch the City Council presentation online.
As part of the City’s overall commitment to set world-class standards and exceed expectations, the Southlake Fire Department is proud to announce they have been re-accredited through the Commission on Fire Accreditation International (CPSE) by unanimous vote.
The Southlake Fire Department is one of only 10 agencies in the world to complete their fifth cycle of accreditation and is one of only 11 agencies in the state of Texas to be accredited through CPSE.
“It is an honor to receive this type of recognition for the high-performance standards we have set for ourselves,” City of Southlake Fire Chief Michael Starr said. “This is proof of our dedication to be the best and provide superior safety and security services as we protect Southlake.”
In January, assessors from CPSE and the Commission on Fire Accreditation International (CPSE/CFAI) reviewed the Fire Department for compliance with their 10 major categories and 252 performance indicators. Accreditation occurs every five years. The accreditation is a comprehensive self-assessment and evaluation model that enables organizations to examine past, current and future service levels along with internal performance metrics for best practice measures.
The City of Southlake is proud to raise the standard for fire departments around the work with strict application of code and regulation by the highest trained and accredited professionals.
