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Section Ten: Historical Perspective SECTION TEN: Historical Perspective The evaluation of historical performance is accomplished by looking at data describing actual responses, and answering questions based on that data. Question #1. Is the Eugene Fire and EMS Department meeting its historic response time goals? If not, why not? For a number of reasons the department does not meet the response time goals that were set years ago. First, the goals were originally established as desirable service targets. However, they did not use actual historical performance to determine what was realistically achievable within the available resource base. LCOG conducted a comprehensive Fire Station Location Study for the organization in 1990, and then updated in 1993 and 1998. This information was useful in identifying areas that were underserved, based on response times and travel distances from existing fire stations in Eugene. The findings of these studies and the associated analysis eventually led to the Fire Redeployment Project of the 1990s. That project, in turn, resulted in the closing of three old stations, the construction of two new stations, and the redeployment of existing emergency response resources to provide improved coverage throughout the service area. However, it was assumed, for purposes of the study, that any area in which more than 50% of the calls were reached in 4 minutes or less had adequate coverage. Today we have a clearer definition of standards of coverage. Second, our service area has experienced greatly increasing traffic volume and congestion, which slows emergency response, particularly on certain days and at certain times. In addition, a significant number of traffic calming projects have been installed on Eugene streets. These, too, serve to slow all traffic, including emergency responders. This aspect is discussed in greater detail in Section Three. Finally, and most significantly, the number of calls for service has risen dramatically while the total number of personnel and companies has remained relatively static for more than 20 years. In FY81 the department had 152 paid shift personnel plus volunteers; today it has 156 firefighting FTE. In FY81, it took 45 personnel to staff a 24-hour shift; today we do so with 43 fire fighting personnel plus up to four single-role paramedics. (The current number varies depending on the time of day and number of single-role medics on duty.) In that same time period, the number of calls for service has risen nearly five-fold, from 2,822 in 1981 to 13,350 in 2002 (not including calls for ambulance only). These changes are shown in Figure 10.1 and Table 10.1. Our ability to maintain an adequate level of service over this period is a result of former excess capacity, which is now exhausted, the changes made during the Fire Redeployment Project, and improvements in technology such as traffic signal pre-emption. In addition, we have increased 74