By David Slone
Times-Union
WARSAW — Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory continues to see a high percentage of overlapping incidents.
Chief Joel Shilling told the WWFT board, Wednesday, May 8, they had 258 responses in March.
“I will note that 80 incidents were overlapping, so that is 31%. As I went through them, the overlap could be medical calls, could be a fire call. There were some of those where we had depleted all of our stations at the same time,” he said.
Councilman Mike Klondaris said there were a lot of overlaps.
Board member David Allbritten asked if it was a little higher than normal.
EMS Chief and Community Assistance, Resources, Emergency Services Director Chris Fancil said about a year ago they really started tracking the overlaps and it was around 25-28%. Under previous Chief Brian Mayo, Fancil said it was consistently about 30 to 33% month after month.
“As chief said, we’re not crazy, but that’s a lot of the time if you do the math on it,” Fancil said.
Shilling also noted the WWFT assisted Pierceton and Burket fire departments on calls in March, and received assistance from Leesburg and Winona Lake on one structure fire and assistance from Winona Lake on another fire.
The department trained for 736 hours in March on technical rescue, haz-mat, basic EMT, C.A.R.E.S. team building and some drone training.
“When it comes to the community outreach, we are in the schools for the month of March and April. … We do our Firefighter of the Day program in the fall and then we do our grade-specific programs in the springtime, so we were in the schools doing that as well,” Shilling reported.
In her monthly report to the board, Alicia Mediano, Lutheran EMS director of operations, said Lutheran EMS had a total of 455 calls in March. They also had 184 people trained in CPR in March, with an additional 10 car seats installed within LEMS’ total coverage area.
“That really shows the difference and the impact that we’re making within the community, outside of just even the 911 calls,” she said.
Call response has stayed pretty consistent, she continued, in regards to getting to the scene and not just quickly but appropriately, taking the patients to where they want to go and transporting them appropriately.
Mediano said they are getting busier earlier in the day and staying busier later in the day. She said that’s consistent with the weather getting warmer because people get out moving faster in the day and stay out longer, and that’s expected.
During March, she also talked about how her department went through a lot of mental health training.
Giving his C.A.R.E.S. report, Fancil said CARES had 51 contacts with folks in April.
“So we did a lot more elder care consultation,” he said
In February, there were 48 contacts; March, 45; and then 51 in April.
“So we’re just cruising along. The ladies are busy. They did do some more training on substance abuse,” Fancil said. “This month, as we speak, this week, Mikaela (Bixler), along with officer Francis from Warsaw PD, Tanya (Jackson) — our other C.A.R.E.S. lady — and Karen Smith, who works in our office, are teaching and hosting a Crisis Intervention Training for law enforcement at Warsaw PD.”
They’re doing eight-hour days of training all this week with different speakers on different topics. Fancil said they’re trying to give law enforcement professionals a better idea of how to interact with people who may be suffering from a mental health issue.
“So it’s pretty exciting stuff,” he said.
The current training has about 17-18 students and is being pretty well received, he said. They’re hoping to do another session in the fall and open it up a little more to first responders.
A little later in the meeting, Fancil reported on the purchase of a new 2024 Dodge Durango for $43,972 that was bought with grant funds through the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration. The Warsaw Board of Public Works and Safety approved the purchase April 8. The fire territory board approved the purchase Wednesday.
The board also approved for Heather Vogts, chief’s assistant, to be able to sign claim vouchers not exceeding $2,000. The Board of Works also approved it at their April 8 meeting.
The last things approved by the board were five travel requests.
Since Wednesday’s meeting was Shilling’s first as the new fire chief, Grose asked him how it was going.
“It’s going well. A lot of meetings. A lot of meeting people. Meeting with the department members, seeing what they need from me and what I can do to assist them in their role. Meeting with a bunch of the department heads throughout the city, they’ve been super helpful with me getting started,” he said.
Shilling noted that Vogts and the women in the office have been great and keep him on track.
“But, it’s going well,” he said.
Shilling was appointed chief on April 26 and his first day in that position was April 29. He took over from Brian Mayo, who had resigned as chief.
