DEARBORN HEIGHTS — Since its inception 65 years ago, the Dearborn Heights Fire Department has gone from a sparse all-volunteer fleet to a fully-staffed, multifunctional department.
Now, more changes are in line.
“We have a lot going on right now in terms of organizational restructuring,” Fire Chief David Brogan said. “There has been a lot of retirements in the past year or so, and there are a lot more to come.”
In addition to Brogan, who was appointed to replace former Fire Chief Andrew Gurka earlier this month, the department is also losing Deputy Fire Chief Russell McNamee and two captains by April due to retirements.
“The guys have been pretty good with the leadership changes, and they are looking forward to working with myself and the new administration to continue to provide quality services for the residents of Dearborn Heights,” Brogan said.
The DHFD recently received a two-year $650,000 Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant from the federal government in order to hire six new firefighters. The grant will bring the department back up to its complement of 48 firefighters in suppression.
“That’s a huge deal,” said Capt. Mickey Wiewiura, acting deputy fire chief. “We haven’t had those numbers for the past three to five years due to budgeting.”
Brogan said of the department’s 48 firefighters, 21 would have two years or less experience due to a combination of new hires and replacing outgoing staff.
“It’s like we will be starting over from scratch — we have our challenges cut out for us,” he said.
Wiewiura said the department will spend the next two years training new hires and brainstorming ways to provide the same amount of service with more efficiency.
“Traditionally the department hires one or two guys for the year and that would be it. That’s how we did it for forever,” Brogan explained. “Because there are so many new faces, we’re going to go back to the basics and make sure everyone has the basic knowledge they need in terms of training.”
With staffing levels up, Wiewiura said the department has already begun exploring adding a third rescue squad.
“We’ve always had two squads in service, but now that we have the department back up to traditional staffing levels, more often than not we’ll have the manpower to have three rescues in service,” Wiewiura said.
Last year, the DHFD responded to 5,000 rescues and 2,000 fire runs between its two stations. Despite cuts in other city services, Brogan said he’s pleased Mayor Dan Paletko has managed to maintain the department’s minimal staffing levels of 10 (five firefighters at each station on any given day).
“We’ll only have a third squad on days that manpower allows. It’s not going to be every single day,” Brogan said. “We aren’t going to be calling in overtime to have that third squad in operation.”
Wiewiura said the third squad would alleviate the DHFD’s reliance on mutual aid calls to other communities, which is a big bonus for cities like Allen Park and Dearborn.
“We won’t have to put a taxing burden on other communities resources and we’ll be able to do a lot of transporting to area hospitals ourselves,” he said.
Other changes coming to the department include electronic fire inspections and electronic status boards with GPS overlay data detailing locations of fire hydrants during emergency response calls.
The department also recently upgraded from its local radio frequency to the Michigan State Police radio, which will allow it to communicate better with other emergency responders across the state.
“Our radios didn’t work so well on the old frequency, so we’re able to get better coverage and talk to whoever we need to, even if it’s in the Upper Peninsula,” Wiewiura said.
Brogan said the department is also rolling out an “Adopt a hydrant” program in the coming weeks.
“The idea is to educate people about the importance of clearing snow around fire hydrants when they are out shoveling,” he said. “If your house is on fire, we don’t want to have to spend the extra time shoveling a path to the fire hydrant.”
Dearborn Heights Fire Chief David Brogan (left) and Capt. Mickey Wiewiura look forward to training new firefighters as part of a two-year $650,000 SAFER grant. (Photo by Daniel Lai)
For more information about the “Adopt a Hydrant” program, contact Brogan at 1-313-791-3650.
