User login |
SCFCA HistoryThe Saginaw County Fire Chief’s Association (SCFCA) had its first meeting on May 16, 1968. They first met at Saginaw City Fire Department’s Central Station.The history of this association was collected by researching the minutes and by recent conversations with past member Richard Browne. The association’s original objectives as stated in the first set of bylaws were: To provide the best possible degree of fire protection and fire prevention for the citizens of Saginaw County through mutual cooperation, exchange of idea’s, education and experience of the members of this association, thereby maintaining the highest level of fire protection at all times. The association developed a Mutual Aid Pact for the coordination of fire department assets within Saginaw County. To be considered as a working partner in this pact, a fire department was to have certain fire apparatus in use. Fire departments had to have at least one pumper and if in rural areas, a tanker. This was approved by every fire department in the county. In May of 1968, there was a lot of discussion on a position of Chief of Fire Services to be located within the Saginaw County Civil Defense Department (CD), which is now referred to as the Office of Emergency Management. This position would function when the Emergency Operations Center was activated. This position and who was to be named, was concerning to many fire chief’s as they didn’t want someone taking over incidents within their jurisdiction. The CD Director (Jim Elliott) said the position would coordinate the operations of several departments in case of a disaster and to request mutual aid from other departments. In no way would this position take away the authority of a chief or any other fire officer of any department. Hearing this, the Chief’s Association agreed on it and voted Donald Garvey from Bridgeport Township to this position. In September of 1968, a plan was established to help Saginaw City in the event of arson fires or riots. They used Saginaw High and Arthur Hill High Schools for primary staging areas. In January of 1969, the Chief’s joined up with the Saginaw County Fire Association (SCFA) and organized a fire prevention committee. This committee presented several programs throughout Saginaw County. In January of 1970, the concept of a county wide training facility was brought up. Although this never went anywhere, the intent and desire did exist in this era. Their training concerns continued and in July of 1976 they established a training committee that is still an active committee today. This committee along with George Corbat and Deward Beeler ran several foam schools in conjunction with Tri-City Airport Fire Department in the late 70’s early 80’s. The Chief’s have put on several classes from the basics to fire officer classes. They have updated from the original sixty six hour classes to and an academy that provides the fire fighters with Fire Fighter I & II, Hazardous Material awareness & operations levels, drivers training, introduction to wildland fire suppression, terrorist awareness and medical classes. The Chief’s have definitely supported training our fire fighters. The Chief’s were also very active in lobbying our State for training funding concerns, specifically the Fire Fighters Training Council (FFTC). They wrote several letters to our legislature’s asking for more funds. There were several occasions when our state budget was planning on cutting the funds to fire fighter training. That support continues today with strong efforts to help keep funding for the FFTC. In the late 1970’s, Mike Adams from Albee Township organized the first of several fire musters. These fire competition’s started at the Saginaw Fair Grounds and held events like the bucket brigade, potato pick up (with a pike pole), timed drafting, and a parade just to name a few. 1979 – 911 was first in use in Saginaw County covering Saginaw City and Township, Carrollton, Spaulding, and Zilwaukee. 1981 – The concept of group purchasing was introduced and was intended to save departments money by buying larger quantities. This practice still continues on today. 1981 – A policy committee was needed to help standardize several issues within the fire service of Saginaw County. Today, that manual is still utilized and policies have been added. 1995 – A coordination team was established to help incident commanders on large incidents. This team would get the incident commander whatever assistance was needed and at the same time provide for backfilling each department involved in the incident the intent was to eliminate any extra burden on the incident commander. 2002 – Many Chief’s take an active role in duties outside of their jurisdiction by serving on various board and committees from the local level to the International level. Thomas Township’s Chief, Jim Peterson became the first Chief from Saginaw County to serve as President of the Michigan Fire Chief’s Association. 2004 – The Chief’s association in conjunction with the Saginaw County Fire Association, split the cost of developing a web site to better serve all fire personnel in Saginaw County. The Chief’s also amended a by-law, changing the term of office for executive board members to, two-year terms. The first non-fire chief (Deputy Chief Michael Cousins)was sworn into office as President of this Association. 2005/06 - The County adopted some new policies for fire fighter safety specifically PAR checks and evacuation signals. Many other procedures / practices were streamlined under the direction of President Bostwick. 2007/08 - Ken Alto from the DNR fire service and Deward Beeler from the OFFT received a plaque of apprecation from President Nelson for their dedicated work. This association obtained a grant from Homeland Security and purchased a 28' trailer(see photo gallery). This is available for any department in the county to use for coordination or a command post. PRESIDENTS OF THIS ASSOCIATION |