Program January 24 - Johnston-Grimes Fire Chief Jim Clark

Johnston Fire Chief, Jim Clark, visited the Club and provided a little background on him as well as the Johnston FD.  Jim came to Johnston from Sioux City FD where he was the Assistant Chief.  Since October '16 he has been the Chief of the 'Metropolitan' Fire Department which constitutes Grimes and Johnston and includes 3 stations.  

The FD has evolved over the years.  In the 1950's, Pioneer started a fire brigade because of all the green houses Pioneer operated.  From there it evolved to a volunteer department to paid on call to some paid and now 23 paid full time employees.   The minimum amount of people they have on duty at any given time is 8 staff but generally there is 9 working  The significance of having 9 people work at once allows for more people to operate the stations.  If there is only 8 people working, the FD only has an ambulance working out the Station on 62nd St

 For a Multi Alarm Fire - depending on the size of the structure that is burning and the water flow determines home many fire fighters are needed to help with the fire.