On April 29nd, Nashua Fire Chief Brian Rhodes, addressed the Rotary club of Nashua, regarding the Nashua Fire Department. Born and brought up in Connecticut, Brian joined the Nashua FD in 1986, became a lieutenant in 200, a captain in 2004, Deputy Chief in 2011, Assistant Chief in 2016, and Chief in 2018. Brian started with a little trivia of his own: there are 6 fire houses in Nashua (plus the communications center), the NFD employees 180 people, and there are 38 people in the Fire Suppression Division covering our city 24 / 7 / 365.
Brian reviewed the organizational structure of the NFD, then highlighted the new addition at Station 3 on Spit Brook Road. The original structure was built in the 70s, and in an effort to save $100,000, the design third bay was removed from the plans “to be added at a later date.” Fast forward to now, and those ‘savings’ amounted to a $1.3 million addition.
Brian then talked about the Communications Center, which houses 911 and dispatch. He references the 900 ‘pull boxes’ located throughout the city, There are about 250 located on poles throughout the city, and another 650 located on businesses’ buildings. Basically, they protect about $1.6 billion in assessed property annually. The system is independent and redundant and allows it to operate even in the face of power outages or possible terrorist attack. The NFD also has a training facility at the land fill, the Fire Marshall’s office, a mechanical division (pretty much every vehicle is inspected every 100 days), and the suppression force. Brian gave a key statistic here – because of changes in how furniture and its coverings are manufactured, the time for a room to be fully engaged has gone from 30 minutes to about 3 minutes, drastically reducing the time you have to safely evacuate your home. This makes having working smoke detectors (and carbon monoxide detectors), as well as a good escape route planned, critical for your safety in a fire.
Brian then talked about the Safe Stations program, which was begun in November 2016. Originally a sceptic, Brian totally supports the program today. Over 2,500 people have used the program in the past 2 ½ years; alcohol abuse is a major factor, with some 25% of those using the service alcohol-impaired. Interestingly, the average amount of time someone accessing the program spends in the fire station is about 11 minutes, before they are placed in the hands of Harbor Homes and/or EMTs.
The Nashua Fire Department website is www.nashuafire.com and their twitter feed is @nashuafire. The Fire Marshall’s office is also on Facebook.