PADUCAH, Ky. - A local fire chief recently praised the EM Paducah Site’s fire department for the team’s community-minded approach to emergency response.
From March to June this year, the fire department at the Paducah Site responded to 52 mutual aid requests from the West McCracken Fire District. A mutual aid agreement is a written agreement between agencies, organizations or jurisdictions to lend assistance across jurisdictional boundaries.
In a recent letter, the district’s chief, Donald Elrod, acknowledged the Paducah Site fire department for its quick response time to emergencies in the community and praised the teamwork demonstrated between the two departments' joint training sessions.
As a result of EM’s partnership with the fire district, the West McCracken organization scored well on an audit conducted by the Insurance Services Office (ISO). According to Elrod, only 3,583, or a little more than 10% of fire departments in the entire United States received a Class 3 designation, which included West McCracken Fire District. This list of organizations includes both paid and volunteer fire departments. The Class 3 designation refers to the fire districts population being within 5 miles of a fire station and within 1,000 feet from a hydrant. There are multiple factors that go into the rating such as fire apparatus and available trained personnel.
“It was the (EM Paducah Site) fire services personnel’s response to structure fires; their training with us every Monday night; their individual credentials; and our overall ability to work together as a team on a multitude of all types of emergencies that impressed the ISO auditor," Elrod stated in his letter.
The newly achieved audit score demonstrates enhanced fire protection for the community and resulted in insurance savings for both the county and local residents.
“Safety is always the number one priority at the site and for our community," Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office Manager Joel Bradburne said. “Continuing to strengthen DOE’s partnership with local emergency response organizations benefits not only the community but our mission at the Paducah Site as well."
-Contributors: Dylan Nichols, Jessica Vasseur
Source: U.S. Dept. of Energy, Office of Environmental Management