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Master Plan Nashua Fire Rescue, NH

Figure 78. Effective Response Force

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FFs within 8 Minute .

4-7 811 12-17 18-23 24-29 30-38 ~
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7) Nashua Boundary
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In this figure, an 8-minute travel time extends from each fire station with the minimum staffing of each
station applied to this travel area. Where areas overlap, the minimum staffing totals from each constituent
area are added together to model Nashua Fire Rescue’s deployment and ERF capabilities. In this model, it is
assumed that all units are available and in quarters. As illustrated in this figure, the central core of the city
possesses adequate numbers of firefighters for residential and small commercial fires; however, outside of
this area, Nashua Fire Rescue’s ability to provide sufficient staffing in a timely manner is significantly less,
particularly in the northwest, southwest, and southeast areas of the city. While a balance must be struck
between the desired levels of service within a community and the ability to pay for those services, the
northwestern and southeastern portions of the city experienced both increased incident density and incident
counts, as compared to other less densely staffed areas of Nashua, and have little to no overlap by other
stations. If stations 3, 5, or 6 were unavailable at the time of an incident, first due unit arrival times would be
expected in excess of an 8-minute travel time and also experience prolonged assemblies of the ERF.

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RESOURCE RELIABILITY

In this section, resource reliability is evaluated using several metrics to establish a global perspective on
Nashua’s ability to provide sufficient responding resources to meet service demand within the city. When all
units are available and in quarters, supplying sufficient resources is typically not a problem; however, when
multiple calls occur simultaneously, units are committed to incidents for extended periods of time, or when
insufficient resources exist to mitigate an emergency, further preparation and planning safely and effectively
must be completed.

Call Concurrency

First, call concurrency is evaluated. Call concurrency is a comparison of how often multiple calls are occurring
and placing additional demand on resources. In the next figure, a concurrent call is identified when a second
unit is dispatched to a separate incident prior to the first unit clearing the scene and becoming available.
When two incidents are occurring simultaneously and a third separate incident is dispatched, three
concurrent calls are present, and so on.

Figure 79. Call Concurrency, 2017-2019

Call Concurrency

Single Incident 63.3%
2 25.4%

3 7 .O%

4 or more 3.8%

When units are committed to an incident in Nashua, only one incident is occurring 63.3% of the time.
However, this also indicates that 36.7% of the time that units are committed at two or more separate
incidents and are unavailable to respond to additional calls. When comparing these findings to the ERF
analysis in the previous figure, Nashua’s ability to provide a sufficient number of firefighters to the downtown
area and central core of the city the majority of the time appears to be adequate while the response to
outlying areas, particularly the northwestern and southeastern portions of the city possesses the potential
for delayed responses and insufficient personnel to mitigate medium or high-risk incidents safely and
effectively.

Unit Hour Utilization

Another component that must be considered when evaluating Resource Reliability is Unit Hour Utilization
(UHU). UHU provides an expression of the workload placed on the crew assigned to that unit and can also
describe the amount of time that a unit is not available for response because it is already committed to
another incident. The larger the percentage, the greater its utilization, and the less available it is for
assignment to subsequent calls for service, training, and ancillary duties. UHU rates are expressed as a
percentage of the total hours ina year.

In May 2016, Henrico County (VA) Division of Fire published an article after studying its department’s EMS
workload. As a result of the study, Henrico County Division of Fire developed a general commitment factor
scale for its department. The next figure is a summary of the findings as it relates to commitment factors.

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Figure 80. Commitment Factors as Developed by Henrico County (VA) Division of Fire, 2016

Ideal Personnel can maintain training requirements and physical fitness

0.16-0.24 Commitment | and can consistently achieve response time benchmarks. Units are
Range available to the community more than 75% of the day.

Community availability and unit sustainability are not questioned.

0.25 System Stress | First-due units are responding to their assigned community 75% of

the time, and response benchmarks are rarely missed.
Evaluation The community served will experience delayed incident responses.
0.26-0.29 Just under 30% of the day, first-due ambulances are unavailable;
Range . . a) is
thus, neighboring responders will likely exceed goals.
Not Sustainable: Commitment Threshold—the community has less
than a 70% chance of timely emergency service and immediate
“Line in the relief is vital. Personnel assigned to units at or exceeding 0.3 may
Sand" show signs of fatigue and burnout and may be at increased risk of
errors. Required training and physical fitness sessions are not
consistently completed.

0.30

In, Figure 81, the UHUs of Nashua Fire Rescue units are displayed with their relative workloads from 2017
through 2019. While other units responded to incidents within the city during this time, their activity levels
of response were low, 1% or less, and not included in this figure.

Figure 81. Unit Hour Utilization 2017-2019
TO da)

Count Average Percentile
818 0:37:00 1:00:39 1.9% 504:22:07
770 0:37:06 0:59:30 1.8% 476:10:31
763 0:37:31 1:00:19 1.8% 477:09:53
870 0:33:30 0:58:58 1.8% 485:44:45
4631 0:13:39 0:22:33 4.0% 1054:02:46
7192 0:14:59 0:23:30 6.8% 1795:09:15
6416 0:14:56 0:22:40 6.1% 1596:27:51
3860 0:18:48 0:27:49 4.6% 1209:46:09
8977 0:15:09 0:22:37 8.6% 2267:36:14
5388 0:18:18 0:28:49 6.3% 1643:49:45
5739 0:15:31 0:24:20 5.6% 1483:30:49
5451 0:14:43 0:24:36 5.1% 1336:17:38
4512 0:14:36 0:22:40 4.2% 1098:31:52
2575 0:17:45 0:28:17 2.9% 762:03:58

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When the Unit Hour Utilization of Nashua Fire Rescue units is calculated, all fall well below the thresholds for
adding additional units to the system. Given the annual call volume, call concurrency rates, and UHUs, the
fire department should have ample time for additional duties such as training, career development, and pre-
fire planning.

RESPONSE PERFORMANCE

The most visible element of Nashua Fire Rescue is its response performance. How quickly units arrive on the
scene and the efficiency they resolve an emergency situation are typically the only interaction most residents
will have with the fire department. To evaluate the fire department's performance, ESCI used NFPA 1710,
which is the applicable standard for career fire departments.

Response time performance is comprised of the following components:

= Call-Processing Time: The amount of time between when a call is answered by the 911 Primary
Public Safety Answering Point, or dispatch center, and when resources are dispatched.

= Turnout Time: The time interval between when units are notified of the incident and when the
apparatus responds.

= Travel Time: The amount of time the responding unit actually spends on the road traveling to the
incident until arrival at the scene. This is a function of speed and distance.

= Response Time: This time is calculated from the time the fire department is dispatched to the arrival
of the first apparatus. Response Time equals the sum of “Turnout Time” and “Travel Time.”

= Total Response Time: This is the most apparent time to the caller requesting emergency services.
Total response time is the amount of time that occurs from the time they place the emergency call
until units arrive. This time often includes factors both within and outside the control of the fire
department, particularly when another agency provides dispatch services.

Tracking the individual components of response time will enable Nashua to identify deficiencies and areas
for improvement. Once Nashua Fire Rescue’s leadership understands the current performance for Call
Processing, Turnout Time, and Travel Time, this information can be used to develop response goals and
standards that are both relevant and achievable. Fire service best practices recommend that fire service
organizations monitor and report the components of Total Response Time.

The Time Continuum is comprised of the three elements described above—Call-Processing, Turnout Time,
and Travel Time. Total Response Time is the sum of all of the times starting with the call-processing time,
turnout time, and travel time. The components of the Nashua Fire Rescue Response Time Continuum will
each be evaluated in further detail in the next sections. The following figure is an illustration of the total
response time continuum.

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Figure 82. Total Response Time Continuum

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Response Time

Total Response Time

Historically, fire rescue service providers have used the performance measurement of average response to
describe the levels of performance. The average is a commonly used descriptive statistic, also called the
mean of a data set. Averages may not accurately reflect the performance for the entire data set because the
average can be significantly skewed by data outliers, especially in small data sets. One extremely good or
bad value can skew the “average” for the entire data set. Percentile measurements are a better measure of
performance since they show that most of the data set has achieved a particular level of performance. The
goth percentile means that 90% of responses were equal to or better than the performance identified, and
that the other 10% can be attributed to data outliers, inaccurate data, or situations outside of normal
operations that delayed performance. This can be compared to the desired performance objective to
determine the degree of success in achieving the goal.

An important consideration when evaluating fractile performance is that the results of each category are not
additive, meaning that the sum of two or more constituent metrics cannot be simply added together to find
the sum. This is because each dataset is discrete and, as such, must be observed individually, particularly
when data quality is an issue. If a metric, such as response time, possesses the majority of its data points,
while turnout time is not accurately documented, a significant difference can exist between the response
time calculated using the fractile descriptive and the sum of turnout time and travel time.

In evaluating the various response time components using the fractile analysis method, each component
must be evaluated and quantified separately, as the available data—and the quality of the data may vary
significantly.

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To provide an analysis of performance for emergency calls within Nashua, the following assumptions were
made:

= Non-emergency incident types were removed

» Mutual and auto aid given were removed

» Other aid given were removed

= NFIRS call types within the 500, 600, 800, and goo series were removed

= Cells containing zeros or no value were removed

Call Processing Time Performance

The industry standard for call processing (or alarm handling) is NFPA 1221: Standard for the Installation,
Maintenance, and Use of Emergency Services Communications Systems. This standard provides for
communication centers to have processing times of not more than 60 seconds, 90% of the time. For special
operations, calls requiring translation, or other factors described in the standard, times should not exceed go
seconds at the goth percentile. It should be noted that Nashua Fire Rescue does not have direct supervision
over the initial processing and transferring of emergency calls, so these performance measures are not within
its control. This component of the process is performed at the state level by the New Hampshire Bureau of
Emergency Communications (NHBECC). ESCI recommends that Nashua Fire Rescue actively work with the
state of New Hampshire to ensure compliance with NFPA 1221.

Examination of Nashua’s 2017 through 2019 data revealed that overall alarm handling through the NHBECC
exceeded the benchmark across all categories. Data containing missing time stamps or zero-time stamps for
call processing were not included. The following figure illustrates call processing performance for the
NHBECC shown at the goth percentile.

Figure 83. NHBECC Alarm Handling Time, goth Percentile, 2017-2019

Fire

OverPress

EMS

Haz Cond

Alarms

Total

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00

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Once the initial alarm handling is complete, the call is then routed to Nashua Fire Alarm for additional call
processing and dispatch.

Figure 84. Nashua Fire Alarm Dispatch Time, goth Percentile, 2017-2019

Fire

OverPress

EMS

Haz Cond

Alarms

Total

00:00 00:30 01:00 01:30

Overall, Nashua Fire Alarm nearly meets NFPA standards for call processing and dispatch. Additionally,
Nashua Fire Alarm receives direct alarm notification of fire alarms and call box activations. This dramatically
reduces the amount of time required to receive and transmit the notification of a potential emergency. The
City of Nashua provides this as an included service to its residents.

Since the receipt of an emergency call, the alarm handling, and dispatch often occur in two steps within New
Hampshire, the overall call processing time (NHBECC and Nashua Fire Alarm) is presented at the 90"
percentile to illustrate the actual performance of the system as a whole.

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Figure 85. Total Call Processing Time, goth Percentile, 2017-2019

Fire

OverPress

EMS

Haz Cond

Alarms

Total

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00

The total call processing time for Nashua at the 90" percentile is 3 minutes, 32 seconds for emergency calls,
3 ¥2 times the industry standard. As shown in this figure, alarm processing times are much faster than other
categories due to the direct receipt of many alarms from call boxes or directly linked fire panels within the
city. The two-step process of all emergency calls first received at the NHBECC then transferred to the local
department for dispatch creates additional delays within the system; however, this saves some communities
the costs of additional infrastructure to support a standalone Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP).

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Turnout Time Performance

The second component of the response continuum, and one that is directly affected by response personnel,
is turnout performance. Turnout is the time it takes personnel to receive the dispatch information, move to
the appropriate apparatus, and begin responding to the incident.

NFPA 1710 calls for a goth percentile turnout performance of 80 seconds for fire and special operations calls
and 60 seconds for EMS incidents. The following figure illustrates the turnout performance for Nashua Fire
Rescue.

Figure 86. Turnout Time, goth Percentile, 2017-2019

Fire

OverPress

EMS

Haz Cond

Alarms

Total [iyAik:

00:00 00:30 01:00 01:30 02:00 02:30

Overall, turnout times exceed NFPA standards by nearly double, with the best performance occurring on fire-
related incidents. While it is the experience of ESCI that most departments cannot meet turnout time
standards, Nashua has room for improvement in this area. Factors to consider when evaluating turnout times
are station design configurations, staffing schemes, and crew performance.

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Travel Time Performance

The third component of the response continuum is travel time. It is important to understand that travel time
is not specifically a factor of speed as much as it is the result of proper placement of fire stations from which
emergency response begins. Travel time is the amount of time between when the apparatus departs for the
call and when it arrives on the scene, measured at the goth percentile. NFPA 1710 requires that the first due
fire or EMS unit arrives on the scene within a 4-minute, or 240-second, travel time. The following figure
provides the travel time performance for Nashua Fire Rescue.

Figure 87. Travel Time, goth Percentile, 2017-2019

Fire 04:54

OverPress (i i:y

EMS
Haz Cond
Alarms
Total [eZ 8.5)
00:00 0100-0200 +~«=«a300~=«K00 «SCO =S=«H 0

Although above NFPA standards, Nashua’s travel time performance is strong at 4 minutes, 48 seconds
overall. While travel times could be improved by the addition of resources in areas remote from current fire
station locations, the City must balance community expectations with its ability to financially support public
services, including the fire department.

In Figure 88, Nashua’s travel performance is illustrated as 10-acre hexagons, with each providing the average
travel time to that area. Not surprisingly, travel performance is best in areas immediately adjacent to fire
stations.

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