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After a series of
problems, Chief Tyra resigned on October 13, 2000, and
returned to his former position as district chief. Chris
Connealy, an assistant fire chief in charge of career
development, was appointed acting fire chief.
Paramedic squads were
instituted in December, 2000. A squad responded with an
ambulance dispatched on specific incidents to evaluate a
patient. The squad carried advanced life support equipment
(ALS). If the patient needed ALS care, the paramedic rode
with a patient in the ambulance to a hospital. Otherwise,
the emergency medical technicians on the ambulance
transported, and the squad unit returned to service.
Resuscitation of ventricular fibrillation patients improved
to 78.8 percent from 65.3 percent prior to the
squads.
Connealy was confirmed
as fire chief in May, 2001.
A fire captain was
killed at a six alarm high rise apartment fire on October
13, 2001, at San Felipe and S. Post Oak Lane. The captain
was on a search and rescue mission on the fire floor when he
ran out of air. He became disoriented and died before he
could be rescued. Chief Connealy was criticized because of a
manpower shortage which had only three firefighters on many
apparatus. Because of economic times in Houston, every
department had suffered budget cuts.
A report of an
internal investigation of the fire put the fire chief at
odds with the firefighters' union. The report ruled out
short staffing as a factor in the death of the fire captain.
A federal NIOSH report, however, contradicted the findings.
The mayor found the money after the fire to provide minimum
manning of four firefighters on all fire
apparatus.
Houston was evaluated
by the Insurance Services Office (ISO) in 2001 and received
an improved classification. The property protection
classification fell from a rating of 3 to a rating of 2.
(The lower the number on a scale of 1 to 10, the better the
rating.) One review is permitted after each evaluation,
which occurs about every 15 years. Chief Connealy went to
work immediately to improve the department. He wanted to see
if the city could obtain the coveted rating of 1 in a
review.
Houston Fire
Department was rewarded with a rating of Class 1 on April 1,
2003 after the review of the city's fire protection by ISO.
The city scored 97.01 points out of a possible 100 points,
the highest score ever achieved in ISO history. This put
Houston as the largest city in the country to receive the
top rating. Only 43 cities in the United States had Class 1
ratings. The rating provided lower fire insurance rates for
residential and commercial properties.
Near the end of 2003,
Chief Connealy announced his intention to retire on January
6, 2004. The mayor, who was term-limited and would be out of
office before the retirement date, picked Assistant Chief
Hector Trevino to be acting fire chief while Connealy rode
out his accumulated sick and vacation time.
Chief Trevino worked
with Local 341, City Legal, and the Mayor's Office of
Homeland Security to restore firefighters 46.7 hour work
week.
Voters overwhelmingly
approved a collective bargaining referendum on Nov. 4, 2003.
Negotiations with the administration under Meet &
Confer had broken down, and the firefighters were
without a contract for several years. Frustrated, the
firefighters went to the voters and won collective
bargaining which ended the impasse.
After a nation-wide
search, a new fire chief was appointed in May. He was
District Chief Phil Boriskie, a 22-year veteran with the
department. He was confirmed by city council on May 26,
2004.
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