The St. George Fire Department serves the City of St. George, Utah, and surrounding areas in Washington County. As one of the fastest-growing communities in the state, the department provides fire suppression, emergency medical services, technical rescue, hazardous materials response, and fire prevention. Operating out of multiple strategically located stations, St. George Fire is a combination department made up of both career and volunteer personnel. The department is committed to public safety, community education, and maintaining a high level of readiness as the region continues to expand.
The chief has been there for over 35 years, and it’s time for new ideas and the good old boys club to go away. No more double standards for full time staff and reserve staff. No more denying overtime and refuse callbacks, letting staffing go below minimum standards. No more lack of accountability on fitness standards. We need a chief that is focused more on his personnel and less on his future station designs.
The Fire Chief has done a lot to get the department where it is today, and that deserves credit. But it still feels like he wants to be one of the firefighters instead of focusing on being the Chief. For a city department our size, we still don’t have a solid, consistent command structure on calls. Every fire ends up with multiple chiefs trying to run things — the Fire Chief, Deputy Chief, admin BC, Fire Marshal— instead of just letting the on-duty Battalion Chief take command. It makes scenes confusing and shows that we’ve still got a ways to go when it comes to modern fireground leadership.
We’ve got great stations and rigs, but the people who actually use them day-to-day rarely get asked for input. A lot of those decisions are made from the top down, which can be frustrating when we know what would make things work better.
On top of that, the department still uses volunteer firefighters, but they don’t really add much to operations. The funding and effort that go into keeping that program going could be used in better ways — like hiring more full-time staff, improving training, or supporting firefighter health and wellness.
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2 Reviews on “St Goerge Fire Department”
The chief has been there for over 35 years, and it’s time for new ideas and the good old boys club to go away. No more double standards for full time staff and reserve staff. No more denying overtime and refuse callbacks, letting staffing go below minimum standards. No more lack of accountability on fitness standards. We need a chief that is focused more on his personnel and less on his future station designs.
The Fire Chief has done a lot to get the department where it is today, and that deserves credit. But it still feels like he wants to be one of the firefighters instead of focusing on being the Chief. For a city department our size, we still don’t have a solid, consistent command structure on calls. Every fire ends up with multiple chiefs trying to run things — the Fire Chief, Deputy Chief, admin BC, Fire Marshal— instead of just letting the on-duty Battalion Chief take command. It makes scenes confusing and shows that we’ve still got a ways to go when it comes to modern fireground leadership.
We’ve got great stations and rigs, but the people who actually use them day-to-day rarely get asked for input. A lot of those decisions are made from the top down, which can be frustrating when we know what would make things work better.
On top of that, the department still uses volunteer firefighters, but they don’t really add much to operations. The funding and effort that go into keeping that program going could be used in better ways — like hiring more full-time staff, improving training, or supporting firefighter health and wellness.