Self-Fire Safety Inspection Program Eyed by Casper WY Firefighters

Oct. 12—The Casper Fire-EMS Department is asking City Council for help setting up a new program that'd allow qualifying establishments to conduct their own fire safety inspections.

Many, but not all, public buildings in Wyoming must routinely be inspected by a fire agency to make sure they're in compliance with fire safety regulations.

In Casper, most of the inspections are conducted by the Fire-EMS Department's Community Risk Reduction Division — which also specializes in things like investigations and public education — with help from the agency's five fire engine crews.

But right now, the fire department just doesn't have enough staff to perform all the inspections it needs to.

The Community Risk Reduction Division currently only has four people, Deputy Chief Jack Moore wrote in a description of the proposed program shared with City Council. By comparison, the division had eight staff members in 2015.

"The combined efforts of the CRR Division and Engine companies are currently unable to keep up with the demand for fire inspections and the frequency at which they are required to be performed," Moore wrote, using an acronym for Community Risk Reduction.

For that reason, the fire department has been looking into setting up a self-inspection program for a while. The hope is that it would free up time for the agency to focus on other important tasks, like responding to service calls.

The program would only be open to places that have low to moderate safety risks, Moore told the City Council during a Tuesday work session. Think small retail stores, doctor's offices or storage units. Those account for an estimated 60% of the roughly 3,000 establishments in Casper that need regular fire safety inspections, according to Moore.

Self-inspections would be off the table for higher-risk organizations like schools, daycares and businesses that work with hazardous materials.

What would the program look like in practice? First, approved establishments would be given specific instructions on how to conduct the inspections. They'd be responsible for turning in completed inspection reports to the fire department online.

The fire department would provide guidance on how to spot and correct any reported fire safety violations, as well as deadlines for making those changes.

To keep participants accountable, the fire department would perform in-person audits of self-inspections every three years.

But does it work? Other communities that have tried self-inspection programs have seen mixed results, Moore said.

"One of the hallmarks of the more successful programs was that they had the support of their municipality or their governing body in the form of an ordinance or some sort of legal grounding for that program," he told the council on Tuesday.

To that end, the Fire-EMS Department is asking City Council to adopt specific guidelines for the proposed program into city code. The Council on Tuesday gave approval to city staff to put together a draft ordinance for councilors to consider at a future city council meeting.

Inspections are far from the only area where the Fire-EMS Department is feeling a staff crunch. It's common for the department to get more service calls than on-duty staff can accommodate, Fire Chief Jacob Black told the Star-Tribune in June.

Part of the issue is the size of the department; the department's ranks simply haven't grown in step with the increased demand on its services.

Turnover presents another problem. As of this summer, the department projected that more than two dozen fire personnel would be leaving in the next five years.

To address some of the staffing concerns, the city of Casper funded six new fire fighter positions in its budget for the 2024 fiscal year. It expected to add six more positions in fiscal year 2025.

The Council also recently approved a partnership between the city and the Banner Health-owned Wyoming Medical Center to make the hospital's ambulance service the default provider for local 911 medical transport. The city expected that arrangement to take some of the pressure off the department, too.

Your news on your smartphone

Your story lives in Wyoming, and our new mobile app is designed to make sure you don't miss breaking news, the latest scores, the weather forecast and more. From easy navigation with the swipe of a finger to personalized content based on your preferences to customized text sizes, the Star-Tribune app is built for you and your life. Don't have the app? Download it today from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.

___

Visit Casper Star Tribune, Wyo. at www.trib.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.