CFD Wraps Up Busy, Successful Year

As the New Year approaches, the Chattanooga Fire Department is looking back on a productive 2019 and preparing for all that 2020 will bring.

We want to share some year-to-date numbers and touch on some of CFD’s achievements and initiatives.

For 2019, the CFD will have responded to more than 20,500 calls, including more than 170 structure fires, over 7,500 EMS calls and almost 1,600 “Assist a citizen” calls. We’ve also responded to more than 1,900 motor vehicle accidents.

There were seven civilian injuries, three civilian deaths and three firefighter injuries from fires.

Our firefighters saved $52,276,917 in property from fire damage.

Here’s more on other department milestones and happenings from 2019:

1. We put Ladder 5 in service at Station 5 which gave us two companies at Station 5 for the Highland Park Community. It is a 105-foot quint.
2. Our entire department has just been fitted for new ballistic vests. CFD has had this protective equipment for five years and now, the vests are being replaced. They go out of warranty every five years.

• The vests will help protect our crews on dangerous scenes, especially during situations where there’s a potential active threat.
• We are going from having some vests assigned to fire trucks to every person in the department having their own. We expect the shipment to arrive sometime in January 2020.

3. In October, we welcomed 23 new firefighters to the CFD family upon their graduation from our 2019 Fire Academy which lasted six months. It was a diverse class of men and women, including former professional athletes, military veterans, skilled wildland firefighters and several men following in the steps of their fathers who proudly served CFD for decades.
4. Our Safe Stations program continues to yield results as part of an ongoing effort to combat the opioid epidemic and help provide potentially life-saving resources to those struggling with addiction.

• Safe Stations provides 24-hour assistance for those seeking to be connected with treatment and recovery options. All stations within the city are participating.

5. In 2019, CFD learned that it was awarded the 2018 Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), about $70,000 in funding.

• The annual grant opportunity gives fire departments across the United States the ability to apply for and if awarded, to purchase apparatus, tools, equipment, gear, and training that is needed within the department’s jurisdiction with federal grant funding.
• This program is specifically designed to save firefighters through the prevention of and operation in “mayday” situations, in which a firefighter may become lost, disoriented, injured, low on air, or trapped.

6. Our new CFD Connect program is garnering attention from various national publications.

• It’s called CFD Connect and it was established in partnership with the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s (UTC) Social Work Program. The program places two social work master’s level interns with firefighters.
• The goal is to address high users of non-emergency calls (like medical assists and lift assist calls). We make sure there are services in place for those particular individuals in order to decrease their dependence on the 911 system.
• There’s been a 63% decrease in non-emergency calls associated with the 13 clients CFD Connect has worked with, saving the city thousands of dollars.

We look forward to a prosperous New Year as we continue to serve the citizens of Chattanooga!