Operations and Training

Wayne Fire Operations

Fire Department Operations consist of three shift assignments: A Shift, B Shift and C Shift. Each shift is staffed with a Captain that is responsible for their crew and station, a Lieutenant that is interior command and firefighters that make up the overall department response. As personnel rotate time off; these roles and responsibilities change to assure a consistent level of service is delivered each day. All of the Wayne Fire and EMS staff are cross-trained in firefighting and paramedic level services.

Each shift works a 24-hour schedule. Daily, our operational staffing requires one Engine and one transporting Advanced Life Support (ALS) Rescue to serve the community. As conditions warrant, the Fire Chief and Deputy Chief will respond to assist with any large-scale incident.

Medical calls for service continue to trend with national averages and make up for 82% of the departments total call volume. Each call requires the response from either the Engine, Rescue or both to many of the incidents. Dispatch policies and caller information contribute to which response vehicles are dispatched to each call. It is not uncommon to have multiple calls occur at one time within the community. These occurrences require responses to various addresses and requests for Mutual Aid cities to help. Additionally, the Fire Department will respond and assist to surrounding communities through Mutual Aid agreements.

Western Wayne Operations

The City of Wayne is a member of the Western Wayne County Fire Department Mutual Aid Association. The focus of the group is to render reciprocal aid between member communities in fire protection, emergency medical services and other emergency services. Wayne Fire and EMS along with 20 other communities participate in the Mutual Aid agreements.

Part of this commitment requires each participating city to provide members to serve on the Western Wayne County Hazardous Materials Response Team (HMRT) and the Urban Search and Rescue Team (USAR). Each team has a separate focus, but the overall goal is large scale responses to Special Operation incidents such as hazardous materials responses and structural collapse. The Specialty teams require many additional hours of training to keep abreast of best practices. The teams train monthly and often respond to participating communities on emergencies.

Training

Firefighters are required to meet minimum training requirements mandated at both the State and Federal levels. It is the responsibility of the training officer to develop department training standards and schedules that ensure all mandated requirements are met.

In addition to the required fire training requirements there are emergency medical training requirements that also need to be met. These responsibilities are conducted through the efforts of the department’s EMS Coordinator/Instructor Coordinator.

In 2021 the Wayne Fire and EMS Department conducted hundreds of hours of online and hands on training. The fire department utilizes a variety of training approaches to include Fire Rescue 1 Academy, scenario-based hands-on training and EMS protocol training programs.

Training topics include:

>Hazardous Materials                                          >Communications  
>Fire Attack                                                                >EMS Operations
>Fire Behavior                                                           >EMS Protocols
>Fire Scene Operations                                       >Basic Cardiac Life Support
>Firefighter Survival                                             >Advanced Cardiac Life Support
>Emergency Vehicle Driving                            >Pediatric Advanced Life Support
>Search & Rescue                                                    >OSHA Respirator Fit Protection