On Friday March 25th, Arcadia Rotary program was an informative address by Arcadia Fire Dept Chief, Barry Spriggs.
      According  to a recent biography by Carrie Barker: “Fire Dept Chief Barry Spriggs began his career with the Arcadia Fire Dept. in 1993 as a Fire Technician. Between 1994 and 2008, he held the positions of  Fire Fighter, Fire Engineer, and Fire Captain.  In 2008, he was promoted to Battalion Chief where he managed the Emergency Medical Services Division, served as the City’s Emergency Manager, and was the Training Officer for the Fire Dept. In 2016, Barry was promoted to the Deputy Fire Chief, where he managed Dept.-wide operations, including Service as the City Liaison during the interagency response to the Bobcat Fire.  Barry has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Azusa  Pacific University and is married with 2 grown children.”
           Fire Dept. Chief Barry Spriggs noted that the Arcadia Fire Dept. regards its, “Duty to Service” as ” “Dedicated to Excellence since 1909,”   with values of “Integrity, Grit, Empathy, Family, and Trust.” 
           Arcadia has 3 local Fire Stations:  Headquarters  FS105 located at 710 S. Santa Anita.  FS 106 at 630 S. Baldwin Ave. and  yet another FS 107  at 79 W. Orange Grove Ave.
             Within the Dept. there are 53 sworn and 6 civilian personnel.  150 have a Class 1 rating. Daily staffing consists of 17 personnel.  51 employees  are divided into 3 shifts, with 17 people on duty per shift. There  is  19,432 hours spent in Firefighter Training, in other words ie. ( 33.74 hours per firefighter) each month.
           Population served in 2021 was 58,799.  The average response time in 2021 was 5 minutes and 8 seconds which was 9 seconds faster than 2020.  The value of the property preserved from fire was $23,880,150.
            According to Dept. statistics  there were 5576 calls for service in 2021  ( which was up 22% since 2016).  Of these, Emergency  responses increased 1.9% in 2021.  Only a few of these calls were actual fires.  76 % of Emergency calls related to medical emergencies were 2684 patients being transported to local hospitals.  
           In 2021, December was the busiest month .  In days of the week Friday is the busiest day of the week  with 10 AM to 6 PM the busiest time.
            The Fire Prevention Division performed 2270 new construction inspections. The Division also did 241 in-house Plan checks and 350 annual business inspections and 152 brush clearance inspections.
              In the  Oct. 2021 Smoke Detector Project and ” Sound the Alarm” Event, 39 Smoke Alarms were installed in 9 residence with donated supplies.
           Sometimes the Arcadia Fire Dept. helps out their counterparts in other jurisdictions  (especially those nearby such as Monrovia or the nearby mountains  above San Gabriel Valley or even Lancaster) provided that adequate staffing remains to cover local Arcadia emergencies.
       In 2021 there were 13 Strike Team Deployments, of which 6 were  of Type 1 (Administrative). 2 were Type 6, 5 were of Single Resources .focusing on the  following: The North Fire, the Tumbleweed Fire, The Bootleg Fire, (3),, The Dixie Fire, The Caldor Fire, the Windy Fire, The River Complex and The Alisal fire.  
    Thank you Fire Chief Barry Spriggs for helping us understand and appreciate the importance to our Arcadia as well as to other Communities of the vital protection provided by the Arcadia Fire Dept.