Letters to the Editor
Letter From Chief Harris
06/01/09 17:00
2008
celebrated our 60th year of service as the Orcas
Island Fire Department. 2009 marks the start of our
next 60 years! And we are taking the opportunity that
the New Year provides to re-dedicate our services to
the community with improvements. First, we have added
to our name to reflect the services beyond
firefighting and prevention. For over 30 years our
EMT’s and Paramedics have delivered some of the
finest Emergency Medical Services in the region. EMS
is our most important service and we embrace that
fact by adding “Rescue” to our name. Orcas Island
Fire & Rescue represents all of our services and
that we respond to “All of Life’s Hazards” from home
medical emergencies to wild fire as well as to
vehicle crash rescue, hazardous material incidents,
cliff and water rescue plus the simple “Please help
me!” calls.
Our new logo emphasizes our past, present and future. Red & black are the most dominate native American colors and these colors denotes the island's native American heritage. The four-sided "Maltese Cross" is the traditional fire service emblem with its heritage from the Knights of Malta as protectors of the weak. The traditional logo of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) is the six-legged "Star of Life". Ours sits in front of its strong Maltese "foundation" and it is red instead of blue to emphasize that the delivery of EMS on Orcas is fire service based. The Latin script across the banner emphasizes safety and proclaims that "Everyone Goes Home". And finally the abbreviated "Established 1948" records our tradition of service.
In 2008, our department was intensely scrutinized and criticized. This was both health and in many ways even productive. Many of you stepped forward when this process verged on destructive. And for the first time in my career, I was placed in the position of defending excellence and it’s cost. We want to thank the “Not So Silent Majority” and the vocal minority for helping us to create what we feel is the best Emergency Service in the county.
Within the last 6 months, the Board of Commissioners approved my request for a $2000 miracle drug, which we now carry on our ambulances. And during the worst snowstorm in recent history, not only did we use this drug to save a life that person is able to return to work with almost no heart damage. During the same storm, 20 members worked all night to save a home on fire. Hose lines froze solid and personnel fell many times on the ice. The heroic effort is un-duplicated in my 35 years with the fire service.
Along side of these calls with good outcomes, we suffered one of the worst calls with a life changing injury to a young man who was snowboarding. I have two young sons and identify with this tragedy but I am confident that he received excellent care that could not have been exceeded, even on the mainland.
For the past and present, I must thank all of our members (past and present) as well as those who have just recently joined the recruit academy to volunteer for YOU. On behalf of the Members, Officers and Commissioners, I wish to thank the community for their support and offer my members and the Orcas community my hope for a better New Year.
Sincerely
Chief Mike Harris
Orcas Island Fire & Rescue
Our new logo emphasizes our past, present and future. Red & black are the most dominate native American colors and these colors denotes the island's native American heritage. The four-sided "Maltese Cross" is the traditional fire service emblem with its heritage from the Knights of Malta as protectors of the weak. The traditional logo of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) is the six-legged "Star of Life". Ours sits in front of its strong Maltese "foundation" and it is red instead of blue to emphasize that the delivery of EMS on Orcas is fire service based. The Latin script across the banner emphasizes safety and proclaims that "Everyone Goes Home". And finally the abbreviated "Established 1948" records our tradition of service.
In 2008, our department was intensely scrutinized and criticized. This was both health and in many ways even productive. Many of you stepped forward when this process verged on destructive. And for the first time in my career, I was placed in the position of defending excellence and it’s cost. We want to thank the “Not So Silent Majority” and the vocal minority for helping us to create what we feel is the best Emergency Service in the county.
Within the last 6 months, the Board of Commissioners approved my request for a $2000 miracle drug, which we now carry on our ambulances. And during the worst snowstorm in recent history, not only did we use this drug to save a life that person is able to return to work with almost no heart damage. During the same storm, 20 members worked all night to save a home on fire. Hose lines froze solid and personnel fell many times on the ice. The heroic effort is un-duplicated in my 35 years with the fire service.
Along side of these calls with good outcomes, we suffered one of the worst calls with a life changing injury to a young man who was snowboarding. I have two young sons and identify with this tragedy but I am confident that he received excellent care that could not have been exceeded, even on the mainland.
For the past and present, I must thank all of our members (past and present) as well as those who have just recently joined the recruit academy to volunteer for YOU. On behalf of the Members, Officers and Commissioners, I wish to thank the community for their support and offer my members and the Orcas community my hope for a better New Year.
Sincerely
Chief Mike Harris
Orcas Island Fire & Rescue
Letter to the Editor from Jessica Giasullo
09/09/08 17:00
Letter to the Editor:
Islands Sounder September 9, 2008
I submit this article to clarify the job proposal, sharing the duties of the vacant battalion chief position, being made by the three OIFD Fire/Medics, Lieutenants Val Harris, Patrick Shepler, and Mik Preysz. Plainly put, if these staff duties are not performed, the line cannot go on a call and the fire department cannot function as an emergency service.
The proposal is that Patrick Shepler become training officer, Val Harris become operations officer, and Mik Preysz become health, safety, and compliance officer. These duties would be in addition to their paramedic duties. They propose hiring a fourth paramedic in order to stay within their current 56 hour work week and be freed for additional administrative duties.
Our fifty volunteers are held to the same performance standards, and are exposed to the same risks as our three paid, full-time firefighter paramedics. To support our volunteer organization, on our relatively isolated island, a substantial support basis is needed to insure that the volunteers are kept trained, safe, healthy, and properly equipped.
Training: Keeping this in mind, there are two crucial differences between our department and a department in a busy urban area. First, our volunteers all have day jobs, and their primary task is to put food on the family table. The paid staff in an urban department is able to focus totally on fire and EMS response. Second, in a busy urban area, after initial training as EMTs and fire fighters, individuals go out in the field, constantly being exposed to a wide variety of emergencies, insuring that their on-the-job training is intense and broad. In contrast, our volunteers are called to far
fewer emergencies, so intense, on-the-job training is not possible. On our island, it is critical that training fill in where experience is unavailable.
Keep in mind, the emergencies that do occur can be as complex and deadly as those in an urban environment. Further, our volunteers are constantly trained for the kinds of emergencies that, we pray, will not happen, such as a huge wildland fire or a large mass casualty incident.
Operations involves dealing with all fire, EMS, and rescue equipment. (Few words here, but if you ask for a tour of Station 21, paying attention to the fire trucks and aide vehicles, inside and out, you might grasp the size of this job.)
Health, safety, and compliance involve making sure the volunteers are able to stand up to the physical and psychological demands on-scene, that safety standards are observed, and that the department is in compliance with the alphabet soup of federal, state, and local mandates, without which the department would lose its potential federal and state grant funding and would expose the department, the volunteers, and the community to major liability.
I support this proposal because it makes sense that the three individuals, Patrick, Mik and Val, who are constantly involved with the training, equipment, health and safety activities of the department, know best how to implement and supervise these activities. I think they know the buck stops with each one of them. I think the duties involved are too much for just one person.
Jessica Giasullo - Orcas Island Resident
Islands Sounder September 9, 2008
I submit this article to clarify the job proposal, sharing the duties of the vacant battalion chief position, being made by the three OIFD Fire/Medics, Lieutenants Val Harris, Patrick Shepler, and Mik Preysz. Plainly put, if these staff duties are not performed, the line cannot go on a call and the fire department cannot function as an emergency service.
The proposal is that Patrick Shepler become training officer, Val Harris become operations officer, and Mik Preysz become health, safety, and compliance officer. These duties would be in addition to their paramedic duties. They propose hiring a fourth paramedic in order to stay within their current 56 hour work week and be freed for additional administrative duties.
Our fifty volunteers are held to the same performance standards, and are exposed to the same risks as our three paid, full-time firefighter paramedics. To support our volunteer organization, on our relatively isolated island, a substantial support basis is needed to insure that the volunteers are kept trained, safe, healthy, and properly equipped.
Training: Keeping this in mind, there are two crucial differences between our department and a department in a busy urban area. First, our volunteers all have day jobs, and their primary task is to put food on the family table. The paid staff in an urban department is able to focus totally on fire and EMS response. Second, in a busy urban area, after initial training as EMTs and fire fighters, individuals go out in the field, constantly being exposed to a wide variety of emergencies, insuring that their on-the-job training is intense and broad. In contrast, our volunteers are called to far
fewer emergencies, so intense, on-the-job training is not possible. On our island, it is critical that training fill in where experience is unavailable.
Keep in mind, the emergencies that do occur can be as complex and deadly as those in an urban environment. Further, our volunteers are constantly trained for the kinds of emergencies that, we pray, will not happen, such as a huge wildland fire or a large mass casualty incident.
Operations involves dealing with all fire, EMS, and rescue equipment. (Few words here, but if you ask for a tour of Station 21, paying attention to the fire trucks and aide vehicles, inside and out, you might grasp the size of this job.)
Health, safety, and compliance involve making sure the volunteers are able to stand up to the physical and psychological demands on-scene, that safety standards are observed, and that the department is in compliance with the alphabet soup of federal, state, and local mandates, without which the department would lose its potential federal and state grant funding and would expose the department, the volunteers, and the community to major liability.
I support this proposal because it makes sense that the three individuals, Patrick, Mik and Val, who are constantly involved with the training, equipment, health and safety activities of the department, know best how to implement and supervise these activities. I think they know the buck stops with each one of them. I think the duties involved are too much for just one person.
Jessica Giasullo - Orcas Island Resident
Letter to the editor from J Scheib
24/07/08 16:00
To the
Editor,
The Islands’ Sounder
Orcas Island, Washington
Madam Editor,
I would respectfully submit that, in regard to the Orcas Island Fire Department, you are not doing your job. You damn us with faint praise in your editorials, then fail to do the fact checking required to present your readers with a balanced view of what is actually going on. As a citizen, taxpayer and 70-year-old serving volunteer on the Fire Department, I find that your editorials and coverage of the Board of Fire Commissioners meetings amount to a fifth column assault on the only emergency medical and fire suppression organization close enough to be of any use to our citizens.
You might not understand the unintended consequences of the destruction of morale and capacity which must result from a continuation of your editorial stance. As volunteers, we decide, individually, if we have a “duty to act” when our fellow residents of Orcas Island are injured, ill, or the bright face of danger visits them. So far, we suck it up, show up, and do the job, often at two in the morning on cold, wet nasty nights. The average age of our volunteers is forty-eight years.
You have refused to publish the minutes of the Fire commissioners meetings, but you have felt free to use portions out of context. You have failed to publish letters to the editor, which differ with your editorial position, but have used portions to slant your own editorials.
At the board meetings, we have been forced to listen to ugly outbursts from people who presume to lecture our elected commissioners on the fundamentals of management. Ironically, all of the commissioners are experienced businessmen, well known in the Orcas community for their professional acumen and ethics.
This is painful to watch. Worse, we cannot look to the editor of our newspaper to report this vituperative behavior. The unreasoned anger of the citizens who idealize
the past and sunny slopes of long ago does not recognize that the Orcas Island Fire Department must build and train in the present to be ready to respond to the increasing demands of the future. The Fire Department Bond Issue was passed by the public several years ago to pay for that preparedness. Madame Editor, you are well aware of this, but say nothing to support it in the newspaper. While the process of implementing the goals and objectives of the Long Range Planning Committee, which took eight months to produce, is aborning beautifully and efficiently, you are demanding busily that all must be complete with a snap of the fingers. This is the action of a petulant child demanding instant gratification.
You attempt to create a false dichotomy between our commissioners and the volunteers, denigrating the commissioners and praising the volunteers. I would like to point out to you that our commissioners often come from the ranks of the volunteers, and return to the ranks after their term in office is completed. We are all the Fire Department!
You fault us for meritorious conduct. This will result in good honest folks concluding that public service on the Fire Department is a fool’s errand. Who, exactly will benefit from that? We fully understand that the media is the fourth branch of the government and answers to no one. As such, because you live here too, you might consider shifting your editorial stance to that of a balanced and well informed reporter whose goal is to inform our bright and well read public, rather than advocating for a handful of the professionally unhappy. If this position offends your sense of journalistic ethics, perhaps you should seek other employment.
You buy ink by the barrel, but ink does not put out fires or provide emergency medical care for a growing island population at least an hour away from outside help.
Respectfully Submitted,
James R. Scheib
Fire Fighter/EMT
Orcas Island Fire Department
The Islands’ Sounder
Orcas Island, Washington
Madam Editor,
I would respectfully submit that, in regard to the Orcas Island Fire Department, you are not doing your job. You damn us with faint praise in your editorials, then fail to do the fact checking required to present your readers with a balanced view of what is actually going on. As a citizen, taxpayer and 70-year-old serving volunteer on the Fire Department, I find that your editorials and coverage of the Board of Fire Commissioners meetings amount to a fifth column assault on the only emergency medical and fire suppression organization close enough to be of any use to our citizens.
You might not understand the unintended consequences of the destruction of morale and capacity which must result from a continuation of your editorial stance. As volunteers, we decide, individually, if we have a “duty to act” when our fellow residents of Orcas Island are injured, ill, or the bright face of danger visits them. So far, we suck it up, show up, and do the job, often at two in the morning on cold, wet nasty nights. The average age of our volunteers is forty-eight years.
You have refused to publish the minutes of the Fire commissioners meetings, but you have felt free to use portions out of context. You have failed to publish letters to the editor, which differ with your editorial position, but have used portions to slant your own editorials.
At the board meetings, we have been forced to listen to ugly outbursts from people who presume to lecture our elected commissioners on the fundamentals of management. Ironically, all of the commissioners are experienced businessmen, well known in the Orcas community for their professional acumen and ethics.
This is painful to watch. Worse, we cannot look to the editor of our newspaper to report this vituperative behavior. The unreasoned anger of the citizens who idealize
the past and sunny slopes of long ago does not recognize that the Orcas Island Fire Department must build and train in the present to be ready to respond to the increasing demands of the future. The Fire Department Bond Issue was passed by the public several years ago to pay for that preparedness. Madame Editor, you are well aware of this, but say nothing to support it in the newspaper. While the process of implementing the goals and objectives of the Long Range Planning Committee, which took eight months to produce, is aborning beautifully and efficiently, you are demanding busily that all must be complete with a snap of the fingers. This is the action of a petulant child demanding instant gratification.
You attempt to create a false dichotomy between our commissioners and the volunteers, denigrating the commissioners and praising the volunteers. I would like to point out to you that our commissioners often come from the ranks of the volunteers, and return to the ranks after their term in office is completed. We are all the Fire Department!
You fault us for meritorious conduct. This will result in good honest folks concluding that public service on the Fire Department is a fool’s errand. Who, exactly will benefit from that? We fully understand that the media is the fourth branch of the government and answers to no one. As such, because you live here too, you might consider shifting your editorial stance to that of a balanced and well informed reporter whose goal is to inform our bright and well read public, rather than advocating for a handful of the professionally unhappy. If this position offends your sense of journalistic ethics, perhaps you should seek other employment.
You buy ink by the barrel, but ink does not put out fires or provide emergency medical care for a growing island population at least an hour away from outside help.
Respectfully Submitted,
James R. Scheib
Fire Fighter/EMT
Orcas Island Fire Department
Letter to the Editor re Capt. Maxx Jone
30/05/08 16:00
I want to thank the Fire Commissioners, the Fire
Department membership and the Orcas Island Community
for giving me the opportunity to attend an
accelerated program to gain my EMT certification. I
was very fortunate to get the second chance at
becoming an EMT after I was unable to attend the
course offered earlier this year with our own
department.
I also want to commend our training department and our Medical Director, Dr. Sullivan for the high quality of care we are required to provide. As part of my certification, I was required to ride along on a Basic Life Support Medical Unit for a 12-hour shift near Oakland California. I was surprised to find they do not carry AEDs (Automatic External Defibrillators) nor use monitoring tools like a glucose meter to check blood sugars or a Pulse Oxygen Meter which is clipped gently to a finger and reads the amount of oxygen in the patient’s blood stream. No patient was given oxygen and I was allowed to put a blanket on one patient. The three standard questions “what is your name, where are you going and can I see your insurance card?”
I feel truly grateful to be in a medical system that consistently provides the “above the standard” care. We each carry an AED as part of our standard personal gear. We are expected to use every tool provided such as checking blood sugar levels, blood oxygen saturation and even basic heart rhythms when ever possible. And we have the luxury of going above and beyond as part of our standard operating procedures. When we respond to someone’s “worst day ever”, it is a great feeling to show we care.
Captain Maxx Jones
Orcas Island Fire Dept
Capt. Maxx Jones Orcas Island Fire Department
Letter to Ed 6-08
I also want to commend our training department and our Medical Director, Dr. Sullivan for the high quality of care we are required to provide. As part of my certification, I was required to ride along on a Basic Life Support Medical Unit for a 12-hour shift near Oakland California. I was surprised to find they do not carry AEDs (Automatic External Defibrillators) nor use monitoring tools like a glucose meter to check blood sugars or a Pulse Oxygen Meter which is clipped gently to a finger and reads the amount of oxygen in the patient’s blood stream. No patient was given oxygen and I was allowed to put a blanket on one patient. The three standard questions “what is your name, where are you going and can I see your insurance card?”
I feel truly grateful to be in a medical system that consistently provides the “above the standard” care. We each carry an AED as part of our standard personal gear. We are expected to use every tool provided such as checking blood sugar levels, blood oxygen saturation and even basic heart rhythms when ever possible. And we have the luxury of going above and beyond as part of our standard operating procedures. When we respond to someone’s “worst day ever”, it is a great feeling to show we care.
Captain Maxx Jones
Orcas Island Fire Dept
Capt. Maxx Jones Orcas Island Fire Department
Letter to Ed 6-08
Letter to the editor from BOFC
14/03/08 04:00
To the Orcas
Island Community,
First of all, the Board of Fire Commissioners wishes to thank you for caring enough to bring to our table, your concerns for the betterment of our Fire Department. We all have the same goal – to insure we have the best help in the moment of need.
We heard you. We are listening and, we are going to make changes.
We heard the need for a change in the Fire District hiring policy and now have a draft policy that clearly defines the steps of the hiring process. We strive to hire the best person for the job and there must be a process to ensure it is a positive step in the right direction.
We heard the need for a change in the Cross Training requirement and we are directing Chief Harris to work with our volunteers to replace the current requirement with a sustainable solution that best meets the needs of both the volunteers and the community.
We are contacting the Strategic Planning Committee groups to come back to us with a review of our progress and needs for the level of service.
We wish for continued input and have made available the following options in an effort to keep the solutions process moving forward.
E-MAIL Clyde Duke at kookaburra51@hotmail.com (Chairman of the Board) or
chiefharris@yahoo.com. PHONE 376-5873 or 622-6149.
IN WRITING: Chief Harris c/o Orcas Island Fire Dept. POB 217, Eastsound, WA 98245
or drop it in our suggestion box at the Eastsound Fire Station front desk.
And, lastly we believe this time of pause, regardless of how painful, is a chance to rise to a higher level of understanding our entire communities needs and then delivering the best service we can to our citizens and our volunteers. Board of Fire Commissioners Clyde Duke Harvey Olsan Jim Coffin
First of all, the Board of Fire Commissioners wishes to thank you for caring enough to bring to our table, your concerns for the betterment of our Fire Department. We all have the same goal – to insure we have the best help in the moment of need.
We heard you. We are listening and, we are going to make changes.
We heard the need for a change in the Fire District hiring policy and now have a draft policy that clearly defines the steps of the hiring process. We strive to hire the best person for the job and there must be a process to ensure it is a positive step in the right direction.
We heard the need for a change in the Cross Training requirement and we are directing Chief Harris to work with our volunteers to replace the current requirement with a sustainable solution that best meets the needs of both the volunteers and the community.
We are contacting the Strategic Planning Committee groups to come back to us with a review of our progress and needs for the level of service.
We wish for continued input and have made available the following options in an effort to keep the solutions process moving forward.
E-MAIL Clyde Duke at kookaburra51@hotmail.com (Chairman of the Board) or
chiefharris@yahoo.com. PHONE 376-5873 or 622-6149.
IN WRITING: Chief Harris c/o Orcas Island Fire Dept. POB 217, Eastsound, WA 98245
or drop it in our suggestion box at the Eastsound Fire Station front desk.
And, lastly we believe this time of pause, regardless of how painful, is a chance to rise to a higher level of understanding our entire communities needs and then delivering the best service we can to our citizens and our volunteers. Board of Fire Commissioners Clyde Duke Harvey Olsan Jim Coffin
Letter to the Editor re Growing Pains
14/03/08 04:00
To the Orcas
Island Community,
Many of you are aware that our fire department is struggling through some very important growing pains. We have just lost an important and key member of our administrative staff, Buddy Wright. He was the training officer, web page master and one of four people who answer questions, phone calls and the do the day-to-day tasks to keep the “office door” open. However, we are still ready to respond the moment we are called to action. In fact, I believe in my heart, this painful and necessary time is pulling us closer together as a group of people who have never lost sight of why we are here. We are ready and willing, because we care deeply and with great passion. I feel very fortunate and proud to be part of this incredible “family” of dedicated people who, without hesitation or often even a moment’s warning, will throw down whatever they are doing and go help someone who could be a neighbor, a friend or a complete stranger. Finally and perhaps most importantly, we all make mistakes but what really matters is what we do about them. I ask you to bear with us while we work through this moment of pause and make it our opportunity to improve our performance, our image and our connection with both our members and our residents.
Sincerely Chief Harris
Many of you are aware that our fire department is struggling through some very important growing pains. We have just lost an important and key member of our administrative staff, Buddy Wright. He was the training officer, web page master and one of four people who answer questions, phone calls and the do the day-to-day tasks to keep the “office door” open. However, we are still ready to respond the moment we are called to action. In fact, I believe in my heart, this painful and necessary time is pulling us closer together as a group of people who have never lost sight of why we are here. We are ready and willing, because we care deeply and with great passion. I feel very fortunate and proud to be part of this incredible “family” of dedicated people who, without hesitation or often even a moment’s warning, will throw down whatever they are doing and go help someone who could be a neighbor, a friend or a complete stranger. Finally and perhaps most importantly, we all make mistakes but what really matters is what we do about them. I ask you to bear with us while we work through this moment of pause and make it our opportunity to improve our performance, our image and our connection with both our members and our residents.
Sincerely Chief Harris