Growth a continual challenge for Vegas Valley departments

Eric Leake

Saturday, Nov. 27, 2004 | 12:19 p.m.

WEEKEND EDITION

November 27 - 28, 2004

In the race to keep up with growth, Las Vegas Valley fire departments try to plan ahead and they use each other to keep response times down.

In Henderson, North Las Vegas and Las Vegas, fire officials said they aim for a six-minute response time -- the time it takes from receiving an emergency call to arriving at the emergency -- and most departments are near or below that mark.

North Las Vegas' average response time was six minutes, one second last year.

The Henderson Fire Department took an average five minutes 50 seconds, which was down from 2002, when the department's average response time was seven minutes, 26 seconds.

Las Vegas Fire & Rescue also averaged five minutes 50 seconds, which was a marked improvement over 1999, when the department's average response time was seven minutes 36 seconds.

Las Vegas Fire & Rescue spokesman Tim Szymanski said much of the improvement is due to new fire stations being built and placed, in part, with an eye toward improving response times.

He said the department has built three more stations in the past two years.

Also, Szymanski said, expansions at one department can help the others through regional cooperation.

"We work as though we're one big fire department," he said. "We get the closest fire unit to the scene as quickly as possible regardless of who it belongs to."

Traffic and roads also factor into how quickly they reach an emergency.

Henderson Fire Department Deputy Chief Doug Stevens said keeping up with growth takes good planning.

"One of the first discussions that takes place is where are we going to put a fire station," Stevens said about discussions with city planners reviewing proposed developments.

Local departments can also face a financial crunch.

North Las Vegas Fire Department Chief Jim Stubler said it can takes years for the property tax revenue from new homes to reach local governments and their fire departments.

"In that lag time it's hard for the city to respond to build the stations and man (them)," Stubler said. "Growth really doesn't pay for growth."

Stubler said response times are one way to check how a department is keeping pace with growth, and if those times increase it may mean a department does not have enough stations or firefighters.

Bob Leinbach, spokesman for the Clark County Fire Department, said response times for his department were not immediately available. He said the benefits of inter-agency cooperation are not only in response times, but in the effectiveness of that response.

"We all have agreements in place and have had them in place for some time to make sure the closest appropriate unit responds in the quickest possible time," Leinbach said. "As a result, regardless of political boundaries, the unit that is closest, goes."

Clark County, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas departments share a central dispatch center located in downtown Las Vegas on Bonanza Road, he said. The office uses an automatic vehicle locator to find the fire service unit closest to trouble.

For the Clark County department and other fire departments in the region, the population increase and construction of new neighborhoods, often on the outlying desert in the urban area, are huge challenges, Leinbach said.

Not only does it mean that firefighters have longer drives to respond to emergencies, but it means more traffic to wade through to get to those locations.

"Growth is the most demanding factor," Leinbach said, "and it affects everything we do."