MOUNTAIN ARTS CENTER

50 Hal Rogers Dr

Prestonsburg, KY 41653

Thursday October 27, 6 pm

Our last meeting of 2022 will be in Prestonsburg at the Mountains Arts Center. We are excited to go to Eastern KY and meet with Fire Chiefs from the area. We will have a full agenda as we will be discussing our legeslative agenda and the 2023 Spending Plan. We would love to see you there.

Signup or renew now and you are good for 2023. Just click the link below, you can pay with credit card or by check.

WOW!! What a great conference!

Thanks to everyone who attended. I think this was our largest yet.

Our sponsors and vendors were outstanding! You help make our conference great! We tried something new this year with Atlantic Emergency Solutions sponsoring a hospitality event on Wednesday evening. It was a huge success!! We hope we can encourage them to do it again next year.

Thank you to our special guest speaker, Darryl Issacs. Thanks for all you do for the fire service. We like forward to working with you in the future!

Congrats to our Chiefs of the year!

Chief Futrell and Chief Compton are two outstanding leaders. They both are dedicated to their departments and their community! Also many thanks to VFIS and KLC for sponsoring this award.

This year we had Chief Mark Emery and Chief Rob Cannon as our speakers. We appreciate you coming in and sharing your leadership philosophies with us. Both are great motivational speakers!

Our silent auction was a success thanks to Chief Sutt and his staff. Over 90 items were available to bid on. We appreciate all the people who bid and hope you enjoy your items! Remember, that money goes to the KY Fallen Firefighter Memorial. Stay tuned for the final amount.

Once again our Executive Director, Danny Castle has lead us through a very successful conference! Thank you, Danny for all you do for this association. You’re the best!

It was great seeing and talking with everyone. Sitting round and listening to all the stories and the present day concerns were much appreciated to this retired chief. Some of those concerns I defiantly do not miss. lol

It was very encouraging seeing so many new chiefs at the conference. You are the future and you’re doing a great job! Thank you for getting involved in the association.

Hope to see everyone next year!

Stay Safe.

Cathy

The proposed changes to the KAFC Bylaws was voted on at the Annual Meeting and passed. You can download a copy of the bylaws by clicking the link below.

This past week I had the opportunity to represent the Southeastern Association of Fire Chiefs (SEAFC) as your Kentucky director at the Fire Rescue International conference in San Antonio, TX. This year’s FRI conference was well attended by Chief officers from all over the country and the globe. I had the honor of getting introduced to Dr. Lori Moore-Merrell the US Fire Administrator and our new IAFC president Chief Donna Black. During the weeks conference there was discussion over several issues facing the fire service such as recruitment/retention, diversity and culture, Fire and EMS staff fatigue, education along with mental health and wellness. It was great to see that the leadership in the IAFC and at the Congressional level are actively working to help find solutions and are involving its members and those on the Board to be a part of those solutions.

The SEAFC Board has been asked to be a part of the Wingspread Program which began in 1966 and was in part designed to help provide a report for Fire administrators on statements of National Significance within the United States Fire and Emergency services. I have attached a QR code below where you can find the Wingspread report from this past conference. This conference is held now every 5 years in an effort to evaluate and better understand the position of the Fire and Emergency services in an ever-changing environment.

Also, I am attaching a QR link for the SEAFC Leadership conference page. It will be held in Wilmington, NC in June of 2023. Please let me know if you have any questions or would like information on how you can be a part of the Southeastern Association of Fire Chiefs.

The committees and chairs are listed below. If you are interested in serving on one of the below committees please click the email link and  send and email of interest.

Education Committee - Chair, Chief Michael Morgan EMAIL

EMS Committee - Chair, Deputy Chief Mike Sutt EMAIL

Conference Committee - Chair, Asst. Chief David Howser EMAIL

Health & Safety - Chair, Asst. Chief James Gifford EMAIL

Legislative Committee - Chair, Chief Adam Jones EMAIL

If you have any questions or comments please reach out to one of the Legislative Committee Members.

Chair – KAFC Legislative Agent, Adam Jones – Fern Creek Fire/EMS Email

KAFC President, Cathy Rigney – Winchester Fire/EMS Email

David Howser - St. Matthews Fire/EMS Email

Wayne Briscoe – Frankfort Fire/EMS – Email

Michael Brown – Prestonsburg Fire Department – Email

Steve Futrell – Hopkinsville Fire/EMS – Email

Steve Kyle – Paducah Fire Department – Email

Rick Millikan – Morganfield Fire Department – Email

Nathan Mulvey – Fern Creek Fire/EMS – Email

Rob Rothenburger – Shelbyville Fire Department – Email

   Medical evaluations are an important part of keeping our firefighters healthy, fit, and ready to respond to emergencies. NFPA 1582 requires fire departments to establish a comprehensive medical evaluation program. This standard should be used as a guide to help you develop and implement effective medical evaluations. In this standard, there is a section that covers medical evaluations for candidates and current members. The evaluations for members should be performed every 12 months. The components of the annual member physicals are: Medical history, physical examination, and ancillary tests such as blood work, spirometry, EKG, cancer screenings, etc. This is just a partial list, for a full list check NFPA 1582. 

               During our department physicals last year, one of our current members received an abnormal reading on his prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test. This member followed up with his personal physician and was then referred to a specialist. During the following examinations, it was determined that he had prostate cancer. Since receiving the diagnoses, he has had surgery, and had the prostate and all the cancer removed. The performance of this test led to early detection of the cancer. Firefighters are at a higher risk of certain cancers, so performing these tests is paramount. This firefighter is expected to return to the job, fully recovered this month. 

James Gifford

Assistant Chief of Operations

Georgetown Fire Department

Thank you to everyone who participated in this survey. I will be taking this information from here to the Southeastern Chiefs meeting this next month and working with the other state directors to find the top 3 items needing addressed at the national level. I am also certain that the KY Chief Associations EMS committee will be working with this data to determine how we can affect change within the state whether through legislation or other means.

Class #1 of the Kentucky Fire Commission’s Kentucky Firefighter Recruit Academy began August 22, 2022 at the National Responder Preparedness Center (NRPC) in Greenville. The Academy welcomed 27 students from 8 departments across the Commonwealth for this pilot program. Recruits will spend 13 weeks training from the ground up at the NRPC and upon successful completion will conclude their time at the Academy with over 400 hours of training, International Fire Service Accreditation Congress certifications in Hazmat Awareness, Hazmat Operations, Firefighter I & II, Driver Operator-Pumper and Mobile Water Supply, along with the skills and knowledge to perform these important job duties for their communities. 

The Fire Commission, State Fire Rescue Training and the NRPC would like to thank everyone who has supported this venture and for all of the SFRT instructors and NRPC training staff who diligently worked to plan and prepare for this Academy. We are looking forward to a great 13 weeks of learning and watching these recruits evolve into firefighters!

2022 FIRE COMMISSION

MEETING DATES

October 20 - Somerset - 1pm

Somerset Office

December 1 - Paris - 1pm

Fire Commission Office

FIRE PREVENTION

Fire Prevention Week - Coming Soon!

Join the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) in celebrating the 100th anniversary of Fire Prevention Week! Happening from October 9-15, this year's theme is “Fire Won’t Wait. Plan Your Escape™.” Start planning your week with the resources in the link below!