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Page 15 <br />Applicable National Standards and Benchmarking Guidelines <br />An essential part of analyzing a fire department's fire station performance is comparing <br />its response experience and protocols against established national response standards. <br />There are several ways to make such comparisons to identify a fire department's <br />strengths and weaknesses. <br />• For evaluating service performance, a fire department may use the National Fire <br />Protection Association's Standard 1710, Standard for the Organization and <br />Deployment of Fire Suppression Operations, Emergency Medical Operations, <br />and Special Operations to the Public for Career Fire Departments. NFPA 1710 <br />clearly defines the standard level of resources required and time frames for initial <br />and full responses for successful mitigation of emergencies, including fires, <br />emergency medical calls, and other emergencies. For establishing response <br />readiness and safety, a fire chief may use NFPA 1500, Standard on Fire <br />Department Occupational Safety and Health Program. This standard identifies <br />the minimum requirements for training, equipment, apparatus, physical fitness, <br />and other factors that are required to ensure that firefighters can safely respond <br />and mitigate emergencies. NFPA establishes and periodically revises consensus <br />standards on all aspects of fire department operations. In addition to these two, <br />there are standards on fire prevention, fire protection systems, personal <br />protective equipment, apparatus, training, building construction, and others. <br />NFPA 1710 sets out criteria for effective response to all types of emergencies. <br />Response time is defined as the sum of: <br />1. Call processing time, the time needed for a 911 call to be received <br />and the information processed and dispatched to the closest <br />available fire companies. Sixty seconds are allowed for standard <br />call processing. <br />2. Turnout time, the time required by the firefighters to receive the call <br />information, get on the truck, and start to move. Eighty seconds are <br />allowed for standard turnout time. <br />3. Travel time, the time the required to respond from the fire station to <br />the emergency location. Four minutes are allowed for travel time. <br />Thus, the first responding fire company is allowed up to six minutes to respond to <br />an emergency, regardless of the type of call. Many emergencies require only one <br />fire company for mitigation; most medical emergencies fall in this category. <br />However, structure fires and other emergencies require response of more than <br />one fire company. These emergencies require response from an effective <br />firefighting force (EFF). <br />Tukwila Fire Department — Station Location Study <br />June 2017 <br />32 <br />