Hagerstown's retiring, new fire chiefs talk about challenges ahead

New Hagerstown Fire Chief John DiBacco and retiring Chief Steve Lohr stressed the importance of the human element in fire and public safety, from taking care of firefighters to continuing public safety education programs, during a recent interview.

DiBacco and Lohr sat down for a recent interview with The Herald-Mail at the fire department's headquarters off Church Street to discuss challenges the department continues to face as well as plans under its new leadership.

Lohr is now officially retired — as of Sunday — and spent the last few weeks helping DiBacco get familiar with the department.

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Hagerstown officials announced in late November that DiBacco, 59, was hired to succeed Lohr. He started Dec. 18.

DiBacco comes from 31 years with the Norfolk (Va.) Fire-Rescue Department, the last four as chief. He said coming to Hagerstown feels like home, moving to a smaller city and to a more hands-on job. A Pittsburgh Steelers fan, DiBacco grew up in West Virginia's Northern Panhandle and still has family in that area and in western Pennsylvania.

DiBacco said he previously crossed paths with Lohr when Lohr was chief of the Montgomery County (Md.) Fire Rescue Services. They also have mutual professional colleagues. Noting Lohr's leadership, DiBacco said he was attracted to the Hagerstown job because it is a "great department."

The Hagerstown Fire Department has a reputation of having "really great firefighters," DiBacco said.

Lohr said he's proud of the department's people, the training overseen by now Deputy Fire Chief Adam Hopkins, and the facilities and equipment in place for the local fire service. The city works with volunteer fire companies that own some of the firehouses.

Recruiting and retaining trained, certified firefighters

DiBacco said he arrived with a focus on recruitment and retention. Every fire department in the country has been dealing with recruitment and retention issues for years and, like with volunteer companies, it has become more difficult to attract people.

And to keep them, as Hagerstown competes with wealthier jurisdictions closer to Washington, D.C., Lohr said.

DiBacco said he believes he had some success with recruitment and retention in Norfolk, saying it's become increasingly important to recognize firefighters' desires for a better work-life balance as well as the quality of their lives.

Firefighter cancers are a "huge issue" in the fire service, DiBacco said.

The fire department will continue to provide heavy duty cleaning machines to decontaminate/wash turnout gear, he said.

DiBacco said he wants to improve health screenings and is looking into making cancer-screening blood tests available to city firefighters, noting the importance of early detection.

He also wants to continue work the fire department and the International Association of Firefighters Local 1605 are doing to help firefighters' mental health. That includes supporting a program the union started in the last two years to provide peer counselors to fire department staff.

Lohr said the program provides fire service employees with a peer to talk to when they have a bad shift, bad day or something pressing at home.

To create a stable, long-term workforce, it's important to "take care of your people," DiBacco said.

The city fire department recently received equipment to provide automated external defibrillators, or AEDs, in the city's more than 50 facilities, Lohr and DiBacco said. Hagerstown firefighters will train city employees how to deploy those as well as perform CPR and use stop-bleed kits. The stop-bleed kits have become a priority due to mass casualty incidents such as active shooter situations.

DiBacco said he also wants to continue the program that provides free smoke detectors, with installation, to at least city owner-occupied homes. And to continue supporting Children's Village, which educates Washington County second-graders about public safety issues, including fire prevention.

Lohr said Deputy Fire Marshal Deanna Pelton recently updated the curriculum for Children's Village. That includes educating youngsters about substance abuse.

Staffing an issue at fire departments nationwide

Part of creating a better life-work balance for the city's career firefighters is trying to cover more vacant shifts due to an illness, injury or other reasons, without mandating overtime.

To that end, DiBacco said he hopes to incrementally increase the number of paid firefighters on staff.

Of course, funding has been and will continue to be an issue, DiBacco and Lohr said. DiBacco said he's not looking to solve the problem with "one big swing."

The fire department now has 78 firefighting positions, including fire marshals and administrative positions like the chief. There are five firefighter/EMTs going through a 16-week training academy to be brought up to city training standards, which include a variety of specialized areas, Lohr said.

That staff of 78 is enough to provide minimal two firefighters per firetruck 24/7, for at least 16 paid firefighters on duty per shift.

But there are times that overtime is necessary to cover shifts. While the five trainees are on the rolls, they cannot respond to calls yet. They won't be able to drive a firetruck until their probationary year is complete and they have received commercial driver's license training through Hagerstown Community College's truck driving school, Lohr said.

Lohr lamented that he wasn't able to raise the staffing level to meet the nationwide minimum standard of three firefighters per truck. Even the more nationally desired four-person staffing is not an unrealistic need for this community given the call demand and growing fire risks that accompany development and city expansion, he said.

DiBacco said he would like to incrementally increase the firefighting staffing so the department gets to a point where it can provide at least that minimum two-person per firetruck staffing without mandating overtime. That also could, in the best of times when no one is out sick or injured, provide for an additional firefighter on some firetrucks.

The ultimate goal is to get to three firefighters per truck, DiBacco said.

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A big reason to increase the firefighting staff is because the city has been annexing land and there has been a lot of development that continues, they said. That includes large warehouses and distribution centers as well as sporting facilities planned to open this year that are expected to attract more visitors.

Lohr said when he started as a Funkstown and Hagerstown volunteer firefighter as a teenager, firefighters responded to incidents where there were fires.

Now firefighters also are EMTs and respond to medical calls, including crashes, shootings, cardiac arrests and drug-related incidents. HFD is an "all-hazards department," meaning firefighters are trained to deal with special incidents like high-angle, water and confined space rescues as well as hazmat incidents, Lohr said.

There are more types of calls firefighters respond to as well as higher call volumes. About 80% of HFD's calls are medical-related, Lohr said.

When firefighters respond to a fire or hazardous material call at a building that's more than 1 million square feet, it can take hours to deal with the incident, Lohr said. That is time those firefighters are not available for other calls.

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Lohr noted that city and county officials agreed in 2019 to formalize a common practice, where the closest available fire/rescue unit — city or county Division of Emergency Services — responds to an incident regardless of whether the incident is in that company or department's first-due territory.

That was the case earlier this month with a house fire on Wabash Avenue a few doors outside the city line. That was the Volunteer Fire Co. of Halfway's first-due territory, and Halfway responded, but city units arrived first, Lohr said.

Reviewing the deployment model

Among the tasks DiBacco inherits is reviewing the city's fire/rescue deployment model.

A plan was devised 5 years ago to relocate the fire department headquarters to South Potomac Street property across the street from Bester Elementary School. That land purchase is still going through the approval process, Lohr said.

The move to that site was proposed to include the First Hagerstown Hose Co., now in downtown Hagerstown, and South Hagerstown Fire Co. on West 1st St., Lohr said.

Between the fruition of that plan and eventual construction being finished so the building is operational in at least another five years, there has and will continue to be growth in the city, Lohr said.

It will be part of DiBacco's job to review where fire stations should be in the city and which, if any, relocate to that South End site or if facilities are needed elsewhere.

City officials also need to figure out where the fire headquarters will be in the interim since the city sold the current headquarters building. DiBacco said he anticipates the fire department will have until the end of 2024 to move out.

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Other issues affecting Hagerstown fire service

Among the other issues affecting fire service are working with other city departments to evaluate water supply and pressure throughout the city's coverage area.

That issue received attention in 2017 after a fire at Woodbridge Apartments along Robinwood Drive on Aug. 22.

Funkstown's fire chief at the time said hydrants in the area failed to produce an adequate flow of water to battle the blaze.

Lohr said, in the aftermath, the city Water Division installed a swing check valve near the Hagerstown Elks property along Robinwood Drive. That valve is between two fire protection "zones" to which the city supplies water.

The problem area is Zone 5, which is roughly Robinwood Drive and east to Cavetown, Lohr said.

When there is a fire in Zone 5, the new valve system automatically senses when more water is needed and opens the valve to allow for more water to come from the neighboring Zone 1, Lohr said.

A long-term solution is still needed, Lohr said.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Hagerstown Fire Department's outgoing and new chiefs talk challenges