Staffing shortages, heavy workloads and burnout have stretched Juneau’s fire department thin. Now, a new chief is at the helm, and he wants to rebuild morale and reshape the culture inside Capital City Fire/Rescue.
KTOO’s Mike Lane sat down with the new chief, Tom Hatley, to learn how he plans to accomplish that.
Listen:
The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Mike Lane: Chief, your first day on the job was February 9. So how’s it going? So far?
Chief Tom Hatley: So far, so good. Enjoying it. Adapting pretty good — coming from Eastern Washington into the cold tundra here in Alaska — adapting very well. Again, I hit the ground running, coming in just as I got off the airplane, meeting the folks, the firefighters, and spent a lot of time with them in the past couple of weeks. Just getting to know them and getting to know the culture of the fire department.
Mike Lane: Has there been a particular call that stuck in your mind so far?
Chief Tom Hatley: Oh, everything from airport emergencies all the way down to the CPR call. And I think I was witness to a pretty severe CPR call here just a couple days ago, and got to see the crews in action and see the really good teamwork, the service that we provide the citizens, and I think it really speaks volumes to our firefighters.
Mike Lane: You were most recently the deputy fire chief for the Spokane Valley Fire Department. So how different is CCFR from that department?
Chief Tom Hatley: We ran 23,000 calls out of 10 stations — very busy fire department, Spokane Valley. One thing that’s unique about Juneau is, in Spokane Valley we have endless, endless resources. On any fire we could have up to 10 fire units. And you know, we can call in more if we need it. And here in Juneau, you get what you get. I think it’s unique that we have to deal with stuff on our own and not rely on help. So that, I think that’s the biggest thing right now is just the amount of resources I had at my fingertips compared to what I have now.
Mike Lane: So, why did you want to come to Juneau? What about the community drew you here?
Chief Tom Hatley: Well, I think it was that uniqueness of having to utilize the resources you have on hand. Again, it’s an adventure. I look at this time in my life, it just seemed like the right fit, the right time. This organization is primed — I mean, a lot of lots going on, and it’s a unique fire department, and I think a lot of departments in the United States would be envious of what we have here with the community health division, our EMS culture, and then the uniqueness of the rescue component that we have with all the tourists and so forth.
Mike Lane: And the tour season is coming up.
Chief Tom Hatley: Yes and seven, and seeing seven cruise ships out my front door probably will be a little bit of a culture shock.
Mike Lane: Fire Departments nationwide are facing staffing shortages. How is CCFR positioned right now? How many staff does CCFR currently have? How many positions need to be filled?
Chief Tom Hatley: We are down nine positions, and it’s been a lot of struggle. Again, when we talk about retention, trying to get personnel out the door we have to manage calls. We have to triage calls, just due to the fact — the lack of firefighters we have currently. We’ve got six apprentices coming online by the end of May, that will bolster that and then we just put out a job announcement to hire three more that should get us up to our nine, and by summer, hopefully we’ll be fully staffed. And I guess retention-wise, we need to provide a department that supports them, and that’s kind of why I’m here, to change that culture. Be more family centric, and again, have fun at our jobs. It’s a lot of burnout, and they’re so busy, and when a couple folks call in sick, they’re working 24/48s… 24 (hours) on, 48 off. Right now they’re working 48 on, 24 off. They’re just — our crews are burned out.
Mike Lane: Are there any equipment or facility needs that you see as priorities as well?
Chief Tom Hatley: Well our facilities, we need to get them up to standards, just giving our crews space. We got crews sleeping, you know, right on top of each other. These are our homes away from home, so to try to bolster that. We’re just busting at the seams. So just kind of upgrading our facilities would be a priority.
Mike Lane: You mentioned the department culture. So what does a healthy fire department culture look like to you?
Chief Tom Hatley: The vision that we’re all on board to provide a great service to our citizens, but also to provide a place our employees are valued and respected, and again, being able to be heard. Being short staffed, our heads been down. We haven’t been able to focus on anything but the job. So I think we need to give them some relief, and we’re all in this together and we’re here to provide a great service for this amazing community.
Mike Lane: CCFR Chief Tom Hatley, thanks for joining us.
Chief Tom Hatley: Thank you.
