The impact of the pandemic has been felt by everyone, and the Central Jackson County Fire Protection District is no exception to the hardships that COVID-19 has placed on our community. Early on during the shutdown, CJCFPD encountered an increased number of structure fires. By June, they’d seen more structure fires than they had the entire year before. They believe this is largely due to people being at home more. 

From March through early June, CJCFPD received fewer calls than normal. They think part of the drop was due to messaging from the government to not call 911 unless it was a real emergency, and in part because people were afraid to visit the emergency room and potentially get COVID. Chip Portz, Chief of Community Risk Reductions, explains that “an issue we have now is that the seriousness of calls has increased dramatically. Folks that should have gotten care for chronic issues much earlier were afraid, and those progressive or chronic problems get worse without treatment.”  Because of this, the department has had a surge in the number of non-covid calls since July. “While these calls are not for covid-related illnesses, they are covid-related calls because they are related to the pandemic in that they haven't been receiving the care they should have been getting leading up to their call.”

Chief Portz says it’s been difficult to counter the fear that was planted early on when messaging was discouraging people from going to the hospital unless they were really sick. “Ultimately people stayed away too long. So we are now reminding the community, if you have an emergency, call 911.”

Staying abreast of the rapidly changing CDC recommendations and the dynamic nature of everything continues to be CJCFPD’s biggest challenge. “It’s still a moving target. The information we were getting about the virus was changing and expanding daily.”  Jason Bonney, Chief of Training, believes communication is the biggest thing that’s helped them overcome that hurdle. “In the first few months when things were really dynamic, we were issuing an incident action plan which included everything we were doing, rules and protocols in one document and it was being delivered everyday to every group. That was a key point to keeping everyone on the same page." 

Another major hurdle CJCFPD faced initially was the increased amount of personal protective equipment they were using on calls potentially COVID related. This resulted in a shortage they were not prepared for. “The supply chain for PPE is what impacted us the most in the beginning” explains Chip Portz, Chief of Community Risk Reduction. “We’ve never used so much PPE so quickly, so the stock we had on hand was not sufficient and the supply chain was completely disrupted.” With supply chains returning, the department now has a 6 month supply to support their highest daily burn rate so hopefully, they aren’t as impacted by supply chain issues in the future. 

With flu and allergy season upon us, CJCFPD’s focus is to take the safest approach in order to keep a response force available to serve the community in all areas of CJC’s responsibility. While the department says they have experienced staffing issues due to folks in quarantine, thankfully they haven’t run short of staff. Chief Portz says it’s tricky. “If everyone’s on quarantine because they’ve been exposed, we can’t just park the fire trucks until everyone’s out of quarantine. We’ve been lucky so far, and it’s thanks to the steps Chief Grote took early on to close the stations to visitors and limit our contact with the community.” 

CJCFPD facilities have been closed to the public since March, and Chief Grote says he doesn’t plan to reopen them until March of next year in order to ensure they maintain the minimum staffing level needed to run the number of ambulances and fire trucks they’re committed to.  

Eight months ago, when restrictions started being mandated, Chief Portz said another major concern for CJCFPD was maintaining their connection with the community.  “We live in this community, and we’ve benefitted organizationally in growth and capability thanks to the community’s support. So when we have to isolate ourselves from the community that has supported us best, it’s difficult to consider losing those connections.” 

To combat this, the department has worked hard to leverage technology opportunities the pandemic has provided. They've been able to take a substantial step forward in utilizing technology to strengthen their tie to each other and the community. A great example of this is the department’s new approach to strategic planning.  Jason Bonney, Chief of Training, states “For the last 15 years we’ve tried to implement community driven strategic plans. In the past we’ve used stakeholders and other committees within the community to provide external feedback, which has always been beneficial. But in this situation, we’ve been given an opportunity to reach a broad spectrum of voices and opinions from all walks of life that normally wouldn’t get to directly participate.” 

Chief Bonney says, “We’re asking all residents to participate in our Virtual Strategic Planning Survey - ReVision 2020. We feel that the more people that take the survey, give us feedback, and participate in the virtual strategic planning sessions, the better. This is their fire protection district, and we want to make sure we’re doing what they want.”  Chief Bonney says, “There will be a variety of planning session opportunities on both weekdays and weekends, and even non-residents that work in the district are invited to participate.” 

Visit cjcfpd.org to participate in the CJCFPD Virtual Strategic Planning Survey. The deadline to complete the survey is Monday, October 26. The virtual meetings will be scheduled based on the community’s preferences indicated in the survey results. 

Thank you to the City of Blue Springs, The Examiner, Community Services League Blue Springs, and Downtown Alive for supporting our local small businesses. Together, we are #BlueSpringsStrong!