Areas of Practice

Strategic Planning

Fire Apparatus Review & Replacement Schedule Development

Fire and Emergency Services Organizational Studies

Long-range, strategic planning is essential in helping inform the organization and the community of both current and future needs of the fire and emergency services agency. Identifying and clarifying the organization’s mission, vision and values sets the stage for a strong strategic plan foundation. With extensive input from both agency and community members, a strategic plan provides clarity, in a fully transparent fashion, the future goals and objectives of the organization and how each member can help achieve those goals. Our team is experienced in facilitating the strategic planning process.

The purchase of fire apparatus represents a significant capital expense for every community. Decision-makers must assure there are appropriate resources for adequate fire protection while balancing the fiscal and competing capital demands of local government.


Our team can provide valuable insight to assist fire service leaders and local government decision-makers. The process includes a site visit to inspect and assess the current condition of each piece of fire apparatus. This inspection will also include a meeting with fire department representatives to confirm the accuracy of any documentation received and to understand operations regarding how the apparatus is typically deployed during emergency operations. Based on examination of the current apparatus fleet that includes an analysis of the demographic profile of the community to determine if the existing fire equipment meets the current and projected fire protection and specialized rescue needs of the community.

A report is developed that includes an apparatus replacement schedule (or revisions to an existing schedule) based on the condition and projected service life of the current fire apparatus fleet. Information from the most recent ISO Community Public Protection Classification survey and nationally recognized standards for the recommended service life and replacement of fire apparatus are consulted to formulate the schedule. Existing automatic and mutual aid agreements with contiguous communities for providing specialized fire apparatus or rescue equipment will also be considered.

Fire Service Accreditation

Leadership Development Training

All fire and emergency service organizations today, must deal with tremendous complexity in a rapidly changing environment. Among the challenges faced include:

  • Accelerating evolution in technology.

  • Social and cultural changes influenced by generational differences in the workforce.

  • Economic stressors.

  • Evolving expectations in the delivery of services.

  • Greater expectation of accountability.

  • Demographic shifts

Our team has extensive experience in working with fire and emergency service agencies to assure they continue to be successful in meeting challenges today and into the future. Our approach includes a comprehensive organizational analysis to examine the current service delivery levels within the community. 

  • Evaluate and define the fire agency’s baseline of operations.

  • Identify benchmarks for achieving agency goals and objectives.

  • Determine levels of service for all, or portions of the community.

  • Measure agency performance over different budget or operational years.

The process also includes:

  • Community baseline to determine historical and contemporary information that provides a context for the agency.

  • Risk assessment of the physical assets in the community to be protected. 

  • Standards, goals, and objectives to determine current level of service and risk in the community. 

  • Critical task capability of the agency to validate apparatus staffing and response to emergencies. 

  • Service level objectives based on historical response data and the current service performance levels. 

  • Evaluation of agency reliability is assessed byes on historical response data, staffing levels and relationship to the expected type and volume of emergency incidents. 

At the conclusion of our evaluation, our team of subject matter experts deliver a comprehensive final report with actionable recommendations to meet the agency’s and the community’s current and future needs.

Mentoring

The delivery of effective fire protection is a core responsibility for a community. The stakes are high; fire departments -- and by extension their governing bodies -- face significant liability exposure for failure to meet mandated training requirements, numerous laws and regulations, consensus standards, and best practices. Moreover, the public deserves to know how well local fire protection services are delivered.


Fire service accreditation is a model that provides a consistent, systematic, and unbiased assessment methodology to determine the effectiveness and promote continuous quality improvement for fire and emergency service agencies.


Our team is comprised of experienced subject matter experts who all come from what was during their tenure, the only Internationally Accredited Fire Department in the State of New Jersey. Between them, they have more than one hundred (100) years of Fire Service experience. The capstone of that
experience was the independent assessment of their agency by the Commission on Fire Accreditation International (CFAI). That assessment benchmarked and measured the quality of the fire and emergency services delivered by the department against well-defined, internationally recognized standards and best practices.

Our subject matter experts have experience in municipal and regional offices of emergency management activities. Our team members have attended numerous local, state, and federal emergency management training programs to achieve emergency management certifications. We utilize the FEMA Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP) principles for exercise programs. Our methods follow the National Preparedness Goal and target issues identified in Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment (THIRA) processes. Our services include but are not limited to:

  • The development of Incident Action Plans (IAP) for planned events

  • The development or revision of emergency operations plans

  • The development or revision of emergency operations policies or procedures

  • The development and/or delivery of discussion-based or operations-based exercises

  • The development of an After-Action Report (AAR)/ Improvement Plan (IP) for exercises or real-world incidents

Emergency Management

Among public sector organizations, the fire service has unique and growing responsibilities on behalf of the greater community. Distilled to its most basic mission – the protection of life and property – the fire department enterprise is about protecting the community and its members.

But achieving that mission in a rapidly changing society is not easy. As the expectations for the fire service increase, so too do the expectations for its leaders. Overall, the fire service does an excellent job in developing officers for leadership roles for command of fire and emergency incidents. However, effective supervisory training and development of the necessary “soft skills” of leadership are often lacking. Training in conflict management, communication, team building, ethics, and more is essential for today’s fire service leaders. Our leadership training programs provide the essential tools for fire service leaders to be successful in today’s complex environment.

Mentoring strengthens relationships, accelerates learning, and improves organizational continuity by setting the foundation for a succession plan. The very best leaders understand that they are building a sustaining organization that will thrive beyond their tenure. Our team is experienced in mentoring fire service leaders to assist them and their organizations reach their full potential.