SWAT team, fire equipment and drug lab come before public safety committee

The public safety committee of the Winston-Salem City Council will receive a presentation from Assistant City Manager Greg Turner on an audit of fire department personal protective equipment when it meets at 6 p.m. today.

From the assistant city manager’s findings:

“The department kept track of the equipment issued to firefighters in something call ‘The Book.’ Unfortunately, staff in the department found that much of the information in ‘The Book’ was inaccurate. Therefore, in January 2014, they directed all firefighters to complete an inventory sheet of the equipment assigned to them. The completed inventory sheets indicated out-of-date equipment, but field checks by department administrative staff found that many employees had multiple sets of equipment and that if an employee had an out-of-date set of equipment, they also had an in-service set as well. An in-service set of equipment is a set that is compliant with the NFPA 1851 rules for remaining life and physical condition.”

Turner’s independent audit of the firefighters’ personal protective equipment was prompted by complaints received by city administration that the firefighters did not have safe equipment to fight fires.

The committee meets in Committee Room 239 at City Hall, located at 101 N. Main St.

The committee also hears a presentation from police Chief Barry Rountree on a proposed blood alcohol content and drug laboratory, followed by a report on the police department’s SWAT team. The SWAT team report was likely prompted by this article in the Winston-Salem Journal by Bertrand Gutierrez.