The first thing that comes to mind when you think of the fire department may be the giant red truck. Or it could be the scene with firemen putting out a fire. According to Mark Mignery, the Emergency Medical Services Coordinator for the Hamilton Fire Department, putting out fires is actually a very small portion of their day to day operations.
“Out of the 14,000 runs we did last year, only 60 were fires,” Mark said. “We’re really an EMS department that puts out 60 fires a year.”
Mark has been the EMS Coordinator for Hamilton for the past five years. Prior to that, he spent twelve years as a firefighter/paramedic. He has been a Butler County resident his whole life, growing up primarily in Hanover Township. He graduated from Badin High School and attended Miami University, where he met his wife. The pair now have seven children and one on the way.
“I have been here my whole life,” he said. “I love it. When I leave to go on vacation, I am tickled pink to come home.”
Mark got his start in emergency services as a volunteer firefighter for Hanover Township. While attending Miami University for nursing, he acquired his EMT certification. With that, he eventually tested to join the Hamilton Fire Department.
“I took the test and I did very well,” Mark said. “They offered me a job and I never really looked back.”
Mark found more than just a job when he joined the Hamilton Fire Department. He built solid (and necessary) relationships with his coworkers during his years on the rig.
“You work with the same guys every day mostly; they’re your family,” he explained. “Some people see the guys at the firehouse more than they see their family, so you get really close to them.”
Since the fire department doesn’t take a day off, holidays away from the family can be difficult but the relationships built between the crew can make all the difference. Mark recalls an exceptionally busy Christmas Eve shift working in the ambulance.
“We got absolutely clobbered, but it was the holidays,” Mark said. “If you did it now, you’d probably get in trouble, but we would key up the radio and play Christmas music over the radio or over the loud speakers as we were going down High Street. We got clobbered but we had a lot of fun.”
A goal of the department is to be more proactive rather than reactive. To accomplish this, Mark has participated in a system overhaul when it comes to training and preparedness of his employees.
“Back in the day it was a little bit different,” he explained. “When they hired us, they gave us fire gear, showed us how to put on breathing apparatus and told us to get on the truck.”
New hires would receive on the job training until they could be sent to fire school in Columbus. These days, training takes a more safe and thorough approach to ensure that crews are as prepared as possible to best help the citizens of Hamilton.
Since becoming the EMS Coordinator, Mark has focused on professional development by increasing training for firefighters who want to take the next step. In addition to the more in depth trainings being offered, the promotion process has also become more involved. Mark was the first person to go through an extended promotional process. This includes a written test and an oral assessment with the Ohio Fire Chiefs. Since then, they have followed the same promotional process for all firefighters, resulting in more well-rounded candidates.
As the inner workings are shifting, the outside relationships are also reaping the benefits.
“We are very lucky in the city to have such good relationships with the hospital systems,” Mark said, recalling a patient experiencing a cardiac episode. “We work so well with Fort Hamilton, we had a 14-minute door to balloon time. That means 14 minutes from the time we wheeled that person through the door, they were on the operating table.”
The window has now been shortened to just nine minutes from door to table.
The goal of fire prevention is to prevent fires from happening in the first place, and the department has seen progress in that area with the number of fires reducing. Now the focus is on EMS, with the goal being to either decrease runs, or at least stop them from increasing year to year. Hamilton is tackling this from a variety of angles, including public education. In addition to CPR and Stop the Bleed courses, Hamilton also offers fall prevention classes for the elderly. They even have a certified car seat instructor now.
“You look at the city now and we are on the verge of something big and monumental happening,” Mark said. “I am pro city, I am pro Chief Mercer [fire chief], I am pro Scott Scrimizzi [public safety officer], and I am pro Joshua Smith [city manager], because those guys have a vision of what they want the city to be.”
Mark believes that you have to get out into the community to see what they want, need, and expect to give them the best care.
“At the end of the day, while we put out fires and take people to the hospital, we are here to support the city’s mission and vision,” he said. “If the city is successful, then the fire department is going to be successful.”