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commercialappeal.com - Memphis, TN

Arwood tackles backlog of data
Vows to comply with laws regarding fire reports
By Richard Locker
July 28, 2004

NASHVILLE - The Memphis Fire Department hasn't been complying with a state law requiring that every fire be reported to the state within 10 days.
But new city Fire Director Richard Arwood said Tuesday that he's made it a priority to have the data compiled and reported timely to the state and federal governments.

Arwood said he was surprised soon after arriving on the job to learn that the department wasn't compiling the fire data, valuable in detecting trends that can help save lives and property.

"What I can assert is that we are going to move ahead as fast as I can go because, first, I know we need it and second, the state and federal governments need it," Arwood said.

The city's data-reporting failure came to light when Tennessee Commerce and Insurance Commissioner Paula Flowers decided to take a much more active role in fire safety than her predecessors.

The commissioner carries the dual title of state fire marshal, and Flowers - appointed to the job last year - was concerned about a 2002 report by the National Fire Protection Association that ranked Tennessee second in fire fatalities.

She set up a fire safety task force last year and met with fire officials across the state.

After discovering that her state agency didn't even keep a complete list of fire departments, she sought and won approval of a bill last year requiring all fire departments to register with the state.

And she discovered that some of the state's largest fire departments, including Memphis and Nashville, weren't complying with a 1970s law that requires every fire be reported to the state fire marshal within 10 days.
Memphis filed its last report in July 2003 - which included data for all city fires in 2002.

Flowers's office said all of Shelby County's suburban fire departments' reports are up to date.

Flowers sent a July 20 letter to fire chiefs and mayors explaining the data's importance and urging them to comply.

She noted that there were 143 fire deaths in Tennessee last year, up 40 percent from the previous year - information she found from death certificates filed with the state's Health Department.

Arwood said he received the letter Monday, but had already been tackling the issue.

Arwood, who was Collierville's assistant fire chief before taking the Memphis job, said he understood the reports' value and was surprised that Memphis wasn't complying.

"If you're doing it in the right way and collecting it in the detail that I would like to, it would allow you to pinpoint where your structure fires are occurring most frequently and any patterns that develop," he said. "It certainly would help you with arson investigations. It's the way the police have operated for years."

Much of the problem stems from the fact that only about half the department's 57 fire stations are connected to the agency's computer network, he said. Arwood hopes to hire a data analyst to help train firefighters to file the reports.

But he said the department won't meet Flowers's Oct. 1 deadline for compliance.

"We are in the process of getting there. I will judge that it's probably going to take us six months to a year. There's no way we can meet the Oct. 1 deadline, but I can promise everyone that we will be in compliance."

Contact Nashville Bureau chief Richard Locker at (615) 255-4923.

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