REPORT TO THE CITY COUNCIL
March 26, 2015
FROM: KERRI DONIS, Fire Chief
City of Fresno Fire Department
SUBJECT
Title
Approve a loan agreement between City of Fresno Fire Department (Fire Department) and Fire Investigative Strike Team ("FIST") for City use of a vehicle specially equipped to accommodate a canine unit
Body
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends City Council approve the use loan agreement between FIST and the Fire Department to provide a vehicle specially equipped to accommodate a canine unit.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
As the regional representative for the FIST program, the Fire Department has been authorized to use a vehicle customized to accommodate a canine unit. The vehicle title is held by FIST, but under the loan agreement, the vehicle is operated and maintained by the Fire Department.
BACKGROUND
The FIST program is a regionalized non-profit organization made up of fire investigators from Clovis, Coalinga, Fresno City, Kingsburg, Sanger and Selma Fire Departments as well as Fresno County Fire Protection District. Its purpose is to provide fire investigation services to member agencies when needed. Circumstances requiring a FIST activation include, but are not limited to, instances when the requesting agency does not have a fire investigator due to limited resources and/or availability, fire scenes which are complex in nature, fires resulting in a large property/dollar loss, high profile fires, fire deaths and other fire investigations that are outside the scope of the requesting agency. There is one canine unit to assist all territories in the organization.
As the former canine team handler was approaching retirement, Fire Department staff began exploring the possibility of adding an ignitable liquid detection canine to the investigations division as most responses by the FIST canine unit were located in Fresno. To assist in the canine handler transition, FIST applied for a grant through State Farm Insurance...
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