First in a series about life in the city of Butler.

Tim Iman never knows if he’ll spend his day in the bull pen or rushing to an emergency.

When the city resident arrives around 7 a.m at the Butler Bureau of Fire, he gets a report from the crew clocking out, checks the equipment in the fire trucks and around the station, and reviews the “chores” he has to complete.

While this routine can take around an hour, Iman’s entire day can change in less than a minute. For the rest of his shift, he has to be prepared to board a fire truck and head to the scene of a medical emergency, the aftermath of a car crash or even a structure fire.

The usual 24-hour shift at the bureau on North Washington Street can be fraught with emergency calls, but a lot of his time is spent working behind the scenes.

“We can get anywhere from eight to 20 calls in a day,” Iman said. “Other than that, it's kind of doing things around the station that need to be done maintenance-wise.”

Iman has been employed by the bureau for just over nine years, but has been a firefighter for almost 20, counting his time working at the Butler Township Volunteer Fire Department. He recently accepted an invitation to join Pennsylvania Strike Team 1, which is an urban-search-and-rescue team that operates in Allegheny County.

The duties of these departments require a lot of training and dedication, but to Iman the challenges are part of what makes them interesting.

“I was always very interested in the technical side of fire service,” Iman said.

Prepping for emergency

There is more than just fire trucks behind the garage doors of the downtown fire station. The area next to the garage is referred to as the “bull pen” by the department staff. It’s where the on-duty crew listens to the county’s emergency dispatch center on speakers and has computers to file reports and track incident information. Most of the firefighters can tell which departments are being called by dispatch simply by the pitch of the radio tone.

Upstairs is an area that includes a living room, kitchen, dining room, a locker room with showers and a bunk room in the back with six beds.

Throughout the first hours of the 24-hour shift, firefighters will complete their routine tasks and listen to 911 calls. Later on, if they have downtime, they can eat dinner and rest up on one of the beds.

When the right tone plays over the scanner and dispatchers relay an emergency, the firefighters load into vehicles and head out to the scene. Iman said the on-duty crew will take both fire trucks to a call and withdraw them if they are not needed.

As a paid department, response time is key.

“We are usually on the scene anywhere in the city in probably three or four minutes,” said Tom Fair, a captain at the department. “That is the main part of having a paid department; the most important part is response time.”

Iman said most of the daily calls are medical related. He said last year the city got about 4,200 emergency calls, and estimated that 3,500 of those calls were medical.

On a medical call, the firefighters will provide “point” if they arrive before an ambulance and will check a patient’s vital signs and status.

At other city emergencies, such as a vehicle crash or structure fire, the firefighters each perform their duties assigned by the captain on shift.

Skip Lohr is a senior driver with the department, and although the captain accompanies the firefighters to a scene, it is Skip’s duty to assign jobs to the other firefighters and set up a stage point for the trucks.

“I stage the incoming services and delegate search and rescue,” Lohr said. “I will size up the scene after putting the pumps in and advise.”

Each firefighter has their own function at a scene, from getting equipment from the trucks to finding a water source, spraying a structure or assisting with the search for and rescue of occupants. Sometimes they need to call in more departments for help.

“You really need to trust each guy,” Fair said.

It can take hours for the bureau to complete a scene — even after a fire is out firefighters need to mitigate any flammable materials and speak with witnesses. Iman said a report is filed after every call, and the fire staff debriefs afterward.

“With every incident, there are rights and wrongs and how you could do it better,” Fair said.

A hot career field

The Butler Bureau of Fire is one of two paid fire departments in Butler County. The other is the VA Butler Healthcare Fire Department. Fair said the bureau currently has a total of 19 employees.

Chris Switala, bureau fire chief, said the bar for entry at the department is high. Applicants need to complete a significant amount of training to even be considered for employment at the department.

“Minimum, they need a firefighter 1 certification and EMT to be eligible to take our test,” Switala said. “The testing process takes several months to complete, then those who complete all the exams are placed on an eligibility list.”

According to Switala, once a firefighter is hired, they are still considered to be on probation until they complete a firefighter 2 certification and work a total of 750 hours.

The multitude of volunteer departments throughout Butler County means many applicants have some firefighter experience and training, but getting certified can be tough.

“Many have started as a volunteer elsewhere and want to switch to a firefighting career,” he said. “We still struggle with recruitment because the way the job market is and our certification requirements.”

Switala said the longest-serving employee of the department has been there for 38 years. The median amount of time served currently is nine years, and the newest employee has been there for “a few months.”

Many firefighters stay for decades because of the bonds formed with one another and the community. Switala said he hopes the same is true for the new department recruits.

“We have brought in a lot of younger firefighters over the last several years, so that has changed the dynamics,” he said.

The daily duties

Iman said being employed full-time at the fire department involves more behind-the-scenes work and training.

There is also work to be done outside the department walls, such as walk-throughs of local buildings that aim to help the firefighters be prepared for a structure fire.

The high rise buildings are a particular focus of these “pre-plan walk-throughs.”

“When it comes to our high rises, the Arbors, Lafayette Apartments, Cliffside Apartments, Terrace Apartments, we need to know where our stand pipes are at, where our elevator is, so we are very up to date on the inner workings,” Iman said. “So, if we have a fire in the seventh floor of one of those high rises, we have to know how much we have to pump the truck at to make sure we have adequate water pressure for the crews.”

All of these duties are part of the daily job because when an emergency call comes in, everything needs to be in place for an efficient response. Iman emphasized the responsibility — and the enjoyment — that comes with being a city firefighter.

“You do a lot for the department,” Iman said. “I would rather do the 24-hour shifts than any 9 to 5 or something like that.”