Polk County Fire District No. 1 has completed work on its first standards of cover.
“The standard of cover is the user’s manual,” Chief Ben Stange said. “Anyone from the public should be able to pick it up, know who the fire district is, how it’s staffed, all that stuff.”
In the years 2014 through 2016, the district’s response times to medical calls varied depending on which vehicle was used and which station volunteers responded to.
Stange said he has a goal for the first medic to be out the door in 1 minute, 30 seconds, 80 percent of the time.
For the district’s main ambulances, those figures were met 58 percent of the time in 2016.
The district is close to meeting its goals of arriving to medical calls in the city limits of Monmouth or Independence within 8 minutes, 90 percent of the time.