Fire Department

15482 K Road, Mayetta, KS 66509 | P. 785-966-2164 | ONLINE BILL PAY

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Mission Statement

The mission of the Potawatomi Tribal Fire Department is to provide our community with the highest quality service for the protection of life and property. We dedicate ourselves to the principles of value-based leadership, teamwork, service, and sacrifice. Our fundamental purpose is to serve those in need with kindness, compassion, and the utmost professionalism.

Vision

The vision of the Potawatomi Tribal Fire Department is to support the Nation by providing sustainable and need-based fire, rescue, and emergency medical services to our community.  We are committed to the goal of value-added service whenever possible.  Through a proactive approach, we strive to position our department both financially and operationally to provide continuity of service while at the same time embracing change in a challenging fiscal environment.  We are innovative, adaptable, and responsive to the evolving needs of the Nation.  The Fire Department provides assurance that in an uncertain world, there is a certain future of quality emergency response, one built on our core values and joint efforts.

Values

Our department values technical proficiency, teamwork, and relationships.  We encourage education to further proficiency, open-mindedness to improve teamwork, and grace to strengthen relationships.  Our leadership comes both from the top-down and the bottom-up; leadership by example knows no rank.  Our employees are our greatest asset and every one of our fellow firefighters has unique abilities they bring to the team.  We believe inclusion and respect generate positive synergies which lead to outsized and outstanding results.  Customer service is a critical component of our work; accuracy, consistency, and responsibility form the basis of our daily operations.  We believe professionalism is practiced in the moment and a thousand such moments make a Professional.  We make adjustments, not excuses.

Goals

In support of our Mission and Vision we have the following inter-related goals:

  • Our most important goal, maintaining quality emergency response, is where we spend the vast majority of our time.
  • Our most costly goal is improving staffing; staffing is where we spend the majority of our budget dollars.
  • We strive to minimize our long-term capital and infrastructure costs to improve our sustainability and staffing levels.

2019 Pierce Ascendant 107′ Quint 650

The Fire Department provides 24-hour around the clock fire protection, rescue service, and advanced life support emergency medical care to the residents and guests of the PBPN Reservation . Staffing consists of 21 full-time and several part-time Firefighters. Each department member is required to be a nationally certified Firefighter as well as a Paramedic, Advanced EMT, or EMT. The department is led by a Fire Chief/Paramedic and an Administrative Assistant.

At left Paramedic Jon Gwartney & Lt. Bruce Coates discuss incident command during training.
At right EMT Grant Wewenis, EMT Josh Greenlee, Paramedic Mark Meinhardt, EMT Ronnie Sellens and EMT Josh Johnson with Rescue 682

Approximately 60% of our 1500 calls each year are medical in nature. Our primary response area covers over 121 square miles of both suburban and rural areas including the Prairie Band Casino & Resort and the major facilities of the Prairie Band Nation. From grass fires, to medical calls, to structure fires, and Home Health Assists our duties vary every shift. Our firefighters spend a third of their life on duty helping the community. Our motto is “We default to Service” which means no matter what the problem we do our best to help those who call on us.

EMT Josh Johnson, Paramedic Kristen Radell, Lt. Lance Wishkeno, and Paramedic Paul Juedes at the 2018 Potawatomi Gathering at Prairie Peoples Park on August 7th providing Fire, Rescue, EMS and Public Assist standby services.

The fire department was founded in 1980 and began providing ambulance service in July of 2000. In addition to the emergency medical response provided within the local area, PBPN members or employees who live outside the Reservation boundaries may request the fire department ambulance for medically necessary non-emergency transports to a hospital or in-patient care facility located within the region. Ambulance fees for Tribal Members that are not paid by insurance are not charged to the Member. The department regularly works with our neighbors at other Jackson County fire departments on fires and medical emergencies. We participate in an automatic mutual aid agreement with the Hoyt, Mayetta, and Delia Fire Departments. All four departments automatically respond together on various fire and emergency incidents. This cooperative agreement ensures the closest unit responds immediately and that adequate resources are simultaneously dispatched to calls regardless of jurisdiction. This example of neighbors helping neighbors benefits the entirety of southern Jackson County.

propane_fire
PTFD Firefighters attacking a propane fire during training provided by Kansas University Fire & Rescue Training Institute

During more than 40 years of serving the PBPN Reservation and citizens of Jackson County the Potawatomi Tribal Fire Department has become known for its excellence of service in both fire and EMS. We are the only full-time career fire department in the county and carry an Insurance Services Office Public Protection Classification (ISO-PPC) rating of 3/3x which is the best of any department in Jackson County.

2019 Quint 650 & 2022 Medic 693 Advanced Life Support Ambulance
(twin to Medic 692)

Tribal Emergency Response Committee – TERC

Responsibilities of the Tribal Emergency Response Committee (TERC) include the development of a PBPN emergency management plan, community preparedness, training and education. The core command team for emergencies consists of the Emergency Services/Fire Chief, Tribal Police Chief, Tribal Council Chairperson, General Manager, Tribal Planning Director & Road & Bridge Director.

Emergency Preparedness Resources:

AED Information

Emergency Sheltering FAQ

Storm Shelter List

TERC Emergency Sheltering Information

Tornado and Weather Safety Tips

Weather Radio Information

Brown Atchison Electric Website

FreeState Electric Cooperative Outage Map

National Weather Service Topeka

Evergy Energy (Formerly Westar) Outage Map


Department Staff

Fire Chief: Doug Schreiner, Paramedic

Assistant Fire Chief: Frank Zeller, Paramedic

Administrative Assistant: Iva Rank

Shift Captains: Eric Ganson, Paramedic; George Wiecken, EMT

Lieutenants: Bruce Coates, Paramedic; James “Cecil” Mercer, EMT-A; Lance Wishkeno, EMT

Firefighter/Paramedics: Jon Gwartney, Paul Juedes, Mark Meinhardt, Kristen Radell, Stacy Munoz, and Lucas Zeller

Firefighter/EMTs: Levi Anderson, Anthony Bogowith, Manuel Gracia, Josh Greenlee, Josh Johnson, Andrew Naylor, Joseph Burghart, and Grant Wewenis.