FireStats About Us

About Us

FireStats is a consulting firm specializing in the analysis of fire, EMS and emergency communications data. Company founder, Paul Rottenberg, is a nationally-recognized expert in this field and has worked on hundreds of local government projects for fire departments in addition to teaching courses in analysis techniques and principles of performance measurement for fire, EMS and communications managers nationwide.

Our highly specialized class of consulting services focuses principally on statistical and spatial analysis of fire department operations and FireStats’ Consultants include experts in mathematics, GIS, data architecture, programming, data migration, data mining, and public health.

Our consulting engagements have included jobs in

resource consolidation
retirement modeling
EMS service level analysis
accreditation support
mutual aid equity
new resource location
community and employee surveying
custom software development
and many others

Our philosophy is that because the work we do is often complex, nuanced and potentially politically charged, it is important that we have close relationships with our clients and that we are able to spend the necessary time to understand the client’s needs, explain our work, and ensure that what we do is relevant. Our consulting engagements therefore tend to be with departments with which we have long, tested relationships. We do, however, take on new work with limited engagements and new long-term clients.

Client references are of course available upon request but we don't list our clients here. All are municipal fire departments.

Company principal, Paul Rottenberg, is a frequent conference speaker and regular instructor for a variety of classes on fire service management issues.

Happy Customers

This was a great class. Paul did an excellent job teaching. The perspectives and reasoning that Paul brought to the class were very enlightening and made me want to step back and reevaluate my own perspectives. I highly recommend this class.

Richard Whitten

Fire Chief
Town of Westlake, Texas

This is a great class. Wish I would have heard about this years ago. It was a great help on how to take our fire data and turn it into reports that our community can understand. I would like to attend this class again as I am sure that I would pick up a lot more tips on how to utilize all the data we collect on a daily basis.

Marty Nelson

I should have attended this class years ago! The content was valuable and the delivery was engaging.

Josh Knepper

Lieutenant
Dubuque (IA) Fire Department

I was very impressed with the course and Paul’s delivery. My graduate education is in Quality Management and I found Paul’s content to be of great value to any business professional. It was clear and obvious from the first few minutes of Paul’s presentation that his knowledge and the substance of the course was expert level. Paul continuously kept the audience highly engaged and lead effective classroom discussions; the course and Paul’s didactics undoubtedly fostered energetic learning momentum. Paul easily conveyed statistical process to real life fire-rescue service examples; making the course easy to digest for new entrants to statistics and novice users of Excel. The knowledge gained and the templates built will serve fire management professionals throughout their career. I highly recommend and endorse FireStats LLC.

Daniel Zunzunegui

Fire Lieutenant – Paramedic, MS
City of Naples Department of Fire-Rescue

The Data Analysis for Fire Officers class Paul teaches will help you understand how and why using statistics are important to the fire service. Using what you learn in his class, you be able to measure the performance and effectiveness of your fire department. This course is great for the novice or a seasoned veteran and is a great investment!

William Sturgeon

Assistant Chief, Accreditation Manager
Orange County Fire Rescue

It is paramount for today’s Fire Service Leader to develop the necessary skill sets to analyze and understand response data and its requisite impact on the community. Paul's class begins this valuable and necessary process, the bi-product being an informed community with an investment in the future.

Robert E Marcucci

Fire Chief (Retired)
San Rafael Fire Department

Attending a FireStats program is a must for any chief officer or those aspiring to this level of organizational responsibility. Progressive organizations learn from current and past actions and strive to manage resources for the future. Organizational learning is dependent upon understanding how and where resources are expended and the impact on the mission and service strategies. Using actual real-world resource allocation scenarios, FireStats offers valuable analytical methodologies in understanding how resources are utilized. The learning opportunities offered by FireStats contribute to more effective and efficient utilization of resources. Progressive organizations understand this concept and should embrace the analytical methodologies offered by FireStats.

Doug Hall

Deputy Fire Chief
Westminster (CO) Fire Department

This class is a must for both Staff and Chief Officers! Paul definitely changed the way I review, input, and interpret data. I have used several of my new skills to improve Training reports to Payroll Analysis reports. The class was well worth it, and we look forward to hosting another one for the rest of our Officers in the future.

Eric Carlson

Battalion Chief-Fire/Rescue Training Travis County (TX) ESD No. 6

Paul, thank you for an enjoyable class. I learned how to analyze our department statistics quickly using Excel. I left the class with a good understanding of the ‘upsides’ and ‘down sides’ of bench marking. I appreciate your realistic approach to bench marking analysis.

Vaughan Miller

Assistant Fire Chief
Ventura County (CA) Fire Department

The class not only provided an excellent overview of the theoretical aspects of statistics but showed how those aspects can be easily applied with Excel software. I would highly recommend this class.

Jeff Birdwell

Deputy Chief
Madison (AL) Fire/Rescue

It was an awesome class. By the end of the last day I recognized an enormous amount of information had been given to me that I could use every day. I now have a powerful tool to assist me interpreting data and answering questions from management that I could not do prior to attending your class. I would recommend this class to anyone who must analysis statistical data for any fire department.

Vincent O’Neal

Battalion Chief
CalFire

As the fire service moves forward, the days of supporting decisions based on anecdotal information and assumptions is quickly becoming a thing of the past. With increased public scrutiny and difficult economic times, fire departments are increasingly being critically evaluated by the communities in which they serve and levels of performance often compared to other surrounding agencies. Paul’s class “Data Analysis and Presentation Using Microsoft Excel” has proven very beneficial in our county’s regional effort to standardize data collection and analysis. Paul has the ability to take a complex issue, break it down into an understandable way in which to sort and organize the information, and then present it in a responsible accurate manner.

Ed Goodlet

Assistant Chief of Operations
East Pierce (WA) Fire and Rescue

In today’s economy with tight budgets and service delivery expectations higher than ever, FireStats enabled me to develop a meaningful and applicable understanding of our services by comparing and understanding data. Concepts and notions we have long accepted as fact within the fire protection industry may not always be statistically or even practically relevant without scientific validation. The future of our industry depends on sustainable public safety practices within communities that develop policies based on scientific analysis. The analysis must yield measurable and results driven outcomes. FireStats provided me the tools to do just that.

Dave McAllister

Deputy Fire Chief
New Smyrna Beach (FL) Fire Department

Thanks for a great hands-on class! I appreciated being able to come back to work ready to hit the ground running with practical solutions and spreadsheets I could actually use.

Julie Passey

Fire Data Analyst
Kennewick (WA) Fire Department

Excel helped us produce our quarterly/annual reports, Paul Rottenberg helped us take it to the next level. We are actively using his techniques to analyze our data and make changes to operations and examine different deployment options.

Paul Rydings

IT Administrator
Jackson County (OR) Fire District 3

I have attended several conferences on performance measurements and FireStats has been the most valuable. Paul carefully focuses on teaching the necessary skill sets that will allow you to get started on sorting out your data to better understand your organization. I enjoyed it.

Gerard T. Ransom

Fire Chief (ret.)
Sanford (FL) Fire Department

The Fire Stats class: Data Analysis and Presentation using Excel is focused on the Fire Service, used typical fire service data and analyzed real-world problems. The methodology of the class created analysis situations that I have dealt with over the years and I learned some tools that will make me a better fire service manager. Paul is a talented instructor that knows the material and infuses each session with pertinent comments and relevant scenarios. He has a talent for keeping the class on track while taking time to ensure that individuals stayed up with the class. I found the class to be well worth the time and funds to attend.

James Drummond

Assistant Chief
South Metro (CO) Fire Rescue Authority

I recently attended “Data Analysis and Presentation Using Microsoft Excel” and “Principles of Project Budgeting for Fire Service Managers” presented by Paul Rottenberg. I must say that both courses far surpassed my expectations. Paul was able to make data come to life and have meaning for the fire service. I think these two courses are a must-have for senior department personnel charged with managing a fire department in today’s strained economic times. Paul is able to intrigue class participants with real life situations and make data have real meaning. I have been an Excel user for several years, but the things I learned open many doors I never knew to exist. I fully intend to go another level with FireStats

Ron Moellenberg

Fire Chief
Travis County Emergency Services District No. 2

Ben Franklin once admonished us to remember that an “ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Paul Rottenberg is here today to remind us that an ounce of fact is worth a pound of speculation or un-informed opinion. His work in developing an understanding of fire statistics is truly ground breaking!

Ronny J. Coleman

Former California State Fire Marshal, Teacher, Author, Fire Chief, former IAFC President

I attended FireStats’ Data Analysis and Presentation using Microsoft Excel as a newly appointed Accreditation Manager. I was moved from the line as a Captain and into an administrative role with very little understanding of data analysis and minimal experience working with Excel. This course was extremely helpful in my ability to use Excel and understand Standard of Cover analysis. The course provided background for developing statistical tools that will help me throughout the Accreditation process and assist me with our performance measurements outside of the SOC model.

Ron Simms

Accreditation Manager
Poudre (CO) Fire Authority

Please accept this as a hearty endorsement of the Data Analysis for Fire Officers course presented by Paul Rottenberg. While compact, Santa Monica is an increasingly complex community requiring accurate, efficient, and timely decision-making. Mr. Rottenberg’s style of instruction and pertinent exercises sharpened the skills necessary for me to make key assessments related to training, public education, and deployment models.

Scott Ferguson

Fire Chief
Santa Monica (CA) Fire Department

In this time of increasing financial stress on emergency services, I believe that it is critical to understand the effective use and interpretation of data. Gone are the days of policy makers listening to fire chiefs without data to back up our words. Paul helped me better understand the use of and troubleshooting of our response data. I highly recommend this class for chief officers.

Larry Huhn

Fire Chief
Bend (OR) Fire & Rescue

As a newly promoted Captain, this class will set me apart from my peers by giving me knowledge and a format to use. The products of this class are exactly what upper management, citizens, commissioners, and even my firefighters will want to see. It is a tool for explaining and convincing persons of your data. Most impressively, the instructor is stringent about using these tools to represent honest and accurate information. He not only provides you with the information, but allows you to create and take a cheat sheet to assist you long after the class has ended.

Ninetta Violante

Captain
City of Decatur (GA) Fire Department

In my position as the Strategic Service Battalion Chief with the Orange County Fire Authority I had the opportunity to attend the Data Analysis for Fire Officers course. I cannot emphasize strongly enough the benefit that Chief Officers will get from taking this course. The structured way that Paul presents the material makes it easy to follow along, coupled with the use of real example data allows the class participants to get hands on experience. The evolving culture of the fire services dictates a greater need to understand the data that supports our mission and improves services to the public. This course arms our leaders with a knowledge that makes them far more effective and efficient to deal with this changing environment.

Bryan Brice

Division Chief
Orange County (CA) Fire Authority

Paul’s instruction technique is designed specifically for the fire service and the objective of his approach is to get us telling our data’s story. Staff learned how to use Excel to analyze our operations data — not just to see what we were doing, but to see how we could improve. We learned a lot about how to do analysis; but more than that, we learned about why to do it and which tools to use when.

Michael O’Brian

Fire Chief
Brighton (MI) Area Fire Authority

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Our Team

Paul Rottenberg, MBA, MPH

COMPANY PRINCIPAL

Paul Rottenberg is the president of FireStats, LLC. He has been performing statistical analyses for municipal fire departments since 1999 and has been working for over 35 years as a consultant to business and government, providing analysis and public policy support to cities, special districts, and public contractors throughout the United States. Paul has a Master’s Degree in Public Health...

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Micheal D. Despain, M.A., EFO, CFO, MIFireE.

SENIOR MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT

Micheal Despain is a fire service consultant providing a broad range of fire and EMS expertise to FireStats, LLC. Chief Despain has over 41 years of experience in the public safety field, previously serving as fire chief for the City of Clovis (CA) and the City of Lincoln (NE). He has also served as interim fire chief for the cities of Fresno (CA), Rocklin (CA), Piedmont (CA), as well as a second time serving Lincoln (NE).

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John Fesenko, MS.

SENIOR DATA SCIENTIST

Mr. Fesenko is the principal statistician and computer programmer for FireStats. John is a highly accomplished scientist who brings both academic and healthcare-sector expertise to the analysis of Fire Service data. John has a Master’s of Science in biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where his emphasis in course work and lab research was on neurobiology. His Bachelors...

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Elise Fisher, MS, GISP

SENIOR GIS ANALYST

Elise Fisher is the owner of EF Geographic, which provides a broad range of technical support and software expertise to FireStats, LLC. Elise is proficient in ArcGIS 9.3, including Network, Spatial, 3D, and Geostatistical Analyses. She is also proficient, among other things, in ModelBuilder, ArcView 3.1, and ArcSDE 9.0, which is a valuable tool for storing and managing spatial data...

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