It is always good to hear from Nick, to know that he is safe and so are the troops under his watch. I know Nick is in the thoughts of all firefighters in Eden Prairie and we are all anxious for his safe return in 2009.

The remedy is simple, buy a foam that is alcohol resistant so that the foam bubbles that are put down stay in place and smother the fire and keep it that way until clean-up can happen. I went to a class this past Saturday to get more in-depth and hands-on experience with E-85, the class was enlightening, to say the least. Another related issue with E-85 is that once it is mixed with just a little bit of water, the 10% gasoline in the product rises to the top, burns off with it’s traditional orange flame and thick black smoke and then the alcohol begins to burn. Alcohol fires are very clean burning, during the daytime it can be nearly impossible to see the flames, making it very dangerous for approaching fire and police personnel. Just another danger of E-85. We are developing new response strategies for E-85 and will be implementing them shortly. No doubt more changes will occur in the fuel business and more changes will be coming our way, that is the business we are in.

Below are some pictures of E-85 and an E-85 fire. The first picture shows E-85 mixed with just a little bit of water, notice how the gasoline separates from the E-85/water mix and rises over the top of the cloudy water and E-85 mixture. The next two pictures are of a real life rail car accident. In the first picture not a lot of flame is visible, but when the sun goes down you can see the fire that was present the whole time, but burning so cleanly it wasn’t very visible during daylight hours.

Eight highly trained and dedicated members left for Iowa last Sunday and are there for 10 days. All Hazard Incident Management Teams are a relatively new concept and the Minnesota Organization has only been around for about 3 years, there are 60 members in the organization and when a full team gets deployed it can have up to 14 people. The basic function of the team is to arrive at a destination where local capabilities have been exhausted, literally and figuratively and develop or enhance an organizational structure that will support getting the necessary work done to bring order to chaos. You can click on this link and read the articles on Oakville and other places that have suffered from the flooding.

One of the myriad of things that the Minnesota Team is organizing in Iowa is searching every structure to be sure there aren’t any unaccounted for people still inside. These could be victims that didn’t make it out, or victims that might have been washed into the structures during the time when the most severe flooding took place.

In order to conduct the searches the team called in several USAR Teams from the Minneapolis area. USAR stand for: Urban Search and Rescue. These teams are highly trained to search in challenging conditions in a methodical manner to insure that a factual accounting can take place.

Below is a picture of some members of the USAR team wading into a structure to begin a search. The picture was taken by Fire Inspector Scott Taylor. Scott is a member of the All Hazard Incident Team that was deployed. Scott’s role for this deployment is to be the Safety Officer.

The meetings go for about an hour and are always interesting. The club, like all rotary Clubs, is involved in local as well as international helping and giving. Today’s speaker was Kathy Veurink. She is highly place in the local Republican Party Organization and gave an overview of her involvement and what the local group is doing. Rotary encourages a sharing of diverse opinions and that makes each and every Tuesday morning meeting a worthwhile investment of time and energy.

Pictured below is a shot of part of our regular crowd of about 50 Rotary members, all are paying close attention to the presentation. If you would like more information about Rotary International simply click on this link.

Along with the CERT members we have a dedicated staff of firefighters that have taken on the task of doing the initial six week training course along with ongoing quarterly training. Pictured in their “Class A” Fire Department uniforms are CERT instructors; Assistant Chief Kip Springer (far left), Captain Ray Carlson (left-hand side of podium), Captain Tony Liddell (middle of podium) and Captain Mike Stein (right-hand side of podium).

During the recognition ceremony Mayor Phil Young (second from the left) greeted and congratulated each CERT member as their names were read. Each CERT member provided a brief bio that was read as well. As usual we have a very diverse group of citizens that are CERT members and their diverse skill sets are part of what makes them such a valuable asset to the city if we experience an event where they are needed.

Congratulations to the CERT Class of 2008!

Below is a picture of Rick on his graduation day standing in front of a US Coast Guard fire truck at the Cape May Training Center, how fitting. Way to go Rick! Thank you for your service to the city and to our country.

I am not sure, but I am hoping that some Eden Prairie firefighters will join in this fund raising effort, just like we did with the Polar Plunge held earlier this spring, an event that raised approximately $40,000. Below is a picture from last year’s event in Minneapolis. The location for the Eden Prairie event is planned for Rainbow Foods. I have been told that Channel 9 will be there during the event to help further promote this worthy cause. You can go to this link to find out more http://www.specialolympicsminnesota.org/Cop_On_Top.php

This fire went out smoothly and there was nothing that points to arson as the cause.

My hope is the rest of the year is equally quiet and we have another low fire loss figure to report. We continue to ficus our fire prevention efforts on causes that we have seen in the past and keep fire losses minimal.

Below is a picture of three firefighters lifting the hose up and into the dumpster to help extinguish the fire. All the firefighters are wearing their full compliment of protective gear, just in case.

Now police and fire are on a new mission, a drive to get all Eden Prairie businesses to purchase an AED to further reduce the time it takes to get the life saving device to a person in need. We have over 1000 businesses in our city, everyday thousands of people are coming and going to these businesses and chances are someone will experience a cardiac event that warrants the use of an AED to save their life. While response time by fire and police is short in our city, having an AED on site at the moment it is needed can help dramatically improve the survival rate of cardiac arrest victims. Don’t delay, if you own a business or are an employee of a local business give us a call and get involved in our initiative to get an AED at your place of business. As the latest example shows it is not just for customers, it might be for one of your employees or you!

Assistant Fire Chief, Steve Koering is taking the lead on getting AEDs into the Eden Prairie’s business community, you can contact him directly at: skoering@edenprairie.org to get the details.

For more details on being a women firefighter check out this link to a story that aired on women in the fire service yesterday afternoon on KSTP’s Twin Cities Live program. The program features Eden Prairie Firefighter Kim Cummings and gives a little insight into being a women in the fire service. Last year there were 30 women that took part in the expo and some became firefighters in Eden Prairie and elsewhere in the metro. The Womens Expo is put on by the Northstar Womens Firefighter Association and is sponsored in part by fire departments from: Bloomington, Chanhassen, Eden Prairie, Edina, Hopkins, Minnetonka, Plymouth, St. Louis Park, Savage and Victoria. Also supporting the event are our friends at Hennepin Technical college.

So come on, try it, you might like it and either way it will be a great experience!