George Esbensen, Eden Prairie Fire Chief

Tuesday mornings is the time when Eden Prairie’s Morning Rotary Club meets. Each week the club of almost 80 members, one of which is me, invites a guest speaker. This past week it was our State Fire Marshal, Jerry Rosendahl. Fire Marshal Rosendahl is a long-time fire service professional and has been our State Fire Marshal since 2003.

Jerry spoke on a variety of topics related to the fire service in Minnesota, but really wanted to drive home the point that the most dangerous places that we hang out in is typically our home. Typically our homes do NOT have the benefit of fire sprinkler systems and also are not subject to regular inspections by the fire service to insure that all smoke and Carbon Monoxide detectors are in proper working condition. This lack of inspection gets back to the “My home is my castle” theory.

Statistics show that the vast majority of civilian fire deaths and serious injuries are in our homes, only by changing our habits and making fire safety a priority will we be able to change this trend. It is amazing to me that there are far more residential lawn sprinklers installed every year to keep the yard looking nice, than there are the life-saving residential fire suppression sprinkler systems. The ratio of lawn sprinklers to residential fire sprinklers is out of sight, more than likely it is in the 100’s to 1 range. Something to think about the next time you build a home or move into a new home, is it sprinklered?

Want some more facts on the fire service in Minnesota? Here are a some more bits of information from Jerry:

1. 
   Minnesota

   Fire Deaths

2. 1. 1970’s – average 96.1 per year
   2. 1980’s – average 77.6 per year
   3. 1990’s – average 58.5 per year
   4. 2000’s – average 48.1 per year
   5. 2006 fire statistics

i. 46 fire deaths

ii. Careless smoking was leading cause of deaths

iii. 60% of total fires occurred in the home

iv. 72% of total dollar losses occurred in the home

v. 80% of fire deaths occurred in the home

2. 
   Minnesota

   Fire Clock – 2006

3. 1. One fire department response every 3 minutes
   2. One fire reported every 30 minutes
   3. One medical/rescue incident reported every 5 minutes
   4. One structure fire reported every 1.3 hours

i. Rural – every 2.9 hours

ii. Metro – every 2.2 hours

3. 
   Minnesota

   Fire Departments

4. 1. 788 fire departments in state
   2. Approximately 18,000 firefighters are volunteer – 2,000 career
   3. Recruiting and retention problems are being addressed by a legislatively created task force
   4. Rated #45 out of 50 states in spending on fire departments

4. Fire in
   
   Minnesota

   - Future

5. 1. Number of fire departments will be reduced
   2. Number of combination fire departments will increase
   3. Number of career firefighters will increase
   4. Fire sprinklers will be common in residential occupancies
   5. Fire deaths will continue to decrease but plateau at some point
   6. 3 main causes of fire will remain – men, women & children
   7. Citizens will demand more of their fire service
   8. Citizens will continue to think “it won’t happen to me”

Pictured below is the Fire Marshal in the middle and our Rotary Club president, Greg Albrecht