The Fire Chief’s Blog

Firefighter Nick Palmer is with the Army Reserves and has been deployed to Iraq. This is Nick’s second tour so he has a good idea about what to expect. Nick’s email is as follows and is written to his Captain Jeremy Van beusekom: “Jeremy, I am just saying hi from the birthplace of civilization. We are all doing well here. Psychological Operations is winning hearts and minds. I also can’t say thanks enough for the send off and for how great everyone has been to Jeannie and the kids. This is a picture of the station at Tallil. I will try to get shirts from the guys in Baghdad. Take Care, Nick.”

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.

Every new twist in technology can bring with it unintended challenges for the fire service, E-85 is a good example. When I make that statement it is not because I am against E-85 as a way to reduce dependence on oil. E-85 is a challenge to the fire service because of the high alcohol in the product. Most firefighting foams that have traditionally been used to fight fuel fires are water based. I am not a chemist by any stretch, but I do know that alcohol loves water and chews it up, thus the problem with your typical firefighting foams on E-85 fires.

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.

Late last week Minnesota got the call from Iowa for assistance on several levels to help deal with the effects of their flooding. One of the assets requested was a team from Minnesota’s All Hazard Incident Management Organization.

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.

It is my great privilege to be a member of one of Eden Prairie’s two Rotary Clubs. I belong to the morning club, but there is a noon club as well. The morning club meets every Tuesday at 0730 hrs at Biaggi’s Restaurant.

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.

At last night’s Council Meeting thirteen new CERT members were recognized for recently completing their six week training course and joining our vibrant CERT program. With this group of new CERT members we now have 104 total members spread throughout the city. Five years ago we began our CERT program with the hope of someday getting 100 members, so mission accomplished.

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!

You know what they say, if you want something done give it to a busy person. Well, Firefighter Rick Thompson is another one of our firefighters that exemplifies that to a tee. Rick joined the Coast Guard Reserves as one of their oldest new recruits, a testimony to his desire to serve and getting himself in excellent shape. By the way, he used our local Community Center for the bulk of his training work, which involved a lot of work in the pool.

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.

A fundraiser for the Special Olympics will be held in Eden Prairie beginning on June 6th and running thru June 8th. The event is called “Cop On Top” and has police officers atop a local business in sort of a marathon event to raise money for the Special Olympics. Last year, Minneapolis Police along with other agencies around the country held their events, this year Eden Prairie Police will hold an event here.

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

When your biggest fire in quite awhile is in a dumpster, things are going well on the fire prevention side of things. Last night the “West District” stations responded to a fire in a dumpster. The dumpster was fairly close to the house that was being remodeled, but there wasn’t an immediate danger of the fire spreading. While these fires are usually fairly routine, you never know what might be in there burning, so caution is always the watch word.

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.

AED’s, Automatic External Defibrillator’s, are an inexpensive and easy to use device that save 40,000 lives per year. Click on this link to view a story on the most recent save with an AED in Eden Prairie. For quite awhile now both Eden Prairie fire and Police vehicles carry these life saving devices and as the story points out they do save lives. A few years ago the police and fire departments raised over $60,000 in private funds to place AEDs in all the government owned public gathering spots in the city. Quick access to an AED is a proven winner when it comes to children and adults in cardiac arrest. That initiative was called HeartSafe Eden Prairie.

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.

Okay all you women out there, you now have a great opportunity to “try before you buy” when it comes to the fire service. The Northstar Womens Firefighter Association is holding their third annual Womens Fire Expo. The expo will be held on May 31st and it is FREE. You must register though, by May 23rd. Click on this link to get your FREE registration completed.

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!

Last week firefighters Kim Cummings(left) and Lee Schneider(right) gave a fire truck ride to school to three lucky Eden Prairie kids. The Fire Department donates these truck rides to school fundraisers for their silent auctions. The Spanish Immersion School got three certificates for truck rides and these kid’s parents were one set of the lucky winners. Last year each of the three truck rides raised $700.00 and this year the bidding was even more fevered and each ride went for $800.00, wow that is some great support for the school!

As part of the truck ride, the kids got a T-shirt, donated by Eaton Corporation. Eaton is a big supporter of the Fire Department’s fire prevention efforts. The kids also got to dress up in kid sized turnout gear and then ride from their Eden Prairie home to this Eden Prairie Spanish Immersion School. Once they arrived, Lee and Kim gave a brief fire prevention talk and answered questions from the kids.

Fire prevention is a key component in our efforts to reduce fire damage and injury. Hopefully these kids will learn from the information passed along to them during the visit and be a part of the next generation that has a better fire safety record than previous generations have had.

Today, Fire Inspectors Tony Liddell, Scott Taylor and Rick Hammerschmidt conducted fire extinguisher training for the employees of The Scott Lewis School of Cosmetology. Our Fire Prevention staff does a lot of this kind of training. Most people have never used a fire extinguisher before and this is one case where on the job training is NOT recommended. When a fire breaks out in your home or business, that is not the time to learn the skills necessary for the safe and effective operation of a fire extinguisher.

The hands-on training provided to people by our Fire Inspectors is first class and very real. In the first picture below, you see Fire Inspectors Scott Taylor and Tony Liddell getting ready to put on the class. The second picture is of Tony Liddell giving an overview of the training and talking about, and demonstrating the proper technique for fire extinguisher use. In the third picture, Rick Hammerschmidt lights the “Burn Pan” so each person can actually put out a small fire. In the last picture a Scott Lewis employee successfully uses her fire extinguisher to put the fire out.

By inviting our Fire Prevention staff to conduct this valuable training, Scott Lewis Schools is showing their employees and students that this is an important skill, hats off to them for their forethought! Also thank you to Tony, Scott and Rick, they always do an excellent job!

This past Saturday, April 19th, saw the first grass fire of the season for 2008. This fire, approximately 5 acres, was called into the tower at Flying Cloud Airport by a passing plane. The fire was relatively slow moving and there weren’t any structures in its path, both are good things.

Assistant Chief, Tom Schmitz took command and positioned himself at the old overlook spot off of Highway 212 just below the Airport property. Below is a picture of the fire off in the distance as seen from the “Command Post”, and also the makeshift command set-up including a rock to hold a map down so it wouldn’t blow away in the wind. This is a common in field set-up for grass fire operations and not too different than the many meetings I saw taking place over the hood of a truck while I was out in Burns, Oregon last summer observing large scale wild land firefighting.

Contrary to popular belief, most grass fires are set or are due to careless burning of brush or trash. This fire appears to have been the former, someone lit it and then ran off…..

Last night Minnesota unleashed a Spring storm that brought rain, sleet and snow to Eden Prairie. One resident lost control of his vehicle on a slick road and landed in a small pond. Luckily for the driver he was able to escape with no damage except for getting in a very cold swim.

The mini-van wasn’t so lucky, having eventually sunk up to it’s roof line. Firefighters assisted Matt’s auto with the pull out process by getting into survival suits and connecting the tow cables to the partially submerged van. All in all, it was good practice for the Fire Department’s water rescue operations, nobody got hurt and insurance will hopefully take care of a new van for the driver.

At the Fire Department’s March Business Meeting, Firefighter Kurt Schendel was honored for his 17 years of extraordinary and selfless service to the citizens of Eden Prairie and his fellow firefighters. Kurt came to the Fire Department 17 years ago with firefighting in his blood, as they say. Kurt’s father was a long-time firefighter in Beloit, Wisconsin who rose to the rank of Assistant Chief there.

I had the privilege of working directly with Kurt for much of his time here, when we both responded out of Fire Station Three. Kurt and I both lived close to the fire station and often times rode together on the first truck out of there to numerous emergency calls. Through those kinds of shared experiences a close bond often forms and those bonds last a lifetime, as I am certain mine and Kurt’s will.

As you can see from the picture below, Kurt has many close friends in the organization. From left to right are: Firefighter Chuck Siebert, Firefighter Aaron Casper and Firefighter Kurt Schendel. Thanks again, Kurt for your dedicated service!