The Fire Chief’s Blog

Curt Oberlander was a 25 year member of the Fire Department as well as a long-time member of the Police Department. Curt is a lifetime member of the “I live to serve others” club.

Curt’s help with the Red Lake Fire Department is detailed on yesterday’s Kare11 website. Check it out. It captures the essence of this giving person, well.

Thank you, Curt for another job well done!

Last night was the second night of training for our newest CERT members. The course is a total of 20 hours and covers a range of topics. Last night was focused on fire training and the use of fire extinguishers.

Our Fleet Services group built this burn pan that operates on LP. This is a cleaner and safer option to our previous burn pan that was a mixture of gasoline and diesel fuel. The new burn pan gives almost endless burns to be extinguished and is easy to clean-up.

The picture below is CERT recruits in action with fire extinguishers. If you are interested in joining our Fall ‘05 CERT recruit class contact Mark Krueger our Volunteer Coordinator.

There was a movie a few years ago that promoted the idea of doing good deeds un-prompted and if everybody took that approach the world would be a better place. Who knows, someday you might be the recipient of a good deed.

Last week was an opportunity for the City of Eden Prairie to do its best to help out the community of Red Lake in some small way. The result was that the Eden Prairie Fire Department went up to Red Lake on Thursday morning to help their Fire Department deal with the tragedy from earlier in the week. Myself, Assistant Chief Scott Taylor, Lieutenant Tony Liddell, Lieutenant Ward Parker and firefighter Doug Thies arrived in Red Lake at 5:00pm.

I had several objectives for the duration of our stay. First, provide firefighter staffing so that their firefighters could forget about responding to calls for a few days and deal with their grief and the grief of their loved ones. Second was to determine what other needs there might be that I could help them with, through the State Fire Chiefs Association.

Two other Fire Chiefs joined me in Red Lake. Fire Chief Dave Kapler from Rochester, MN and Fire Chief Bill Mund from St. Cloud, MN. Both of these guys are veterans in the fire service and know how to get resources through the Chiefs Association.

After meeting with Fire Director Roman Stately and Fire Chief Keith Stately, Dave and Bill and I quickly determined that the most pressing need was to get a Critical Incident Stress Debriefing organized for Red Lake Fire. The men and women of the Red Lake Fire Department were on the scene early enough that there were still guns drawn as they entered the building to save those that still had a chance to be saved. Their efforts and those of the other responders are the reason why people survived the shootings. It is hard to keep that in mind if you were one of the responders, the tendency is to dwell on those that didn’t make it and think about what else could have been done. The reaction is normal but not healthy. The stresses that first responders feel can tear apart the people and the organization. Fire Director Roman Stately realized this and wanted to give his people the best chance of recovering from this terrible event. We happened upon a team from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and were able to get a session set-up on Friday evening. Almost all the firefighters attended, that was a great sign for the future of the organization. A second session with resources from the Duluth, MN area is planned for later this week.

With the help of the State Fire Marshal’s Office we were also able to set-up crews from around the state to cover for Red Lake Fire until Sunday, April 3rd. Departments sending crews are: Moorehead, Bemdji, Hopkins and Mound. Many more offered there services as well. The stand-by crews will help Red Lake Fire have the time to get themselves back into the routine of their firefighting duties and still allow for time with their families.

The men and women at Red Lake Fire are very grateful for all the assistance they are receiving from Fire Departments around the state. Everyone in the first responder business knows we are all only the next call from needing the same kind of help that is being provided to Red Lake Fire. Paying it forward is alive and well, as it should be.

(L)Fire Director, Roman Stately and (R)Fire Chief, Keith Stately in front of their trucks and their fire station.

The tragic events of earlier this week in Red Lake are beyond belief.

Eden Prairie Fire and Police have a special connection to the area. Back in the late 80’s and early 90’s members from Eden Prairie Fire and Police went up to Red Lake help them put on a Safety Camp program for their youth. Safety Camp was a concept created in our city by Curt Oberlander an Assistant Chief on the Fire Department and a Sergeant with the Police Department. The program has since spread nationwide.

I was fortunate enough to have been taken along on one of the trips to Red Lake. We not only helped out with Safety Camp, we also worked with their Fire Department on firefighting skills.

During that visit I met Roman Stately who is now the Fire Director, my peer at Red Lake. I recently spoke with Roman and offered whatever assistance I could, to help with his terrible circumstances. In small rural areas the first responders, fire and police, almost always know personally the victims of the scenes they respond to. Nowhere is this more true than in this situation at Red Lake. The responders will need help dealing with this as well. My hope is that Eden Prairie can offer some measure of assistance once again.

While many schools and businesses close when the weather gets bad, not so for the Fire Department. In fact it seems that when the weather gets poor our calls increase. Today was no exception. Shortly after the morning rush hour the severity of car accidents increased and we responded to several crashes with injuries.

This afternoon as the snow really started to pick-up we were summoned to a townhouse fire. The occupant awoke to crashing sounds in the bathroom. When the bathroom door was opened the fire was rolling down from the ceiling. First arriving police officers made sure everyone was out of the dwelling. Assistant Chief Tom Schmitz made entry into the structure with a fire extinguisher to knock the fire down. Some progress was made and the fire controlled. When the Pumpers and Ladder Trucks arrived the rest of the fire was knocked down and our salvage and overhaul operations were underway.

It appears the fire was accidental in nature and the result of the ceiling fan in the bathroom. Our Fire Marshal, Allen Nelson told me he replaces his ceiling fan every 5 years just to be sure it is always relatively new and in good working order. Not bad advice from someone that has seen a lot of fires and their causes.

The homeowner did suffer from some smoke inhalation and was transported by HCMC, the prognosis is good for a full and speedy recovery. The damage was enough that living in the unit in the short term won’t be possible.

With more snow on the way, we’ll see what the weekend has in store for us.

Below is a picture of the snowy scene.

On Tuesday afternoon and evening the first phase of a rather involved process took place, the physical ability test. The test was run in the afternoon as well as the evening in order to give all recruits the opportunity to take the test regardless of their work schedules. A total of 26 people took and passed the test. This is the first year that everyone who took the test passed it.

Next up for these 26 potential recruits was the written test. The test was given at two different times yesterday. Each session lasted 4 hours and involved a variety of written evaluations from math skills to reading skills to map reading skills. The tests are administered by our HR staff and then sent off for scoring. Our HR staff is excellent and a HUGE help with our process. We will get the results later this week and move the successful candidates on to the oral interview portion of our process next week.

The process seems involved and it is. We are looking for the very best people we can find who also have the ability to make a long-term commitment to our organization. Given the fact that we started the process with 26 people, I would estimate that we will get 10 to 15 finalists. This is short of our goal of adding 25 new people during this process, but it is still a good start to our overall goal of increasing our staffing from 75 to 95 volunteers. We will evaluate having another recruiting drive this fall.

I promised pictures in my early posting this week, but forgot my digital camera when I went to observe the ability test. It could be my forgetfulness is from the cold I have been battling or just being 45 years old and in a hurry……

I had great intentions for last week’s blogging activity, then the “Crud” hit and I was down for the count. Last Tuesday as I was watching some of our up and coming officers take an Incident Command simulator test I could feel my health going down the drain. I managed to get through the process, but by the time I got home that evening I knew I was in for trouble.

Wednesday was the practice session for our new recruits to test themselves on our physical ability test. I showed up to see how the turnout looked, instead of staying home and trying to get better. Bad idea! I felt horrible and didn’t add any value to the process either, I’m sure.

Thursday - Saturday were days spent sleeping and trying not to cough my brains out. By Sunday I felt better and today I’m back at work, although still not full speed.

Tomorrow I will have pictures of the physical ability test in action and give a report on the opening number of potential new recruits. I am excited about our recruiting efforts and also feeling like the “Crud” is on the way out!

This morning at 10:00 a new “Outdoor Warning Siren” was placed into service. This was done with the cooperation of the staff at Southwest Metro Transit. The siren will cover the area in and around the Purgatory Recreation Area that was recently completed.

The siren will serve to notify people in the park area of approaching severe weather. This is the final siren in our complex of outdoor warning apparatus. The first Wednesdy in April will be its first monthly test.

New Siren sitting proudly on top of the SW Metro parking ramp.

On the evening of August 12th 2003 Eden Prairie firefighters Jay Wood, Jason Brown and Jay Bohlen were caught in a ceiling collapse at an apartment fire. Jay Wood was the most seriously injured with a heavily damaged knee and a torn up shoulder.

Jay has endured many long visits with specialists of all kinds as well as surgery and rehab sessions to get his knee and shoulder back into condition for the rigors of daily life and firefighting too. Jay’s full-time profession is training horses at his farm in Plato, MN. Jay also volunteers with the Plato Fire Department and serves as a training Chief there.

Yesterday was a very emotional day for me, and I suspect for Jay as well. Jay was cleared by his team of specialists to return to firefighting duties. Jay has shown courage and determination in his long journey back to full health and the department. I couldn’t imagine being injured for 18 months, and yet every time I’ve seen Jay he has been upbeat and positive about his return to a normal life. A life that includes being a volunteer firefighter for Eden Prairie.

Way to go Jay!

Jay Wood in a recent photo after his promotion to Lieutenant.

This has been an unusually busy week. A lot of my time has been spent in meetings revolving around the activity at the Capitol. The legislative process is well underway and the Fire Service has two main objectives this year.

The first is to restore funding to the State Fire Marshal’s Office. This department has been reduced over the last 7 years by 19 employees. The reductions have resulted in a significant reduction in services to fire departments statewide. Greater Minnesota is being particularly hard hit. Code specialists have been eliminated as well as investigators. The Insurance Industry has taken up the cause with the fire service and legislation is about to be introduced that will re-establish the funding to this critical office.

Our second objective is to strengthen laws protecting emergency workers at highway scenes. Over the last 5 years there have been more firefighters and police officers killed at highway emergency scenes than in fires or shootings, respectively.

Getting these bills written, finding support and funding that everybody, or most everybody can support is a complex and time consuming process.

I believe we will have two bills that have a good chance of gaining the support necessary for passage. Only time will tell.

Today is also the kick-off for the Fire Department’s largest recruiting process since it was first formed in 1967. We need to increase our overall staffing of volunteers from 75 to 95 as we get ready to open a 4th fire station in southwest Eden Prairie. Recruiting volunteer firefighters is a critical components to our continued success. We are hoping for a large turnout of quality candidates.