The Fire Chief’s Blog

Almost 32 years ago John Hobbs, Jr. and Chuck Schaitberger joined the fire department as high school seniors, age 18. I have known both of these exceptional people since I joined the organization almost 20 years ago.

Experience does count for something in this life and in the picture below you see it in action.

Every Thursday night the fire department trains. Sometimes the information is taught in the classroom, but most often it is a hands-on activity. Last night was hands-on and John and Chuck were asked to go bring two large fans to the scene of the drill. Fans are used to help move smoke from the building. The training drill was in an unused space at the Eden Prairie Center. Normally lugging fans any distance is heavy work. Here’s where 64 years of combined experience comes into play.

A shopping cart was located and the fans placed in the cart. You can see from the picture that John and Chuck were quite proud of themselves. Both of these fine people will be leaving the ranks of our volunteer staff later this fall. I know the department will keep going, but it will be strange for awhile without these two around on Thursday nights.

Experience in action!

Letting Fr. Tim Powers know how clever they are. That’s Chuck in the foreground and John trying to duck out of the way in the background. Fr. Tim is on the left.

Tomorrow plans for our new fire station will be submitted to the Planning Commission for review and comment. The building committee from the fire department has been meeting almost weekly to help facilitate a functional and cost effective design. Our design firm has been a big help as well.

Last week we held an informational meeting with our new neighbors to get their feedback and answer any concerns they might have. There are a lot of misconceptions about the noise that would be generated by a fire station. We did our best to answer the concerns and provide factual information about our operations.

With luck we hope to begin construction by the end of September and operating the new facility by next July.

The Building Committee members from right to left: Tim Peltier, Chuck Siebert, Fred Ziebol, Roger Anderson, Rod Uting and Rick Hammerschmidt (Ward Parker is not pictured)

The neighborhood meeting in action. The meeting was held at Fire Station #3.

Yesterday staff from the Fire Department attended the 100th Anniversary of the State Fire Marshal’s Office. This was a big deal with virtually all fire departments from the metro area attending as well as departments from as far away as Rochester and Moorehead.

The scene was impressive complete with the Fallen Firefighter Honor Guard, St. Paul Fire’s Color Guard and the Bagpipe Corp. Governor Pawlenty addressed the assembled group as did current Fire Marshal Jerry Rosendahl.

The State Fire Marshal’s Office provides a myriad of invaluable services to fire departments large and small. The day was particularly timely as a watershed piece of legislation is being heard by committees as the legislative process proceeds. This piece of legislation would provide permanent funding for the Fire Marshal’s Office as well as several other key fire related initiatives. Too often politicians talk about funding these vital operations but actually don;t support their continuance with a commitment financially. Now is the time to take measure of what is truly important.

The key Bill this year is H.F. 2079, take a minute to review it and contact your local legislator if you agree with me and all of Minnesota’s Fire Service on it’s merit.

The Scene at the outside of the Capitol

The Color Guard Enters Capitol

The Color Guard take their position

The Governor addresses the assembled-State Fire Marshal Jerry Rosendahl on the right in the white shirt

Below are two pictures taken from the same deck as the previous “prairie burn” pictures. The once brown (pre-burn), then black (right after the burn) has turned emerald green. This is just the begnining of the green up process, but you can see it is well underway.

Early morning

Mid morning

One more shot - A close up

This was a well coordinated and successful operation by our Parks staff, in particular Jeff Cordes.

The past weekend saw two house fires within hours of each other. The first fire was reported at approximately 0500hrs. Police and the first arriving fire command found a house with heavy smoke showing from all levels and fire visible from the basement windows. All occupants had safely exited the house, they were alerted by their smoke detectors. This was a stubborn fire and resulted in approximately $375,000 in property and content loss.

The second fire was reported at approximately 1200hrs. I arrived on scene first to find light smoke showing and the homeowner reporting a fire in the basement. All occupants had exited the house safely. Crews from the first arriving pumper arrived and made their way to the basement of the house, the seat of the fire. When the crews got close the fire was already almost completely extinguished.

What was one of the major differences between these two seemingly similar fires? The second fire started in the laundry room where the ceiling was unfinished and the domestic water pipes were exposed from below. As the fire grew in intensity and temperature, the welds on the copper piping let loose, probably around 300 degrees. The water then sprayed out of the pipe and doused the fire before it could grow beyond the room of origin. Total damage is estimated at approximately $50,000.

In effect the second house had a crude fire sprinkler system that controled and extinguished the fire before it got out of control. If the fire in the first case had begun in an unfinished room with pipes in the ceiling the result would most likely have been the similar. Almost all big fires start small and grow if un-checked.

Residential sprinkler systems save lives (Occupants as well as Firefighters) and dramatically reduce property loss. These systems can be installed in existing homes as well as new construction. The next time you are thinking about investing in home improvements think about the safety of your family and install a residential sprinkler system. The proof is in this tale of two houses.

Last Thursday morning the fire department assisted the parks department and the DNR with a prairie burn on the bluffs overlooking Hwy 212 just East of Spring Road. Conditions were near perfect as the burn got started and stayed that way throughout the process.

The burns are good for areas of original prairie land, clearing old growth and invading weeds while providing a good base for the prairie grasses.

A lot of time and energy goes into planning one of these burns. In fact it would be ideal to have one every year but due to the short time window and needing specific weather conditions the burns actually only take place about every other year.

Some before, during and after pictures. Pictures courtesy of Jim Clark a resident of the area overlooking the burn area and our former Public Safety Director. Thanks Jim!

The landscape before the burn

The process begins, winds were from the North and light. Perfect conditions

EPFD Crews Standing by to control the flames

Prairie burn completed - all went well

So far this year 5 people in Minnesota have died in fires. Last year by this time 17 people in Minnesota had already died. You can find out some of the details about Minnesota fire deaths from the home page of the State Fire Marshals web site.

Four of the deaths occurred in single family dwellings and the other one in a multi-family dwelling, continuing the trend in Minnesota as well as the country of people dying in their homes.

We all need to do whatever we can to keep the downward (long-term) trend going. Some steps we can all take to help insure our safety are: Discard smoking materials properly, Never leave candles unattended, place fireplace ashes in metal containers, be sure smoke detectors get their batteries changed when clocks get changed twice each year.

Practice fire safe behaviors, the life you save just might be your own or your family members.