The Fire Chief’s Blog

Once again members of both the Fire and Police departments stepped up and participated along with hundreds of other people in the American Cancer Society Relay for Life. Sixteen people including a police reserve officer donated both time and money to this worthwhile cause.

The group, which I was proud to be a part of, raised just over $4,000 for the 12 hour walk. An organizer for the event indicated that they raised in the neighborhood of $90,000 overall. Cancer effects almost all of us either directly or indirectly. Through fundraisers like this one held in Eden Prairie last weekend, strides are being made to come up with cures for those types of cancer that are still highly fatal.

There are many other worthy events for equally worthy causes. This event, however, strikes a particular cord with me, my mother died several years ago, just two weeks after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Once diagnosed, there wasn’t anything that could be done for her, except make the inevitable less painful. I know there are thousands of other stories just like my mother’s.

Maybe someday cancer will be a less fatal disease, until then I’ll keep on trying to do my part, and support others that are doing the same.

Seven of our recruits are currently in training, the other recruit came to us fully trained. Included in this posting is a video I shot as the recruits made one of their first entries into our fire training tower. The video is very dark, murky and somewhat noisy, just like a real fire, very unlike fires seen on TV.

Hands-on training like this is an invaluable part of the learning process. The classroom portion of the training is very important. Learn the concepts of fire behavior, teamwork, fire ground operations and safety as a base, then go into the fire training tower and feel the heat, experience the confusion of where exactly you are and know you can get the job done safely with the help of your firefighter teammates.

I was privileged to help out with training on this night and was completely impressed with the quality of the instruction given to the recruits by our fire officers. I was equally impressed with the quality of our recruits. These seven firefighters listened and performed well.

We are currently in the process of growing our organization from 75 volunteer firefighters to 95, as we get ready to open our fourth fire station. Outstanding recruits like these are the foundation of our growth. If you’d like to find out more about becoming a volunteer firefighter for Eden Prairie visit our website. Another recruiting process is set to begin in early September.

This week was the 16th Annual Safety Camp in Eden Prairie. Safety Camp is a 2 day event for 3rd graders. The kids learn a variety of safety related skills to help their generation live safer and more healthly lives. There are a lot of instructors needed to teach the 6 groups of 30 3rd graders. Frequently we have experts from other jurisdictions help out. Fire Marshal, George Magdahl from the Hopkins Fire Department was one such guest instructor. Below are his comments after conducting his class on household safety issues.

“I had the opportunity to work the Eden Prairie “Safety Camp” this week. This was attended by about 150 3rd graders, almost all from Eden Prairie. As part of my program I asked the kids if they had ever been burned. Over 1/2 of the kids raised their hand. Many had been burned in the kitchen, or by the sun, but fireworks was also a popular reply. I would estimate over 10% of the entire group had a story about fireworks. The #1 answer was sparklers. Second was a spark from our MN “safe and sane” fountain type products. Of course a couple had stories of bottle rockets or fire crackers that are illegal in MN.
Every story had an adult present at the time if the incident. No injuries were severe enough to require treatment. Maybe it’s a stretch but we can assume over 10% of all children in Minnesota between 6 and 12 years old have been, or will be, burned by fire works. We know for sure that these kids will remember it for a very long time. (I remember getting burned from a fire cracker over 40 years ago) Because these incidents are not reported they will not show up in any statistics. I just found this interesting.” George Magdahl.

The point of this is that fireworks are dangerous and kids are often the victims of the accidents that are inherent with the products. If you buy these products for your kids to use, please supervise the kids carefully. A spilt second decision can result in a lifetime injury. Kids our the future, we need to protect them from these preventable accidents.

This is the bathroom in the living quarters in question. The clothes are hanging from the shower curtain and entrance to the bathroom was barely possible. The rest of the rooms in the dwelling were equally cluttered. If a fire were to start in this space the spread would be rapid and the fire extremely intense, possibly overrunning the fire suppression systems in the unit. Spread to the other senior living units would be a likely outcome and the potential for life loss would be heightened.

Over the past few months our Fire Marshal Allen Nelson has been working on a situation at a Senior housing development where a resident had accumulated an unsafe amount of “stuff”. Along with the Fire Marshal the Police Department and Hennepin County Adult protection have been working with the resident to get the situation cleaned up.

Today the three agencies went to the apartment to clean up the mess and make the living quarters safe and livable. This is a ough situation for all involved. The resident was not immediately receptive, but resolved that this was necessary to keep him in his house.

We get a few of these every year in Eden Prairie. This situation was not the filthy mess that we most often encounter, but due to the volume of stuff involved it was not safe.

The Fire Department gets involved in a lot of activities that do not involve just fighting fires, but are just as important to the public’s safety.