The Fire Chief’s Blog

This sign, recently placed, announces the future construction of our newest fire station at the intersection of Dell Road and Linwood Court, as well as lets passers-by know that we are always looking for excellent new people to become members of our volunteer fire staff.

While our construction process has been delayed a few months, we will re-bid in early ‘06, our need for high quality people is ongoing.

It takes almost 18 months for new staff to get the training and on the job experience to become proficient firefighters. If you feel you have what it takes, contact me directly or go to our website and download an application. We will be running another recruiting process this Spring.

This past weekend (Saturday) Applebees Restaurant held a pancake breakfast from 8:00 am until 10:00am. Almost 200 people attended the event, including Police Chief Dan Carlson, and 100% of the proceeds were donated to the Fire Department, about $1000.00.

Applebees came up with this idea and approached us for support. We provided a crew of firefighters to assist with serving, but mostly to be there answering questions about our fire department and to give mini-tours of the truck that was brought to the event.

Everything went well and Applebees wants to continue with the event next year. Thank you to Applebees for their generosity. It is great to have the support of local businesses like Applebees.

This big event took a lot of pictures just to capture a little flavor of the day’s activities.

If you didn’t make it this year, come out next year and see it for yourself.

An incredible amount of work goes into planning a carrying out the Annual Fire Prevention House. This year saw an added feature with our Police Department joining forces and conducting their open house as well.

Below are a few pictures of the various events and features included in this year’s Open House. I know my counterpart in the Police Department, Chief Carlson will be covering the Police end of things in his next blog.

I have posted an additional blog on this subject with more pictures

This afternoon the Minnesota State Fire Chief’s Association had a small gathering of State Legislators take part in some hands-on experiences related to the fire service.

This is the first time we have tried this approach to get some real world experience to the policymakers in St. Paul.

There was a realistic car fire to extinguish and opportunities to use the “Jaws of Life” and to drive a 100′ Ladder truck with rear steering, all were quite a challenge.

The fire service has an important slate of issues to bring forward this year and giving policymakers a chance to see what is involved in our business is an important part of the process.

Yesterday afternoon we participated in a ribbon cutting event for the newly moved Fire/EMS training center operated by Hennepin technical College. Almost all of our firefighters go through the center in one fashion or another to get their Firefighter 1 and 2 classroom and hands-on training. Additionally the College provides us with advanced training in EMS, Haz Mat, Fire Investigation, Fire Inspection and Fire administration coursework.

We are pleased to have the center located in our city, the staff and administration at the College are top-notch!