The Fire Chief’s Blog

Every year the Fire Department donates fire truck rides to to schools as an item to be auctioned off by local charities. Last Fall the Payne family bid on and won such a ride. According to Monica Payne her kids wanted to wait until their dad came home from Iraq to take the ride to school.

Well, 1st Lieutenant Thomas Payne returned home recently from his duties in Iraq and went along on the ride with his children; Emory Payne (8) Grade 2; Walker Payne (8) Grade 2; and Jackson Payne (7-on Thursday, which is his birthday) Grade 1. All arrived safely (Thanks to the stellar driving of Fire Inspector Chuck Schaitberger) and to a waiting crowd of teachers and students at Eden Lake Elementary School. Mostly our duties at the Fire Department are enjoyable, and this was an exceptional version of that kind of a day.

Below is a picture of the Paynes before they left their house for the trip to school. As you can see, the Payne family is about to add another family member soon. Also pictured is the reception given to the Paynes on their arrival at Eden Lake School.

Sometimes it truly is better to be lucky than good, last night was a shining example of this old saying. Police, Fire and EMS responded to a two car crash with reports that there were several people trapped. While there were two people pinned by the wreckage that was their vehicle, injuries were minor. As you can see from the photos below, the damage to the vehicles was extensive and the 4 people involved were lucky not to have sustained more serious injuries. The cause of the crash appeared to be alcohol related, not uncommon in late evening and early morning crashes.

Minnesota’s Department of Public Safety Director, Michael Campion, points out that while traffic deaths were down last year from previous years, the causes are still the same. Speed, impairment or both lead to the vast majority of injuries and deaths. Additionally young drivers are the most at risk.

Today I received an email from Eden Prairie firefighter and soldier, Nate Wiley. Nate assures me that things are going well for him as his group continues to oversee rebuilding projects in the region. Nate is in the final 90 days of his assignment and is looking forward to his return home in Eden Prairie.

It is amazing how a simple little email can make you feel a little better, and getting that note from Nate is one of those little pearls for me. Nate is an excellent person and we’ll be glad to get him back.

Our Fire Prevention staff does a great job of working with all sorts of businesses to insure safe operations and facilities for their employees, visitors and the citizens of Eden Prairie. Earlier this week I tagged along with Scott Taylor, one of our four Fire Inspectors. On this day it was Scott’s assignment to inspect the removal of underground gasoline tanks and the installation of new underground storage tanks.

The picture below shows a new 20,000 gallon tank that has just been put into place at the Super America gas station at the intersection of County Road #4 and Highway #5. the facility is undergoing some remodeling, which includes the removal and replacement of their gasoline storage tanks. During the removal process, which Scott also witnessed, there were no signs of any tank leaks.

The second picture shows Scott in action. You’ll notice Scott is wearing a hard hat as well as a “High Visibility” vest. With a lot of big equipment on-site it is important to keep alert and be visible to the other workers as well.

Wednesday evening the Fire Department received a call for an in flight emergency. The pilot of a small plane thought he might have blown out a tire while doing touch and go’s at Flying Cloud Airport.

Last year the Fire Department received a used “Crash Rescue” vehicle from Airport Fire for the princely sum of $1.00. This vehicle enables us to respond with more capabilities to aircraft emergencies, one of the biggest features of the truck is that it can flow a lot of water and foam while on the move. Luckily the plane landed without incident, but unlike years past, we now have a vehicle specifically designed for the job. Below is a picture of the truck out on a training exercise last fall.

The newest piece of firefighting apparatus for newly opened Fire Station #4 is emerging from the manufacturing process at E-One. Pictured below is the progress as of a week or so ago, on Tower 41. This truck is basically a twin to Tower 21 which was delivered to the Eden Prairie Fire Department in 2002. We expect delivery on Tower 41 sometime in July of this year.

This morning Fire Marshal, Allen Nelson (far right picture and on the right hand side) presented Fire Inspector, Tony Liddell (far right picture and on the left hand side) with an award from the IAAI. Tony submitted photos he took of a car fire we investigated and his investigation photos won first place. The photos show a power amp wire (middle photo) for an after market stereo system that arched at the vehicles fire wall and started this vehicle fire. When it comes to cause and origin determination, pictures truly are worth a thousand words.

Having Fire inspectors that are well trained in cause and origin determination is a benefit that we enjoy with our Fire Inspectors and our Fire Marshal. Getting to the bottom of what causes a fire can be a great value in formulating prevention strategies going forward, and also indicate whether or not arson was involved. In this case the culprit was the installation of an after market stereo system. No arson here, and we determined the actual cause.

Congratulations Tony, for a job well done!

Beginning last Monday, March 26th and ending yesterday, April 1st, I along with Police Chief Rob Reynolds, Assistant Fire Chiefs Rick Hammerschmidt and Tom Schmitz and Fire Inspector Scott Taylor have been attending “All Hazard Incident Management Training”. The training was held at Bloomington’s Fire Station No. 1 and included 35 other public safety, public works and public health people.

The purpose of the training is to develop a regional team of incident management experts that can respond within the state or region to help support a local jurisdiction that is dealing with an incident that has exceeded it’s resource capability. Examples of this might be a large scale wildfire, flooding, the aftermath of a tornado, or some sort of terrorist event. After the initial 7 days of training each member is assigned a specific role on the team. Roles are predefined and include: Incident Commander, Safety Officer, Public Information Officer, Liaison Officer, Planning Section Chief, Logistics Chief, Operations Chief or Finance & Administration Chief. Once assigned to a specific role then you will be called to go to actual incidents in progress to shadow a person who is actually performing the role you are being trained for. Once a team member has achieved a certain level of on-scene shadowing experience then you are assigned to a permanent role on a trained team. This process will take time to get completed but the payoffs are many. One of the biggest payoffs is that our region will be better able to manage a large scale incident well while waiting for federal resources to show up and provide further assistance. Another benefit is that the training and the instructors are top notch and the experiences gained in the classroom along with the shadowing will allow us in Eden Prairie to better manage our locally based incidents in the event that they grow in size and scope.

A lot of great new tricks of the trade were learned, not the least of which was using “sticky notes” to track resources on a large scale incident. You’ll notice the colorful sticky notes all over our white board as we dealt with a simulated tornado event in Dakota County as our final exercise. It was a long 7 days but well worth it.

Tracking Resources Left, our team mentor Larry Miller, from LA County Fire