The Fire Chief’s Blog

Tuesday mornings is the time when Eden Prairie’s Morning Rotary Club meets. Each week the club of almost 80 members, one of which is me, invites a guest speaker. This past week it was our State Fire Marshal, Jerry Rosendahl. Fire Marshal Rosendahl is a long-time fire service professional and has been our State Fire Marshal since 2003.

Jerry spoke on a variety of topics related to the fire service in Minnesota, but really wanted to drive home the point that the most dangerous places that we hang out in is typically our home. Typically our homes do NOT have the benefit of fire sprinkler systems and also are not subject to regular inspections by the fire service to insure that all smoke and Carbon Monoxide detectors are in proper working condition. This lack of inspection gets back to the “My home is my castle” theory.

Statistics show that the vast majority of civilian fire deaths and serious injuries are in our homes, only by changing our habits and making fire safety a priority will we be able to change this trend. It is amazing to me that there are far more residential lawn sprinklers installed every year to keep the yard looking nice, than there are the life-saving residential fire suppression sprinkler systems. The ratio of lawn sprinklers to residential fire sprinklers is out of sight, more than likely it is in the 100’s to 1 range. Something to think about the next time you build a home or move into a new home, is it sprinklered?

Want some more facts on the fire service in Minnesota? Here are a some more bits of information from Jerry:

1. 
   Minnesota

   Fire Deaths

2. 1. 1970’s - average 96.1 per year
   2. 1980’s - average 77.6 per year
   3. 1990’s - average 58.5 per year
   4. 2000’s - average 48.1 per year
   5. 2006 fire statistics

i. 46 fire deaths

ii. Careless smoking was leading cause of deaths

iii. 60% of total fires occurred in the home

iv. 72% of total dollar losses occurred in the home

v. 80% of fire deaths occurred in the home

2. 
   Minnesota

   Fire Clock - 2006

3. 1. One fire department response every 3 minutes
   2. One fire reported every 30 minutes
   3. One medical/rescue incident reported every 5 minutes
   4. One structure fire reported every 1.3 hours

i. Rural - every 2.9 hours

ii. Metro - every 2.2 hours

3. 
   Minnesota

   Fire Departments

4. 1. 788 fire departments in state
   2. Approximately 18,000 firefighters are volunteer - 2,000 career
   3. Recruiting and retention problems are being addressed by a legislatively created task force
   4. Rated #45 out of 50 states in spending on fire departments

4. Fire in
   
   Minnesota

   - Future

5. 1. Number of fire departments will be reduced
   2. Number of combination fire departments will increase
   3. Number of career firefighters will increase
   4. Fire sprinklers will be common in residential occupancies
   5. Fire deaths will continue to decrease but plateau at some point
   6. 3 main causes of fire will remain - men, women & children
   7. Citizens will demand more of their fire service
   8. Citizens will continue to think “it won’t happen to me”

Pictured below is the Fire Marshal in the middle and our Rotary Club president, Greg Albrecht

This past Wednesday night I stopped by our Training Center to observe the hands-on training session that was being conducted. Our latest recruit class trains on Monday and Wednesday nights along with recruits from Bloomington Fire. the training consists of both classroom and hands-on instruction.

The training is taught by Lieutenants, Captains and Chief Officers from both Bloomington and Eden Prairie. when I stopped by the recruits were getting live fire training on how to handle car fires safely and efficiently. The two pictures below show the car fire simulator being attacked by a two person team of recruits and then a shot of recruits from both departments waiting for their turn.

While the car fire shot is impressive looking the shot of Eden Prairie and Bloomington recruits standing together/training together is the more symbolic of the two photos. The Training Center is jointly owned by four jurisdictions: Eden Prairie, Bloomington, Edina and the Metropolitan Airport Commission Police Department. One of the many benefits of the joint ownership is that we can all train together and become familiar with one another’s processes and procedures. when we all come together at a large scene we are all able to work more seamlessly together and provide our citizens with a higher level of service and safety.

Saturday was a picture perfect day for the Annual Open House for both Fire and Police in Eden Prairie. While this week is typically to reinforce the theme of fire safety, in Eden Prairie we invite all of our response partners to be a part of this event and that is especially true of our close partners the Eden Prairie Police Department. Our two departments do a lot of activities together and this event is no exception.

We had another big crowd, estimated between 2500 and 3000, and I think a lot of good behaviors were reinforced when it comes to being more fire safe. As you can see from some of the pictures below kids are the focus of this day. My favorite picture might be the City Manager, Scott Neal pictured with a furry friend at the Animal Control display.

Next Saturday, October 13th, is the date of the Annual Fire Prevention Open House. The event will be held at Fire Station #1, 14800 Scenic Heights Road. The event gets started at 11:00 am and runs until 2:00 pm. The Police Department will have a large presence there too. In addition there will be a lot of displays, demonstrations and stuff for kids and kids at heart to do. Depending on the weather, there are usually about 3,000 residents that stop by at some point during the event.

In addition to our displays, demonstrations, fire truck and police car rides, there will be a dedication and ribbon cutting ceremony for the newest vehicle in the fleet, Tower 41. The dedication and ribbon cutting ceremony is scheduled for 1:30 pm.

Last but not least we will be giving out free T-Shirts with this year’s national fire safety theme: “Practice Your Escape Plan” The T-Shirts were donated to us by Eaton Corporation in Eden Prairie. Eaton is a very active corporate citizen and we are pleased to have a long-term commitment from them to support our fire prevention activities. Fire prevention is the most important tool that exists to keep people safe from the devastation of fire.

Below is a picture of three of Lt. Ward Parker’s kids modeling the T-Shirts. An important message and a cool looking shirt.

One definition of the word Legend in Webster’s Dictionary is: “A person that inspires”. Clearly this definition fit former Fire Chief Ray Mitchell to a tee. Ray Mitchell passed away late on Sunday evening surrounded by his family at his home. Ray lived 70 extremely productive years, but has left us all way too early.

Ray was a proud father and husband to his immediate family. Ray was the leader of his other family, the Eden Prairie Fire Department for 17 years. Ray began the family when he saw the need for Eden Prairie to create it’s own fire department. the year was 1966 and by March of 1967 the fire department had recruited enough Eden Prairie residents to to begin operations. Ray, of course was elected by the other members as their Chief. Ray had a lot of help from his capable crew of firefighters, but Ray had a vision and helped to shape foundation that has served all of us who have followed for many years. Below are some pictures taken yesterday and an original picture of Ray in his dress uniform as Chief. The ceremony was beautiful, as was the day. Ray might be gone from us, but he will never be forgotten.