The Fire Chief’s Blog

Yesterday long-time friend, business leader and former State Senator, Roy Terwilliger came for a visit with his grandson, Charlie. As you can see from the picture below, Charlie is an aspiring firefighter! We toured all the trucks and the station and introduced Charlie to the firefighters that were at the station. Charlie was even witness to Engine 11 leaving on a real fire call.

It is always great to see Roy and chat, but having Charlie along for a visit was extra special! Thank you for the visit Charlie!

October was Fire Prevention Month, nationally. Eden Prairie is no different and all of our firefighters take fire prevention seriously. fire prevention is proven effective in the fight against fire loss, injury and death.

Almost every day during October our firefighters visit the various schools and daycares in Eden Prairie to teach children about fire safe behaviors and of course the kids get to meet the firefighters and take a close up look at the fire trucks.

Every November the the cards of appreciation arrive from each and every class that was visited by firefighters during October. The cards are always creative and have lots of appreciative comments from the kids and teachers alike. Above is a shot of just today’s arriving cards. I know I speak for all of the firefighters when I say that we get as much out of the experience as the kids do. It is a lot of fun!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day, a great time to share time and experiences with family and friends. This is also the beginning of the most dangerous time of year in the United States for fire deaths and injury. More people are packed into our collective houses and there are, no doubt, a lot more candles burning brightly in our homes as well as fireplaces crackling. Those images of candles and fireplaces are part of our tradition to celebrate the Fall Holidays, but those traditions also play a significant role in the increase of fires in the places that we live.

If you’re going to have candles lit and fires in the fireplace burning please take time to watch them closely, put them out before leaving a room or going off to sleep. Take time to check your smoke detectors too, a working smoke detector is the key component to alerting you to get out safely before it is too late. Let’s all try and make this joyous season a safe one.

Have a Happy and Safe Thanksgiving!

A 17 year old fire cause has been determined. In 1990 there was a fire on Alpine Way, I was actually a Lieutenant on the first due in company for that fire along with former firefighter Roger Schmidtke, current firefighter Rod Uting and others. The home was well involved with fire upon arrival. The home was severely damaged by the fire. The cause was not clearly known. Luckily for the homeowners they had properly insured their almost completed home and were able to re-build.

Fast Forward to 2007…… A few weeks ago our Police Department was contacted by a person claiming that he set a fire in

Eden Prairie

and wanted to confess to the burden he had been carrying all these years.. Facts were checked and his story was confirmed that he, in fact, was the person responsible for the fire. Detective Andy Rohde and I contacted the homeowner, who still lives at the rebuilt home. The purpose of the visit was to give the family closure on the cause of the blaze that occurred in their almost completed new home.. They were relieved to have the final determination of the cause known. This is an interesting case and one that is not too common. Statute of limitations dictate that the responsible person cannot be charged since the 5 year limit has long since expired. You never know what each day will bring and this case is another example of just that. My thanks to Fire Inspector Chuck Schaitberger who helped confirm the facts of the fire, and to Detective Andy Rohde for his follow-up and determination to see this case through to its conclusion.

Our State Fire Marshal, jerry Rosendahl recently sent out some interesting statistics from the National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA). the numbers give a little insight as to what the American Fire Service is up to these days and points out some areas that need to be addressed, namely firefighter health and safety. Some highlights from the report are as follows:

The United States Fire Service

1,140,900 firefighters from 30,635 local fire departments protected the United States in 2006.

The fire service does more than fight fires

• Medical aid responses have tripled since 1980.
• Only 7% of fire department calls in 2006 were due to actual fires.

Firefighter Fatalities

89 firefighters were fatally injured in 2006.

· Sudden cardiac death caused 34 of the fatalities.

· 19 firefighters died in vehicle crashes, while 3 died after being struck by vehicles and one firefighter fell from a tanker.

· 38 firefighters died on the fireground.

Firefighter Injuries

83,400 firefighters were injured in 2006.

• Strain, sprain, and muscular pain were the leading type of injury.

53% (44,210) of the injuries occurred on the fireground.

Below are some graphs that illustrate more details of the fire service.

Despite the fact that the rate of fires is decreasing on a national basis, the fire service continues to kill and injure a fairly consistent number of firefighters. This trend of death and injury is preventable to a large degree. An emphasis on firefighter health and a better metric for taking risks on the fireground are two key measures to be taken in the reduction of firefighter deaths..

First of all we must address the heart attacks that are so common in this business. Providing more access to health and wellness programs is a giant first step to help reduce the single largest category of firefighter deaths.

Secondly, far too many firefighters are killed making entry in known un-occupied structures to fight a fire. Trading property saved for firefighters lives is a bad trade-off. It is up to the American fire service to get smarter about the risks that are taken. Risking lives to save lives is part of the job, risking lives to save property is not.

The numbers are clear, now it is up to the fire service as a profession to address the cures. It will be interesting to see what the next 10 or 20 years worth of data shows, did we get better or did the status quo prevail?

Just last week I wrote my blog entry on a visit by Sate Fire Marshal, Jerry Rosendahl to Eden Prairie. Among the facts Jerry presented was that cigarettes are the leading cause of fire damage and fire deaths. Fast forward to this past Friday night and the first structure fire in a long while for our Fire Department is a direct result of an improperly discarded cigarette.

This particular fire turned out to be rather minor, in the larger scheme of things, but there is no doubt that some level of heart-ache has been visited upon the homeowners as a result. There will be contractors to call for the repairs, smoke damage to get cleaned out of the furnishings and clothing articles just to name a few things they’ll have to deal with. If the homeowners had not been home when the fire showed itself, the outcome could have been much more severe, everybody got lucky on this one.

Hopefully in 2009, when fire resistive cigarettes become the only kind allowed in Minnesota, the fire service will see a big decline in these kinds of fires. Most fires are caused by human error, so think abut what you are doing and where you are doing it and your chances of an accidental fire will be greatly reduced.

Firefighters complete the overhaul process to be sure that all of the fire spread has been extinguished from the inside of this home’s walls. Overhaul can be a messy process, but insures the fire is completely out.