2b. Fire Department Report2-6
MEMORANDUM
CHANHASSEN FIRE DEPARTMENT
Station 1
PO Box 97
7610 Laredo Drive
Chanhassen, MN 553
Station 2
6400 Minnewashta Pkwy.
Excelsior, MN 5533
TO: Todd Gerhardt, City Manager ;gyp
FROM: John Wolff - Fire Chief
Ed Coppersmith — Asst. Chief Operation
Rick Rice — Asst. Chief Administration
Jeff Siems — Asst. Chief Training & Safety
Mark Littfin - Fire Marshal
DATE: November 15, 2012
SUBJ: Monthly City Council Update
Fire Department Overview: Staffing is at 49 active firefighters as of October 22, 2012. There
are two firefighters currently on leave and four new members attending probationary firefighter
training. There have been three retirements this year to date.
Through October 1 st of this year we are at 427 calls vs. 476 for 2011, we are down 10.0% for
calls and 8.1 % for paid call hours.
Reserve Fire Engine: Our reserve Engine 22 has been loaned to the Broad Channel Volunteer
Fire Department in Queens, NY. BCVFD lost all of their equipment in Hurricane Sandy.
Chanhassen Fire Captain Cori Wallis along with other area firefighters learned of their plight via
Facebook and reached out. They learned that they lost all four of the emergency vehicles. E22
was to be sold by year end.
Staff Time (not call related) Our staff time for community events, fire education, duty crew
standby, and department meetings are at 3,009 hours for the year compared to 2,961 hours in
2011.
Training Training hours are at 5,796 YTD versus 3,331 in the prior year. We also participated
in joint operations (mutual aid) training at Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park performing high
rise stand pipe operations, search and rescue, and incident management training with the
Southwest Metro Joint Operations Group in early November.
Safely: The fire department participated in the nationwide "safety stand - down" on October
29 . The night was be devoted to recognizing the importance of safety in the fire service.
Safety stand -down was first developed by the military as a means to enhance the cultural shift
towards safety. We will be concentrating on crew resource management, situational awareness,
and the importance of everyone being a safety advocate at emergency scenes.
We evaluated how our department measured up against the US Fire Administrations 16 Li e
Safety Initiatives We have made significant progress against this standard in the last 18 months
(self appraisal).
Compliance: Annual ladder, pump, hose, PPE, and SCBA testing has been completed. Our
annual health surveillance program continues for our members.
Fire Study: Springstead Incorporated out of St. Paul, MN was hired to conduct the Master
Planning/Shared Services study for the City of Chanhassen. The site visit occurred on November
12 - 13, 2012. We are now in the data collection phase. This study is projected to be completed
during first quarter of 2013.
Community Activities: Members decorated fire trucks and visited numerous neighborhoods on
Halloween night to give away candy to kids and to promote fire safety.
Fire Marshal:
Fire Prevention: The last event was our annual Halloween outing. What we traditionally do is
decorate one of our trucks for the Halloween occasion and drive through our neighborhoods
handing out candy to the kids, hot cider to the adults, and stopping at neighborhood block
parties. The annual event unofficiall started right after 9/11. The community was still anxious
and nervous from the September 11 events and the thought was to make ourselves visible and
help restore a feeling of safety and security. Since then the event and number of firefighters
participating has continually grown. We receive many nice compliments from our residents
when visiting with them.
Fire Investigations: On Sunday, November 4, 2012 the Fire Department responded to a
reported house fire at 6680 Golden Court. The call came in at 3:36 am with the first arriving fire
officer on scene at 3:39 am. The deck on the rear of the house was burning and the fire was
quickly extinguished with minimal fire /smoke damage to the home. A fire investigator from the
State Fire Marshal's Office assisted with the investigation. He ruled the cause of the fire was a
candle that was left burning on the deck. No injuries were reported. A passerby discovered the
fire, woke the residents, and called 911. The Fire Department cleared the scene around 5:45 am.
Fire Inspections: There are projects at various stages of completion and planning. These
projects include Primrose Learning Center, Liberty Townhomes, K. Hovnanian Townhomes,
Beyond Beauty, Feed My Starving Children, Lifetime Fitness office expansion, Canine Club
expansion, and Autobahn Motorplex.