Press releases
Sun Current Guest Column
Edina Fire Department Reflects on 2008
By Marty Scheerer and Tom Jenson
Guest Columnists
Our mission is to serve the community by protecting lives, property and the
environment in a safe, efficient and professional manner. In 2008, we took
significant steps to help maintain that promise to our residents.
We Stressed the Importance of Fire Safety and Education
In 2008, we received our lowest number of fire calls in the past decade. Of the
913 fire calls received, only 80 resulted in actual fires. This is thanks in
part to our public education efforts, which have never been stronger.
Our public education team presented to 2,900 children in Edina’s 17 childcare
centers and eight of the elementary schools, as well as parents enrolled in
Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE) classes. We also introduced a new
bi-monthly newsletter, EFD Pulse, which provides safety articles and information
on our community involvement.
We Responded Faster
While fire calls went down, we remained the fifth busiest fire department in the
State due to our large volume of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) calls. In
2008, we got to our 3,516 medical calls faster than we ever have before. In the
last two years, we reduced our fire and medical response times by 20 percent,
thanks to improvements in computer-aided dispatching (CAD), our fire station
alerting system, in-vehicle computers and mapping systems, expanded preemption
on emergency vehicles crossing intersections and our new Fire Station.
We Built a New Fire Station
It was a long construction period, but 2008 brought a new home to many of the
members of our Department. We held the ribbon cutting for our new,
energy-efficient Fire Station No. 1 in July. The station provides a much-needed
women’s locker room and nearly twice the square footage of the old station on
the same footprint. Highlights of the new station include training and fitness
rooms and an expanded six-bay apparatus floor used to house large equipment and
vehicles.
We Helped Our Neighbors -- And They Helped Us
By expanding our automatic aid with neighboring departments, we were always able
to count on additional help. In 2008, fire mutual aid was requested 25 times. We
returned the favor, responding to 35 mutual aid fire calls from our neighbors.
The growing partnership and ability to share resources has been outstanding.
We Met and Exceeded Many Goals
In 2008, the Department -- primarily through the use of grants -- made a number
of other notable improvements, including:
- Becoming one of only three paramedic services in the country to utilize
ultrasound machines.
- Becoming one of the first Fire Departments to use a carbon monoxide (CO)
oximeter to check levels in patients who have had heavy or long-term
exposure to CO.
- Adding a new firefighter/paramedic, Shawn White, to the Department.
- Acquiring new quantitative fit test equipment, high-visibility jackets
and expanding the implementation of new, improved fire hydrants.
- Increasing the amount and intensity level of our already top-notch
training programs.
While 2008 was a banner year, it is only a stepping stone to 2009. We will
work hard to continually improve and enhance our services and further our
efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
More info at www.CityofEdina.com/Fire or 952-826-0330.
Marty Scheerer is Edina Fire Chief. Tom Jenson is Edina Fire Marshal
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