WEST BEND FIRE DEPARTMENT

WEST BEND FIRE DEPARTMENT Inside this issue: The Devastation of Fire. Planning to Protect......Acting to Save April 2013 Volume 1, Issue 4 Fire & EMS 1 EMS Bureau Report 2 Fire Prevention/Public Education Bureau Operations Bureau 6 Training Bureau 7 In Their Own Words 8..Acting to Save Emergency Activities 4 West Bend Firefighters were busy battling several blazes during the month of April. Ironically, many happened in the same weekend. The series of fires started Friday afternoon when what appears to have been a malfunction in a heating/airconditioning unit resulted in a heavily damaged hotel room. Fortunately the hotel was equipped with fire sprinklers that quickly put out the fire before it had a chance to spread to adjoining rooms. The damage estimated for this fire was $100,000. Just six hours later, firefighters responding to a house fire on the city s north west side. This fire was believed to have started on the outside and proceeded into the roof and attic areas. The kitchen & living room areas received significant fire damage, while the rest of the house received smoke and water damage. Thanks to their barking dog, all the three occupants of the house were able to escape uninjured. Although the house and many personal items were saved, the damage to the house and contents was estimated at $145,000. Less than 24 hours after that call, fire crews responded to another north side house fire. This fire investigation is centered around a hot water heater. Residence of this home were also uninjured. Damage here was estimated at $17,000. Types of Calls Apr-13 Mar-13 Year to Date (2013) Year to Date (2012) Fires 12 3 21 28 Emergency Medical Calls 180 240 835 745 Paramedic Intercepts 12 9 41 41 Interfacility Transports 50 33 185 163 Hazardous Conditions 6 5 21 20 Service Calls/Good Intent Calls 10 8 46 21 False Alarms/False Calls 9 7 38 56 Other/Special Incident Types 0 0 2 2 Totals 279 305 1189 1076 Town of Barton Calls 6 10 24 29 Town of West Bend Calls 15 19 54 36

Page 2 Page 2 Emergency Medical Services Bureau Battalion Chief Todd VanLangen Captain Tom Thrash EMS.. Working Within our Community NATIONAL EMS WEEK. EMS is unique in that it works with many different agencies and organizations. In the West Bend area there are numerous senior living facilities and nursing and rehab facilities. One of those facilities is Cedar Lake Health and Rehab Center which is located on County Highway Z. We go to Cedar Lake Home on a regular basis and interact with the staff at all of the Cedar Lake facilities. In order to keep up with the changes in operations and construction we try to have trainings with them as well. During April, Kelli DeRuyter,RN B.S.N, Director of Nursing and Assistant Administrator at the Cedar Lake Health and Rehab Center came to talk to all 3 shifts. Kelli talked about some of the changes at the Cedar Lake Campus in regards to remodeling and constructions, which for a facility this big is a constant. She also talked about the procedures that their staff uses when an ambulance is requested. With this type of training it allows us to maintain our quality relationship with other May 19-25 is National Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Week. The National Theme for this years EMS week is EMS: One Mission. One Team. EMS is a major part of the healthcare in our country. During 2011 more than 36 million patients were treated and transported in our country. In our local EMS System we would like to say THANK YOU to all the First Responders, EMT Basics, EMT-IV Tech, EMT- Intermediate and EMT-Paramedics. If you see one of our local EMS members please remember that these are highly qualified and dedicated individuals that are here to serve you. Also, May 22 is EMS for Children Day. National Stroke Awareness Month is in May May is National Stroke Awareness Month. The National Stroke Association uses the acronym Act FAST, which means to check the Face for any droop, have the person extend both Arms and look for one arm to drop. Have the person speak and listen for any slurred Speech. If you have any facial droop, arm drift or slurred speech that is the Time to act. Call 911 and request an ambulance. In 2012 more than 800,000 people in the United States suffered a stroke. So far this year WBFD Paramedics have had 31 stroke related calls. We ask that you learn the signs and symptoms of a stroke and tell a friend so we can reduce the number of people effected by strokes.

EMS Training for the month of April. In April some of our Paramedics took an opportunity to attend the 39th annual Wisconsin Paramedic Seminar held at the Radisson Hotel in Appleton. The seminar ran for 3 days, April 17th-19th and offered many different topics in the field of emergency medical care. The speakers were experts in their respective fields who came from different medical professional backgrounds from different areas of the country. Seminar attendees received credits for attending the various classes and are able to use them towards the continuing education requirements set by the State EMS Office for their Paramedic license. There is a 2 year licensure period for each level of EMS, the Paramedic level requires 48 hours of continuing education within that 2 year licensing period. These 48 hours are broken down into 10 categories that require a set amount of hours to be Page 3 acquired in that category. The seminar started out with the Professional Firefighters of Wisconsin Honor Guard. The classes that were offered ranged from pediatric trauma emergencies to death scene management, working with the Coroner/ Medical Examiner. The seminar provided an opportunity to network with Paramedics from around the State and learn about new programs and issues that are occurring. There were over 2 dozen vendors at the seminar who showed some of the newest tools available in the EMS field. From new software programs used for patient care to the latest style defibrillator used to restore a patients heartbeat. Also, 2 Medical Flight Helicopter agencies represented. One of the classes offered was a State of the State presentation given by Fred Hornsby State Paramedic Coordinator who addressed different EMS issues at the State level. Who decides on which hospital When you call 911 for a medical emergency who decides what hospital you will be taken to? Well, there are two answers to that question. The first answer is you, the patient. The second answer is us, the paramedics. While we will work with you on which hospital to go to, there are some other thoughts and rules that we must adhere to. The first thing is if there is any question about the status of the patients airway then we must go to the closest hospital. When possible we will leave the decision up to the patient, which is usually driven by which clinic their Doctor is associated with. If you have an Aurora Healthcare physician than we will make every effort to take you to an Aurora Facility, whether it be in Hartford or in Grafton. If you have a Froedtert Health physician then we can take you to St Joseph s Hospital. There are some times when we will bypass or divert to a different facility. The status of the patient will dictate if we bypass or divert to another facility. Two main reasons for bypass or divert are for Trauma and STEMI (heart attack). Regardless who your physician is affiliated with, if you have multi system trauma or a head injury then we will bypass all facilities and take you directly to Froedtert which is a Level I Trauma Center. The same is true for heart attacks. If our Paramedics determine that you may be having a heart attack we will take you to the closest hospital that has a Cath Lab. If you are an Aurora patient, then we will take you to Grafton and if you are a Froedtert patient than we can take you to either Community Memorial Hospital in Menomonee Falls or to Froedtert. What does divert mean? When we are told to divert from one hospital to another hospital, that means the original hospital is so busy they can t take any more patients. Usually the hospital that is on diversion will tell us what hospital to take our patient too. So rather than go to a hospital that is overwhelmed you are better off going a little further to a facility that can tend to our patients needs much quicker. Again we try our best to take you to the facility you wish, BUT our ultimate goal is to get you to the appropriate facility that has the capability to treat you. FF/Paramedic Sean Williams (below) checks medical equipment at the start of his shift.

Page 4 Planning to Protect.. Fire Prevention & Inspection Battalion Chief Chuck Beistle & Captain Tammy Lamberg April 2013 Inspections Follow-up Compliance Semi-Annual Annual Total Violations Inspections Cards Station #1 115 12 127 31 13 09 Station #2 41 7 48 8 1 1 Station #3 99 14 113 20 4 2 Staff Captain/ 51 11 62 19 14 10 Townships Totals 350 78 32 22 Remembering When An NFPA fire prevention program for older adults The National Fire Protection Association has developed the Remembering When program. This program focuses on fire safety and injury prevention education for senior citizens. NFPA provides materials to fire departments to be used in safety presentations. 36.9% of civilian fire fatalities involve people who are over the age of 85 years old. (See chart on left.) WBFD Captain Lamberg and Captain Thrash have presented this material to residents at Auxiliary Court Apartments, West Bend Senior Housing, LLC, River Shores Regency and Deer Crossing Apts. (See related story on page 5.) Permits and Fees Count Permit Type Total Fees 3 Outdoor Burning $150.00 1 Sprinkler installation/modification 15-50 heads $100.00 1 Sprinkler installation/modification 51-250 heads $193.00 2 LP Tank Permits $125.00 2 Tent Permits $120.00 Total= 11 Total Permit Fees for March $688.00

Prevention Bureau Public Education Page 5 Captain Tammy Lamberg and Captain Tom Thrash spent an afternoon at Rivershores Regency Apartments educating residents on fire safety and injury prevention. Following their visit Chief Kudek received a thank you letter from the Regency Apartments management team. John Bichler wrote, We continually update our residents on safety practices and procedures but there is nothing more satisfying and reassuring than hearing directly from the professionals who describe their actual experiences. Tom and Tammy explained WBFD s operations and how they relate to seniors. The response was overwhelmingly positive. Many questions were asked and answered allaying the seniors concerns. The face to face presentation was extremely valuable to our seniors. Thank you to you and your staff for providing this service. Occupancy Consultations, Follow-up Inspections, Plan Reviews & Acceptance Tests DATE OCCUPANCY TYPE ACTIVITY NOTES 4/1 Religious Consultation Meeting with member services director regarding a safety presentation 4/1 Manufacturing consultation Preliminary discussion of plans for a future renovation 4/2 Retail/restaurant Plan review Addition of pizza restaurant to existing video store 4/2 Residential Site tour Former manufacturing building planned conversion to residential 4/2 Bar/Restaurant consultation Update of existing alarm system to meet current code 4/9 Commercial Acceptance test Sprinkler acceptance test on second floor tenant build-out 4/10 Industrial Plan review New occupant/change of occupancy review & discussion of code requirements 4/12 Restaurant Hood system Acceptance test of hood fire protection system 4/12 Health care Sprinkler system Evaluation of existing system and discussion on needed alterations 4/12 Retail Plan review Sprinkler plan review for retail expansion/addition 4/15 educational Consultation Met with engineer designing sprinkler system for school addition 4/18 Commercial Acceptance test Sprinkler acceptance test for car dealership expansion 4/22 Retail LP Inspection Temporary LP tank inspection Seniors view a power point presentation on fire safety. The discussion focused specifically on fire safety in senior apartment complexes. Many seniors come from single family homes and are unfamiliar with exit strategies and proper ways to respond to a fire emergency in a multi-story, multifamily residence. 4/18 Residential Plan review Plan review meeting for renovation from manufacturing to residential 4/22 Edu/religious Consultation Discussion with designer on Sprinkler, FDC and riser requirements.

Page 6 Operations Bureau Battalion Chief John Spartz Captain Jon Coutts Department Operations Change with the Season BC Spartz spent two weeks at the National Fire Academy for his final Executive Fire Officer class. Updated SOGs for township billing and adopting new SOGs was introduced and vetted by members of the department. Final adoption will occur in May. Our Purchasing Committee met twice in April and is continuing work on the specifications for a new engine. The committee developed a timeline for the process and also reviewed items we will need on the new engine. BC Spartz worked with Rob Schmid from Washington County Emergency Management and the Ozaukee County Hazardous Materials Team on identifying ways to have both teams work together. The teams also met to study a State proposal for reorganizing the State s hazardous materials response system. Quote of the Month... Learn it right, and you ll do it right for the rest of your life. Learn it wrong, and spend the rest of your life trying to get it right. (Unknown). Did You Know...Ammonium Nitrate Explosion Similar to West, Tx Incident Also Occurred on April 16, 1947 tions they took is unknown because all 27 firefighters were killed outright when the Grandcamp exploded at 9:12 AM. The ship completely disintegrated. The force of the explosion sent flames, debris and shockwaves thousands of feet, leveling entire structures and severely destroying others. The anchor of the SS Grandcamp was later found over a mile and a half away. Flames enveloped the surrounding area and by early evening another vessel, the SS High Flyer, had caught fire. Flames on Smoke was observed coming from the lower hold of the SS Grandcamp at around 8:15 AM, April 16th, 1947. The vessel was loaded at that time with some 2300 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer. Crew attempted to extinguish the flames by their own means before finally summoning the Texas City Fire Department at 8:30. 27 firefighters subsequently arrived on scene and began to attack the flames with their hose lines. Precisely what acthe pier presumably reached its open hatchways, which had been blown off from the concussion of the earlier explosion. Attempts to extinguish the fire or to tow the vessel to a safe distance from the pier failed. At 1:10 AM on the 17th the High Flyer also then exploded. While this resulted in only one known fatality it caused further damage to the surrounding facilities and caused a second wave of fires to break out including those in the port's tank farm areas. These latter proved very difficult to extinguish. Effective firefighting operations resumed on the 18th when neighboring communities had dispatched firefighters and apparatus to the scene. The official death count of 581 makes this incident the deadliest industrial accident in US history. Over 5000 people were injured and over 500 homes were destroyed. (Source: U.S. Fire Administration Learning Resource Center)

Fire Instruction & Training Bureau Page 7 Battalion Chief Chuck Beistle Last month on the Looking Ahead article I stated that we were going to talk more about the Washington County Dive Team. The team started as a result of the drowning of a person named Michael Mann, 10 years ago this last January. He was out on Big Cedar Lake during the night on a snowmobile. There were two riders on the snowmobile when it went through the ice. One of the riders was able to make it out, but Michael was under the water. Washington County had no dive team and had to request Waukesha County for assistance with there dive team. The response was not favorable for the outcome of Michael. After that, Michael s family made it their mission to not only get a dive team started in this county, but they also continue to be strong supporters today, and we owe much of the success to the Mann Family. The Washington County Dive Team consists of divers from West Bend Fire Department, Washington County Sheriffs Department, Kewaskum Fire Department, Slinger Fire Department and Richfield Fire Department. Initially there was many other departments in the county that participated, but due to the large amount of training that is required annually, time commitments, additional risk involved, many departments could not continue to supply divers. You have 5 certification classes that you have to complete before you can start responding to dive calls. (Open Water, Advanced Open Water, Night Dive, Dry Suit, Ice Dive) After all classes are complete the training continues. Every other month there is a county wide training where all the participating departments get together. The other months it is the divers responsibilities to dive with just their own departments. You are required to have a minimum of 12 dives per year, attend 50% of the county trainings, participate in a skills review, and be a member in good standings within your department. We average 2-3 responses annually. Many of our responses are in zero visibility water where you need to just feel for the victims. That is why our training is very important, because those are not easy skills to maintain without it. The team also has a 501C3 with it called the Washington County Dive Team Association. This association does all the fund raising for continuing training and new/additional gear. This team would have a hard time existing without the Mann Family which is largely responsible for the continuous fund raising. They raised over $250,000.00 for the initial start up of the team. The initial five classes are paid for by the fire department. After completion of the classes the department is refunded by the association. With the team consisting of Firefighters & law enforcement you have a very diverse group of people working as one unit. Our county dive team does an excellent job of doing that, and I am very happy to be a part of it. Looking Ahead for Upcoming Training The month of May training emphasis will be on Disaster Plan Review and Apparatus Pumping and Drafting. The months of April and May can bring very severe weather. To review our plan every year not only makes us more comfortable and confident with it, but also we find changes and improvements which can be made. We look at our responses for weather related calls such as electrical wires down, lightening strikes, and tornadoes. We discuss how we handle the call volume, prioritize the calls, and what would happen in the event that our communication with Dispatch would go down. It is our goal to be ready for the unknown before it gets here. Pumping and Drafting is something you can never practice enough. When you need these skills on an Emergency scene they need to be automatic. We service both hydrant and nonhydrant areas. Both of these require different skillsets that our MPO and Acting MPO s strive to perfect. It takes many practice hours to be proficient, and our motor pump operators are some of the best.

In Their Own Words... The back page of our newsletter will feature a couple of notes or cards that we receive from our customers.the people we serve. Whether it is on an ambulance call, fire call, or a public education assignment, the members of the West Bend Fire Department are dedicated to making their contact with us a positive experience. You should come to know that on Saturday 29, December, Your Rescue Squad transported me from St. Joe's to CMH.. This will have been the second ride that I have been given across the last couple of years, and for my money, it's the only way to go. For all of the years of my life that I sat beside the patient, just as Paramedic Monday sat beside me, I never thought that I would be in the position of the patient. I can't imagine being treated better, or more professionally. Any time You and Yours need a voice of support, and I could help; please let me know If I were well off, I would support the Department for anything that You would need...but right now I am poor and getting poorer Sincerely, Mike Schuster PERSONNEL SPOTLIGHT.. Lt. Don Peil Lieutenant Don Peil started in the fire service in 1991 when he joined the Saukville Fire Department as a paid-on-call fire fighter. In 1996, he was hired by Kenosha Fire. Wanting to be closer to family, he applied at West Bend Fire and moved here in the beginning of 2000. Since then, he has been promoted to the position of Motor Pump Operator, Captain in charge of training and Lieutenant/ Paramedic. Don has an Associate Degree in Fire Science, is a State certified firefighter, motor pump operator, fire officer, EMS instructor, and fire instructor. He also holds certifications in hazmat, rope rescue & trench rescue. Don states that what he likes best about the West Bend Fire Department is that he works with a great group of dedicated people who do an incredible job of giving our patients the best care possible. WEST BEND FIRE DEPARTMENT Planning to Protect...Acting to Save 325 N 8th Ave. West Bend, WI 53095 262.335.5054 www.ci.west-bend.wi.us