FIRE AND INSPECTION
Richard E. Sydnes, Fire
Chief
The following is the
Annual Report for the Albert Lea Fire, Building Inspection, Health Inspection,
and City Center. I would like to extend
my gratitude to the Mayor, City Council, and City Manager Sparks for their
support in our efforts this past year.
The staff in my department also deserve my thanks for the professional
manner that they perform their duties.
The Fire Department
experienced an eventful year with the Farmland fire, as well as others such as
Interstate Packaging. I was very
impressed at the way these incidents were handled. The new employees we have put on staff over the last couple of
years are working out well and always seem to come up with new ideas. One of these was starting an Explorer
Club. We have a number of teenage boys
and girls that are very devoted to the fire service. They have done a number of community service projects this year. We are in the process of adding five new
Civil Defense sirens this year. We will
be locating them in areas that are not covered very well by the existing units.
The additional sirens should help in providing coverage for the entire
community.
The Building Inspection Department has been kept busy again this year
with new construction as well as remodeling being done in town. The construction of Home Depot has been an
exciting project this year. It was
encouraging to see that thirteen permits were taken out for commercial
buildings. As in the past we are
holding a contractors seminar for local contractors. This event is very well attended and appreciated by the
contractors and is needed to retain their license.
The City Center building and grounds are being maintained and upgraded
as needed. We will be adding a new
boiler this year which will be used in conjunction with the existing
boiler. I believe this will show us a
sizable savings on fuel consumption.
ALBERT LEA
FIRE DEPARTMENT
Committed to preservation of
life, safety, and protection of property for:
17,923 Residents
7,696 Housing
Units
718 Commercial
and Industrial Properties
500,864,500 Value
of property protected (doesn’t include exempt property or trailer homes)
12.72 Square
Miles
15 Mutual
aid with no. of departments
Facility and
Equipment
Telephone
507-377-4340
Vehicles
#920 1999
Toyne Pumper (Township)
#915 1985
1250 GPM Pierce Pumper
#916 1992
Pierce 105Ft. Aerial Ladder
#93 2001
Ford Pick up
#62 1991
Chevrolet Pickup
Staffing
Full-time Fire Response Staff........................ 17
Full-time: Paid
On Call:
Firefighters....................................... 12
Vehicle
Mileage as of 12/31/01
Vehicle Road Miles Hours
915 27,858 127,991 Revs
916 4,191 1,000 Hours
917 17,635 1,780 Hours
062 60,864
080 32,057
086 32,327
093 9,334
429 60,586
430 72,748
432 22,011
Vehicle
Use in 2001
Vehicle Road
Miles Hours
915 494 2,471 Revs
916 224 126.4
Hours
917 3,842 384.4
Hours
062 3,542
080 6,764
086 5,008
093 7,228
429 4,897
430 5,198
432 5,980
ALARMS
In
2001 we had a total of 397 alarms.
until
we arrive at the scene.
Fire Calls
Structure 37
Other 33
TOTAL FIRE CALLS 70
Other Calls
Rescue 23
Hazardous
Conditions 47
Service
Calls 106
Good
Intent Calls 32
False
Calls 107
TOTAL OTHER
ALARMS 327
TOTAL ALARMS 397
Mutual Aid
Received 22
Fire Loss
Structure $38,627,550.00
Other $ 62,800.00
TOTAL FIRE LOSS $38,690,350.00
Average Structure Loss $ 1,043,398.00
Fire Injuries
Firefighter 2
Civilian 5
Non Fire
Related Injuries
Firefighter 0
Civilian 1
Fire Deaths
Civilian 0
Non Fire
Related Deaths
Firefighter 0
Civilian 0
FIRE HYDRANT MAINTENANCE:
As
2002 begins, we have 925 hydrants in service.
Eighteen hydrants were added in 2001.
Work Done Number
of Hydrants
Hydrants checked 1221
Hydrants painted 79
Hydrants pumped 123
Hydrants flow tested 19
Hydrants Thawed 0
Hydrants shoveled 102
Hydrants flagged 0
Hydrant man-hours 222
Hydrants extended 0
WARNING SIRENS
All sirens were checked and
in working order this year. We will be
adding five new sirens to the community in 2002. This should give better coverage for the new areas and those
areas that had a hard time hearing the sirens.
TRAINING
Captain Hanna is currently
the Department Training Officer. He has
been doing an excellent job and the increase in hours shows this. We also started an Explorer group and have a
good group of teen-age young men and women that are very dedicated to the
Department. This program seems to be
going over very well.
Training Hours
1999 2000 2001
A.L.F.D. 1,564 1,400 1,636
A.L.T.F.D. 880 942 974
Fire Explorers 1,420
BLOOD PRESSURE PROGRAM:
We
have had a total of 43,351 readings made since the start of this program.
This program has great benefits, not only for those
who use it, but also for the Fire Department in public relations.
In 2001, a total of 1,328 readings were made, up
from 1,254 in 2000 or approximately 5%.
We had 1,317 repeaters and 13 new participants. Of the new participants, 13 had normal
readings below 139/89 and 0 had 140/90 and higher. We referred 15 to their doctors.
Reassurance Program
The
people on the list had the following activity for 2001:
14 New
2 Deaths
(Stan Anderson & Sally Berg)
At the end of the year we ended with a total of 36
people on the program.
We held our 3rd annual party on September
17, 2001 and had 30 people attend. This
year I invited Arnie Biederman to come and give a brief speech on his
experiences with the call-in-program.
He presented Chief Sydnes with a special picture in light of the
September 11th attacks. This
party has proven to be a great opportunity to meet with the call-in people and
I feel it should be continued next year.
PERSONNEL DATA
24 Hour Personnel:
There were 4,120 hours of vacation earned and 3,785
½ hours of vacation taken.
There were 2,160 hours of sick leave earned and 614
¼ hours of sick leave taken.
There were 0 hours of comp time earned and 0 hours
taken.
113 hours of
workbacks were performed in 2001.
For 2001, an average of 4.51 men were on duty.
There were 120 hours of military leave taken.
On June 28, 2001, Dennis
Gore retired. Dennis Glassel was hired
on 6/25/01 to replace Firefighter Gore.
8 Hour Personnel:
There were 432 hours of vacation earned and 436
hours taken.
There were 192 hours of sick leave earned and 15
hours taken.
For 2001, an average of 1.78 men were on duty.
FIRE
DEPARTMENT HOURS
First Second Third Fourth
Quarter Quarter Quarter Quarter Total
Janitorial: 712 630 619 658 2,619
In-service Inspection: 51 134 164 101 450
Tools & Equipment: 206 158 179 172 715
Records: 221 196 215 236 868
Fire & Clean Up: 451 607 933 348 2,339
CO & Gas Checks: 25 27 23 16 91
Inspection: 285 303 231 263 1,082
Bldg. Maintenance: 34 3 0 1 38
Talks: (M/H)
27 160 55 216 458
(groups) (groups) (groups) (groups) (groups)
(aud.) (aud.) (aud.) (aud.) (aud.)
Other Work (Misc.): 404 597 595 397 1,993
Flags: 0 0 0 1 1
Physical Training: 39 65 46 98 248
Hydrants: 39 8 56 122 225
Hydrants Flow Test: 7 2 6 11 26
Hydrants Shoveled: 47 0 13 0 60
Hydrants Painted: 0 0 43 14 57
Hydrants Checked: 0 0 172 1,049 1,221
Hydrants Pumped: 0 0 0 125 125
Hydrants Flagged: 0 0 0 0 0
Hydrants Thawed/Frozen: 0 0 0 0 0
Miscellaneous: 0 0 0 0 0
Total M/H 4,013 7,106 4,783 7,138 23,040
FIRE
PREVENTION AND INSPECTION
The Fire Prevention Bureau’s mission is to improve
public safety and reduce property loss through proactive fire safety
inspections and quality public fire education.
The benefit of fire prevention inspections has been
well documented. To increase the quantity and quality of fire inspections
performed by the three shift inspectors, who have increased demands for time
from second in charge responsibilities, three additional firefighters accepted
additional inspection duties. These
inspectors had junk automobiles removed.
The number of fire inspections made and junk
vehicles removed have returned to a normal level. Numbers were down last year
due to personnel shifts.
This year we began towing chronic junk
vehicles. Towing orders were issued for
16 junk cars.
Fire prevention education programs represent a
long-term investment by increasing fire safety awareness, which will save lives
and reduce property losses now and in the future. The Fire Prevention and Education committee is providing many new
great program ideas.
The 2001 fifth grade fire prevention week poster
contest winner was Jordan Holland from Halverson Elementary School.
A Fire Department Open House was held the last Saturday
of Fire Prevention week with over 120 guests in attendance.
Albert Lea Firefighter Union IAFF Local 1041
completed their eighth year providing a spring visit to first grade
classes. Each child is rewarded with a
T-shirt for learning fire prevention techniques
Report on
File for 2001
2001 2000 1999
Fire Inspections and
Follow-ups 908 676 873
Carbon Monoxide Tests by
Shift Inspectors 8 14 31
Lots-Property Pins Found by
Shift Personnel 0 0 1
Building Inspections 0 5 5
INSPECTION DIVISION
Facility and Equipment
Office
221 East Clark St.
Telephone 507-377-4340
Vehicles
#80 1997
Dodge Pick-up
#86 1997
Dodge Pick-up
#429 1992 Chevrolet Lumina
#430 1993 Chevrolet Lumina
STAFFING
Building Official
Two Building Inspectors
City Sanitarian
Building permits were issued for $19,383,129.00 in
construction work.
Building permits were issued for 13 new one and two
family homes with 15 units. Thirteen
permits were issued for new commercial buildings. These permits include The
Latter Day Saints Church, three communications towers, Applebee’s Bar &
Grill, Community Foot Clinic, Slifka Sales, a WWTP plant and Pump Generator
building, two Kwik Trip stores, Home Depot, Larson Contracting, and a storage
building.
A total of
$242,213.02 in fees were collected in 2001.
A report of permits issued follows:
2001 2000 1999
Total Building Permits 579 701 1,556
Total Plumbing Permits 60 63 62
Total Service Connection
Permits 122 117 92
Total Sign Permits 20 4 23
Total Mechanical Permits 265 227 227
Total Mobile Home Permits 2 2 5
Total Buildings Demolished 9 6 19
Total Buildings Moved 0 0 0
2001 2000 1999
No. Units Value No. Units Value No. Units Value
Dwellings (1-2) Family 13 15 2,597,673 16 17 2,809,000 25 18 3,979,500
Dwellings (Multiple) 7 34 2,026,500 3 61 3,405,000
Alt. Add. & Repairs 471 3,438,389 606 4,465,500 1423 6,902,834
Commercial (New) 13 6,571,977 7 3,324,770 13 6,849,000
Commercial (Alt. Add.) 74 6,283,262 55 1,670,538 63 2,206,602
Industrial (New) 1 33,000
Industrial (Alt. Add.) 1 26,000 1 300,000 11 2,535,130
Public (New) 3 218,148 3 22,999,864
Public (Alt. Add.) 7 285,828 6 528,143 14 4,672,611
The Board of
Appeals considered one request, which was approved by the Appeals Board and the
City Council.
City Sanitarian
The health inspection of food, beverage, and lodging
establishments continues by the Inspection Department. An unfortunate twist for 2001 was the
concern of terrorist contamination of food and water supplies. We participated in several local and state
meetings as well as national tele-conferences.
Our local public health community was able to react quickly because
similar topics had been presented in recent years at State and National
conferences. Local food establishments
were alerted to contamination possibilities though a special mailing included
in a quarterly newsletter.
Substandard housing, junk cars, and general
nuisances were also given attention.
Written orders were delivered to 141 residences for various code
violations. Compliance is achieved on
the majority, however, there continues to be a core of repeat offenders. Summons to appear in Freeborn County Court
were issued to 30 individuals.
In addition, in
order to quickly abate public health nuisances, it was necessary to remove
material from 14 locations at a cost of $1,103.00. The cost is recovered through special assessment to the property
owner.
The staff will
continue to participate in educational seminars and conferences in order to
stay current on newly emerging environmental and public health concerns. When appropriate, the information is given
back to the community in the form of a quarterly newsletter to food
establishments, individual consultations, and yearly updates to contractors.