9.b1 Annual Fire Department Report for 2020
Scandia Fire & Rescue
15040 Scandia Trail North
Scandia, MN 55073
Fire Chief Annual Report
2020
The fire department had a very unusual year due to the COVID-19 pandemic
effecting the world. We were very proactive and limited our exposer to only having
2 members out with positive COVID-19 tests throughout 2020. Many other
departments saw much higher rates among their crews.
We did hire 3 new members in 2020. In June both Nick Bancks and Tim O’Neill
joined the department. Both Nick and Tim have already completed their Firefighter
1 & 2 certification. They will start their EMT training in the fall of 2021. In December
Ben Horner joined the department. Ben comes to us already holding a paramedic
certification with many years of experience. Ben will be starting his firefighter
training this next fall.
We responded to 252 calls in 2020. This was a record year again this year for total
call volume, 2018 was 225, 2019 was 229 and 2020 was 252. This is just over a 10%
increase in calls for the fire department in 2020.
I have attached a breakdown of our 2020 calls for your review.
• The 2020 Incident type report shows a breakdown by type of call and also
includes the percentage of each type of call.
• The Alarm by District shows calls to other communities. The calls to other
communities were Contract coverage, Auto-Aid or Mutual Aid. All
departments within our county are working to improve our Auto-Aid
network, this will result in having more equipment and personnel respond to
a scene sooner to improve the outcome of the incident.
• The Alarm by Month shows a breakdown by month to help see trends in the
future. As you can see in the report January, March, April & May call numbers
were lower than the rest of the months. We had mentioned that we did see a
decrease over those months in our monthly reports.
• The Annual alarm report is a basic look at calls by their most generic class.
• Alarm by Day of Week is useful for determining trends. You can see that in
2020 most days are very close to the same, but Saturday was the least active
day that year.
This pandemic created new tasks that were not anticipated, some of the tasks that
were a result of this are.
1. Had to create and modify standard operating guidelines on a weekly to
monthly schedule to align with recommendations of the governor & CDC.
2. Ordering of supplies. This process changed dramatically due to limited
availability. I had to work with vendors, state emergency directors and
neighboring departments to make sure that our crews had appropriate
equipment to meet the needs of our residents.
3. Justify use of CARES ACT funding for multiple city projects.
4. Oversee purchase and installation of multiple projects throughout the city.
Items that were completed this year.
• Personnel files reviewed and updated. All files for our current members were
reviewed and updated.
• Created new SOG’s & reviewed existing SOG’s
• Attended more frequent county meetings, this year the county dispatch
center and emergency operation were both hosting weekly meetings to keep
everyone up to date on the rapidly changing response to COVID-19
• I was not able to attend any of the national conferences this year due to the
fact that all were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• I was able to attend some online training that was presented by many of the
national conferences since they were not able to have in person conferences.
• Finished our auto aid programming with our neighboring fire departments.
• Renewed our medical direction and medical training contracts for 2021.
• Have setup our fire department key box program with our building inspector
to make it mandatory to install these with any new construction (commercial
properties). This will improve our capabilities for commercial buildings. We
have also put information on the city web site for residents to be able to also
install them on their home to reduce damage to their home in the case of an
emergency.
• I now have setup a program to monitor our sever weather sirens. We did
have an issue with the one at the fire station not working during a severe
weather activation.
We did make what I feel was very good use of CARES Act funds in 2020. Here is a list
of some the items that were purchased with these funds. Using these funds has
improved our capability while not affecting our budget and allowing purchase of
items that would have been difficult to achieve without these funds.
• Purchased medical jumpsuits for each member. This item had been on our
list of items for a few years, but was still waiting on a funding option. These
suits are used during medical calls. They make our team look more
professional and also identify us as EMS (in the past everyone just wore plain
street clothes). They also protect our family members by allowing the crew
to not contaminate there personal clothing. After a call they return to the
station remove the suit and wash before next use.
• Purchased and installed a second washer. This washer is used to wash the
jumpsuits and the inner shell of our turnout gear. It is also able to was 3
jumpsuits or 2 sets of turnout gear. The old washer is used just for washing
the exterior shell of our turnout gear (this keeps them from contaminating
the rest of the gear with the carcinogen’s that are on our gear and can cause
cancer).
• Purchased a gear dryer. This dryer will dry 4 sets of gear or jumpsuits in 4
hours. In the past we would hang our gear throughout the station to let it air
dry as we are not able to use heat or high-speed spin to dry as that would
damage the gear (manufactures only allow 100 g-force and 100-degree heat
for any item that is fire resistant). In the past it would take 1-2 days to dry.
• Purchased and installed a security camera system at the fire/PW building,
City hall & skate facility. This system allows us to monitor the city buildings
without having to be on site and also allows us to look back in time to assist
police if need be. We do plan to present to the council the option to advertise
both the fire station and city hall as safe meeting locations due to the use of
security cameras (craigslist and kid exchanges)
• Purchased and installed door access system at fire/PW & city hall. This
system allows for monitoring of who is accessing the buildings and also
reduces the need to replace keys as they are lost or stolen. Now key fobs can
be turned on and off as needed.
• Purchase of face masks, hand sanitizer & cleaning supplies. These supplies
are now being used throughout the city as we reopen. Most items are still in
limited supply at this time.
Incident Type Total
Incidents
Total Incidents
% of Incidents
Total Property
Loss
Total Content
Loss
Total Loss
Incident Type Category: 1 - Fire
111 - Building fire 8 3.2% 5,000 5,000
113 - Cooking fire, confined to container 1 0.4% 25 25
131 - Passenger vehicle fire 2 0.8% 53,300 60,000 113,300
140 - Natural vegetation fire, other 1 0.4%
141 - Forest, woods or wildland fire 2 0.8% 0 0
142 - Brush or brush-and-grass mixture fire 2 0.8%
143 - Grass fire 1 0.4%
151 - Outside rubbish, trash or waste fire 1 0.4%
154 - Dumpster or other outside trash
receptacle fire
1 0.4%
Total: 19 Total: 7.5% Total: 58,300 Total: 60,025 Total: 118,325
Incident Type Category: 2 - Overpressure Rupture, Explosion, Overheat (No Fire)
223 - Air or gas rupture of pressure or
process vessel
1 0.4%
Total: 1 Total: 0.4% Total: 0 Total: 0 Total: 0
Incident Type Category: 3 - Rescue & Emergency Medical Service Incident
311 - Medical assist, assist EMS crew 123 48.8%
320 - Emergency medical service, other 1 0.4%
321 - EMS call, excluding vehicle accident
with injury
2 0.8%
322 - Motor vehicle accident with injuries 5 2.0%
324 - Motor vehicle accident with no injuries. 3 1.2%
352 - Extrication of victim(s) from vehicle 1 0.4%
361 - Swimming/recreational water areas
rescue
2 0.8%
365 - Watercraft rescue 1 0.4%
372 - Trapped by power lines 1 0.4%
381 - Rescue or EMS standby 5 2.0%
Total: 144 Total: 57.1% Total: 0 Total: 0 Total: 0
Incident Type Category: 4 - Hazardous Condition (No Fire)
410 - Combustible/flammable gas/liquid
condition, other
1 0.4%
412 - Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 3 1.2%
444 - Power line down 13 5.2%
445 - Arcing, shorted electrical equipment 1 0.4%
Total: 18 Total: 7.1% Total: 0 Total: 0 Total: 0
Incident Type Category: 5 - Service Call
531 - Smoke or odor removal 1 0.4%
553 - Public service 1 0.4%
554 - Assist invalid 5 2.0%
Total: 7 Total: 2.8% Total: 0 Total: 0 Total: 0
Incident Type Total
Incidents
Total Incidents
% of Incidents
Total Property
Loss
Total Content
Loss
Total Loss
Incident Type Category: 6 - Good Intent Call
611 - Dispatched and cancelled en route 41 16.3%
6111 - EMS Dispatched and cancelled en
route
1 0.4%
622 - No incident found on arrival at dispatch
address
2 0.8%
631 - Authorized controlled burning 2 0.8%
671 - HazMat release investigation w/no
HazMat
1 0.4%
Total: 47 Total: 18.7% Total: 0 Total: 0 Total: 0
Incident Type Category: 7 - False Alarm & False Call
733 - Smoke detector activation due to
malfunction
1 0.4%
735 - Alarm system sounded due to
malfunction
2 0.8%
736 - CO detector activation due to
malfunction
1 0.4%
740 - Unintentional transmission of alarm,
other
1 0.4%
744 - Detector activation, no fire -
unintentional
2 0.8%
745 - Alarm system activation, no fire -
unintentional
1 0.4%
746 - Carbon monoxide detector activation,
no CO
2 0.8%
Total: 10 Total: 4.0% Total: 0 Total: 0 Total: 0
Incident Type Category: 8 - Severe Weather & Natural Disaster
814 - Lightning strike (no fire) 2 0.8%
Total: 2 Total: 0.8% Total: 0 Total: 0 Total: 0
Incident Type Category: 9 - Special Incident Type
900 - Special type of incident, other 4 1.6%
Total: 4 Total: 1.6% Total: 0 Total: 0 Total: 0
Total: 252 Total: 100.0% Total: 58,300 Total: 60,025 Total: 118,325
Report Filters
Basic Incident Date Time: is between '1/1/2020' and '12/31/2020'
Agency Name: is equal to 'SCANDIA'
Basic Incident Type Category (FD1.21) Total Alarms
1 - Fire 19
2 - Overpressure Rupture, Explosion, Overheat (No Fire) 1
3 - Rescue & Emergency Medical Service Incident 144
4 - Hazardous Condition (No Fire) 18
5 - Service Call 7
6 - Good Intent Call 47
7 - False Alarm & False Call 10
8 - Severe Weather & Natural Disaster 2
9 - Special Incident Type 4
Total: 252
Report Filters
Basic Incident Date Time: is between '1/1/2020' and '12/31/2020'
Agency Name: is in 'SCANDIA'
Basic Incident Type Category (FD1.21) Total Alarms
Basic Incident Year-Month Number (FD1.3): 2020-01 January
1 - Fire 1
3 - Rescue & Emergency Medical Service Incident 12
4 - Hazardous Condition (No Fire) 1
6 - Good Intent Call 2
Total: 16
Basic Incident Year-Month Number (FD1.3): 2020-02 February
1 - Fire 5
3 - Rescue & Emergency Medical Service Incident 19
6 - Good Intent Call 3
Total: 27
Basic Incident Year-Month Number (FD1.3): 2020-03 March
1 - Fire 2
3 - Rescue & Emergency Medical Service Incident 7
Total: 9
Basic Incident Year-Month Number (FD1.3): 2020-04 April
1 - Fire 3
3 - Rescue & Emergency Medical Service Incident 11
4 - Hazardous Condition (No Fire) 1
6 - Good Intent Call 3
7 - False Alarm & False Call 1
Total: 19
Basic Incident Year-Month Number (FD1.3): 2020-05 May
1 - Fire 3
3 - Rescue & Emergency Medical Service Incident 7
6 - Good Intent Call 5
Total: 15
Basic Incident Year-Month Number (FD1.3): 2020-06 June
3 - Rescue & Emergency Medical Service Incident 15
4 - Hazardous Condition (No Fire) 1
5 - Service Call 1
6 - Good Intent Call 4
7 - False Alarm & False Call 3
Total: 24
Basic Incident Year-Month Number (FD1.3): 2020-07 July
3 - Rescue & Emergency Medical Service Incident 10
4 - Hazardous Condition (No Fire) 2
6 - Good Intent Call 8
8 - Severe Weather & Natural Disaster 1
9 - Special Incident Type 1
Total: 22
Basic Incident Type Category (FD1.21) Total Alarms
Basic Incident Year-Month Number (FD1.3): 2020-08 August
3 - Rescue & Emergency Medical Service Incident 15
4 - Hazardous Condition (No Fire) 5
5 - Service Call 2
6 - Good Intent Call 6
7 - False Alarm & False Call 3
8 - Severe Weather & Natural Disaster 1
9 - Special Incident Type 1
Total: 33
Basic Incident Year-Month Number (FD1.3): 2020-09 September
1 - Fire 2
2 - Overpressure Rupture, Explosion, Overheat (No Fire) 1
3 - Rescue & Emergency Medical Service Incident 8
4 - Hazardous Condition (No Fire) 5
6 - Good Intent Call 5
7 - False Alarm & False Call 1
9 - Special Incident Type 1
Total: 23
Basic Incident Year-Month Number (FD1.3): 2020-10 October
1 - Fire 3
3 - Rescue & Emergency Medical Service Incident 14
4 - Hazardous Condition (No Fire) 1
5 - Service Call 2
6 - Good Intent Call 5
9 - Special Incident Type 1
Total: 26
Basic Incident Year-Month Number (FD1.3): 2020-11 November
3 - Rescue & Emergency Medical Service Incident 14
4 - Hazardous Condition (No Fire) 1
5 - Service Call 1
6 - Good Intent Call 5
7 - False Alarm & False Call 2
Total: 23
Basic Incident Year-Month Number (FD1.3): 2020-12 December
3 - Rescue & Emergency Medical Service Incident 12
4 - Hazardous Condition (No Fire) 1
5 - Service Call 1
6 - Good Intent Call 1
Total: 15
Total: 252
Report Filters
Basic Incident Date Time: is between '1/1/2020' and '12/31/2020'
Agency Name: is in 'SCANDIA'
Day of Week Number of Incidents
01 - Sunday 38
02 - Monday 39
03 - Tuesday 39
04 - Wednesday 37
05 - Thursday 34
06 - Friday 36
07 - Saturday 29
Total: 252
Basic Incident Zone/District Number (FD1.32) Total Alarms
Blank 13
Forest Lake 12
Hugo 2
Marine 1
May Township 30
Other 6
Scandia 184
Stillwater 4
Report Filters
Basic Incident Date - Derived (Fd1.3):
is between '1/1/2020' and '12/31/2020'
Agency Name:
contains 'Scandia'