candle fires occur when

something that can catch

on fire is to close to the

candle. Never leave a

burning candle unattend-

ed. Candles should be

extinguished when you

leave a room, leave the

residence, or go to bed.

Christmas trees account

for hundreds of fires an-

nually. Live trees should

be recut approximately 2

inches above the old cut

as soon as you get it

home. The tree should

then be put into water &

the water level should be

maintained for the dura-

tion that it’s in a resi-

dence. Keep the tree

away from heat sources &

use decorations that are

flame resistant.

A few years ago the West

Bend Fire Department in-

troduced a brand new public

relations program entitled

“Keep Our Wreath Green”.

We continue that program

this year. Through the

Christmas and New Year’s

holiday season the fire de-

partment has a wreath dis-

played in front of all three

fire stations decorated with

green lights and 1 white

light. The single white light

at the top of the wreath is in

remembrance of all fire-

fighters who have died in

the line of duty. A green

light will be replaced with a

red light each time our de-

partment responds to a

“working” fire during the

Holiday Season. It is our

hope that the wreath will

remind people to be “fire

safe” during the holiday

season.

Did You Know…..

…..Acting to Save

Planning to Protect... ...Acting to Save

November 2013 Volume 1, Issue 11

Inside this issue:

Fire & EMS

Run Report 1

EMS Bureau Report 2

Fire Prevention/Public

Education Bureau 4

Operations Bureau 6

Training Bureau 7

In Their Own Words 8

Holiday Safety Reminders;

Here are a few fire safe tips

that we all should keep in

mind during the upcoming

Holiday Season: Burn can-

dles away from any drafts

and all flammable materi-

als. More than half of home

WEST BEND FIRE DEPARTMENT

Emergency Activities

Types of Calls Nov-13 Oct-13 Year to Date (2013) Year to Date (2012)

Fires 4 7 61 79 Emergency Medical Calls 218 248 2333 2048 Paramedic Intercepts 11 6 115 106 Interfacility Transports 29 41 447 366 Hazardous Conditions 3 7 58 65 Service Calls/Good Intent Calls 14 3 107 70 False Alarms/False Calls 19 22 156 160 Other/Special Incident Types 1 0 6 17

Totals 299 334 3283 2911

Town of Barton Calls 6 9 67 81 Town of West Bend Calls 15 11 138 114

YEARS of SERVICE ~ NOVEMBER

Capt. T Lamberg...23 years

LT J Gustafson.....17 years

LT R Lesiecki.......17 years

FF M Rinzel…......17 years

FF R Schafer….....17 years

POC Wahouske…..15 years

POC FF Guild …….9 years

Winter brings with it dan-

gerous conditions that we

may have to deal with as

we go along with our daily

business. National Win-

ter Weather Awareness

was on November 4-8 this

year. Some of the winter

hazards we need to be

aware of are, heavy snow-

falls, blizzard conditions,

ice storms, extreme cold and

low wind chills, glazing on

surfaces from freezing rain

or drizzle, and dense fog.

When you venture outside

in cold temperatures wear

layered lightweight clothing

to keep warm. Gloves/

mittens and a hat will help

to prevent the loss of body

heat especially if wind chills

are a factor. Waterproof

insulated boots with slip

Wisconsin Cold Weather Safety

Preparing for Emergency Response… Cold Weather Injuries

Even daily activities be-

come more of a challenge

when snow and ice are pre-

sent. Injuries due to falls

sharply increase in the win-

ter months. Unfortunately

falls are a common occur-

rence for senior citizens,

often these falls cause major

injuries and other complica-

tions. Winter weather con-

ditions can also have an

effect on EMS responders as

well. The winter weather

conditions can make patient

care and transport a more

challenging situation. Driv-

ing to the scene of a car

crash or other medical emer-

gency can be a hazardous

situation in winter driving

conditions. It is even more

important for drivers to be

aware of responding ambu-

lances and pull to the right

when possible and stop

when roadways are snow

covered and slippery When

responders arrive at a resi-

dence deep snow can make

it difficult to maneuver the

ambulance cot, having snow

shoveled on sidewalks and

access ways to a residence

can be a great help in get-

ting the patient from the

residence into the waiting

ambulance. Keeping a pa-

tient warm and comfortable

Wisconsin winters can be

a great time to get out-

doors and enjoy the land-

scape. Walking, snow-

shoeing, snowmobiling,

cross-country/downhill

skiing, and ice fishing are

just some of the activities

we may be involved in.

Each of these activities

have potential risk fac-

tors.

Page 2 Emergency Medical Services Bureau Battalion Chief Todd VanLangen

Captain Tom Thrash

Page 2

resistant soles are a must

when walking in snowy and

icy conditions. Falls are the

most frequent cause of inju-

ry in winter. Make sure your

driveway and other walking

surfaces are free of ice. When

it comes to shoveling snow

do not over exert yourself,

take frequent breaks and

keep yourself hydrated. An-

yone experiencing chest pain

as the result of shoveling

snow should immediately

dial 911.

Driving a vehicle in winter

weather conditions has

many hazards. Wisconsin

experiences an average of

about 50,000 car crashes in

winter. Reducing speeds

and increased awareness of

roadway conditions may

help prevent crashes. An-

other serious issue during

the cold weather months is

carbon monoxide. CO poi-

soning is the leading cause

of accidental poisoning in

the US. There is a sharp

increase in CO poisoning

cases during the cold

weather months. Make

sure your residence has

working CO alarms on

every level including the

basement. In Wisconsin all

homes and duplexes are

required to have CO

alarms.

while being on the ambu-

lance gurney outside can be

a challenge with some of the

frigid temperatures and

wind chills that we may ex-

perience. EMS responders

themselves must be dressed

to be able to withstand ex-

treme cold temperatures

outside while being able to

deliver medical interven-

tions to the patient.

The West Bend Fire De-

partment has customers?

The answer to that ques-

tion is yes. Every person

that we come in contact

with is our customer. We

strive to have excellent

customer service no matter

what task we are doing.

We may do a fire inspec-

tion, a CPR class or on an

ambulance call, we are

always working to keep

our customers happy.

Many times throughout

the year we are asked what

type of people we treat on

the ambulance. And how

many people do we see or

treat in a year. The charts

show how many people we

come in contact with on

the ambulance. The chart

is from January 1, 2013 to

December 1, 2013 and as

you can see we have been

pretty busy. In the first

11 months of the year we

have had contact with

over 3000 people and 55%

of those people are over the

age of 70, and 82% over the

age of 50. In the 70 years

and older group it is females

who we see more often.

Many times this is trauma

related due to a fall.

CUSTOMERS?

Page 3

140

391 406385

57

150

382 385

551

163

0-18 years old 19-49 years old 50-69 years old 70-89 years old 90-102 years old

WBFD Patients by Age and Gender

Male Female

0-18 years old2%

19-49 years old16%

50-69 years old27%

70-89 years old43%

90-102 years old12%

Total

Fire Prevention & Public Safety Bureau Battalion Chief Chuck Beistle & Captain Tammy Lamberg

Fire Prevention Continuing Education

Page 4 Planning to Protect…………..

November 2013 Inspections

Semi-Annual Annual Total Violations

Follow-up

Inspections

Compliance

Cards

Station #1 64 7 71 22 9 5

Station #2 15 4 19 8 1 1

Station #3 28 6 34 13 4 3

Staff Captain/

Townships

59 0 59 21 8 6

Totals 166 17 183 64 22 15

Count Permit Type Total Fees

2 Temporary LP Tanks $150.00

2 Sprinkler installation/modification 15-50 heads $205.00

1 Sprinkler installation/modification 51-250 heads $195.00

1 Sprinkler installation/modification 251+ heads $315.00

1 Alarm system installation/modification 51-250 devices $360.00

1 Alarm system installation modification 1-50 devices $85.00

Total= 8 Total Permit Fees for November $1310.00

Conference in Green Bay.

The conference was held

from October 30-

November 2nd.

Captain Lamberg attend-

ed a two day class titled-

Commissioning New Oc-

cupancies. The class was

presented by the Nation-

al Fire Academy and was

aimed at fire inspector

authorization of new con-

November Permits and Fees

struction projects for oc-

cupancy. It covered top-

ics such as required

NFPA completion re-

ports, acceptance testing

of fire protection sys-

tems, understanding in-

tegration of systems and-

working with owners of

new buildings to help

them understand the fire

protection components of

their facility.

Captain Lamberg, Captain Thrash

and Battalion Chief Beistle at-

tended the 2013 Wisconsin State

Fire Inspectors Association

which allows occupants ade-

quate time to exit the build-

ing.

Sprinklers reduce the aver-

age property loss by one-half

to two-thirds in any kind of

property where they are

used.

The sprinkler heads are acti-

Page 5

Occupancy Consultations, Follow-up Inspections, Plan Reviews & Acceptance Tests

How Effective are Fire Sprinklers?

Automatic fire sprinklers

have been in use since the

1850s. They first appeared

in factories and textile

mills in the New England

area of the United States.

The inventor, Henry Par-

malee, developed the first

sprinkler system in the

U.S. and put it to use to

protect his piano factory.

The benefits of having a

sprinkler system far out-

weigh the initial cost of

having them installed.

The improvement in life

safety can be shown in

statistics compiled by the

National Fire Protection

Association.

The NFPA has no records

DATE OCCUPANCY TYPE ACTIVITY NOTES

11/4 Industrial Sprinkler inspection Consultation regarding non-compliant system

11/4 Educational Alarm syst. review Evaluate alarm system for change of occupancy to storage facility

11/4 Retail Follow-up Follow-up with Building insp. for compliance on electrical violations

11/6 Residential Follow-up Repeated problems with combustible storage and egress

11/6 Business Plan review Review plan for tenant build-out for fire protection requirements

11/8 Retail Follow-up Follow-up regarding inventory repeatedly blocking exits

11/8 Industrial Follow-up Dry-pipe sprinkler system is inoperable due to compressor problem

11/11 Health Care FP Plan review Review plan and components of fire protection systems

11/11 Residential Follow-up Recommendations regarding dryer venting in multi-family

11/13 Residential Follow-up Follow-up with building owner regarding annual maint. requirements

11/13 Assembly Consult Consult on possible change of egress locations during holiday season

11/15 Industrial Plan review Review plan for fire protection requirements welding facility

11/18 Assembly Follow-up Follow-up on chronic violations. Timeline and expectations discussed.

11/19 Retail Follow-up Met store owner regarding doors being blocked during business hours

11/20 Industrial Consult Addition proposed and fire lanes and hydrant locations discussed

of a fire killing more than

two people in a completely

sprinklered public assembly,

educational, institutional or

residential building where

the sprinkler system was

working properly.

Cases in which fatalities

occur in a building equipped

with fire sprinklers, the de-

ceased are almost always in

intimate contact with the

fire and were burned severe-

ly before the sprinkler acti-

vated. Examples of this

would be explosions, equip-

ment mal-functioning while

in use or chemical reactions

occurring and injuring the

handler. Sprinklers greatly

reduce chances of fire fatali-

ties by keeping fires small in

vated by the heat of a fire.

The heat causes a soldered

link to melt or a liquid-

filled glass bulb to shatter

which allows the sprinkler

head to open. Most sprin-

kler heads are designed to

release when the tempera-

ture surrounding them

reaches 165 degrees. This

release will occur in the

initial stages of the fire and

most often only one or two

heads will be required to

activate to suppress the

fire. This keeps the water

damage to a minimum. By

comparison 8 times the

amount of water will be

used if the fire is sup-

pressed with a fire hose.

Page 6

Operations Bureau Battalion Chief John Spartz

Captain Jon Coutts

Quote of the Month…

“Be willing to embrace

the fact that the world

evolves and so does the

fire service and, as

much as we love

tradition and to keep

doing the things we do

well, that’s not

enough.” — Deputy

Chief John Sullivan,

Worcester, MA Fire

Department

Our Annual Pump Test-

ing, as required by

NFPA 1911, was com-

pleted during November.

Due to an extremely

busy fall, this is later in

the year than usual.

For the last 19 years,

West Bend Sand and

Transitional Attack: A New Suppression Tool in the Toolbox

Annual Pump Testing Completed

by water is a myth. The

researched showed that fire

is moved when air is moving

through a building and ap-

plying water to a fire will

not cause the fire to spread.

Department crews prac-

ticed the theories of the re-

search and combined it with

a positive pressure ventila-

tion attack. This kind of

Fire department opera-

tions have changed to

adapt to new research on

fire suppression. Crews,

historically, have tried to

get underneath or behind

fire and apply water to

prevent “moving” the fire

into unburned areas. Re-

search shows moving fire

attack is called a transition-

al attack.

In a transitional attack,

a fire fighter applies water

to visible fire through an

open window or door which

also acts as a ventilation

opening, places a positive

pressure fan at the entry

door, and makes entry to

complete extinguishing

the fire.

Crew members were

able to observe the train-

ing from inside the struc-

ture which allowed them

to witness first hand how

applying water to fire

doesn’t move it through

the building.

Stone has allowed us to uti-

lize a pond on their proper-

ty to test our pumps. This

property provides us with a

solid, level surface and we

are able to access the water

easily with the required

length of hard sleeve. All of

our pumps passed the test

with results ranging from

very good to excellent. No

problems were encountered

with any of the pumps or apparatus. The pumps are

tested at 100% of capacity at 150 PSI, 75% of ca-

pacity at 200 PSI, and

50% of capacity at 250

PSI. This provides a good

range of operating sce-

narios and work load for

the pumps.

Here are some pictures of

the pump testing.

Truck 12 pumping 1250

Gallons Per Minute

Engine 1 pumping 1250 Gallons Per Minute

Every month we provide a graph of hours time spent on

maintenance within the department.

This month we have added a section of the graph show-

ing the amount of time Capt. Coutts spends on training.

Ongoing training is needed by Capt. Coutts to maintain

his EMT-I certification and firefighting skills.

The Building Maintenance, Vehicle Maintenance, and

Equipment Maintenance times are a combined time of

Capt. Coutts and Shift personnel.

Looking Ahead for Upcoming Training

Page 7

Fire Instruction & Training Bureau

Changes in Firefighting tac-

tics continued. I would like to

start off by extending a big

Thank You to Boltonville Fire

Department for allowing us to

use their temporary structure

to practice these newest tac-

tics in.

It is very difficult to tell a

firefighter to change the way

he is going to attack a fire.

When you have entered some

fires that are like burning in-

fernos, put the fire out and

were able to exit safely with-

out anybody getting hurt, it is

very difficult to get somebody

to change. Some of these is-

sues are completely different

than what we are taught in

recruit school, engrained in

our minds throughout our

whole career, and now we

need to change. These

changes need to be proven to

our firefighters that yes they

will work, but it also needs

to be done in a controlled

setting. An example would

be introducing air to a fire

with a positive pressure fan,

in hopes of redirecting the

fire to where we want it to

go. Prior to the new infor-

mation this was taboo in the

fire service, it was looked at

as feeding the intensity of

the fire. Our tactical priorities still

remain with rescue and fire-

fighter safety is and always

will be number one priority.

The Incident Commander

should consider the potential

for rescues at all times. Fire-

fighters should always be

prepared to remove trapped

or endangered occupants.

Reinforce that often the best

action the fire department

can take is to suppress the

fire. The IC and fireground

officers must make a rapid

and informed choice on the

priority and sequence of

suppression activities vs.

occupant removal. As life

safety is the highest tactical

priority, rescue shall always

take precedence. The IC

must determine the best

course of action to ensure the

best outcome for occupants

based on the conditions at

that time.

Whatever you do, when it

comes to the latest Fire Dy-

namics Research, learn it,

understand it, and incorpo-

rate it.

As the months go on and

it gets colder and colder

outside, many of us are

thinking about things to

do inside staying out of

the cold elements.

There are other people in

this world that are wait-

ing for that ice to form on

our lakes and rivers so

they can do their winter

sports, whether it is snow-

mobiling, skiing, or fishing.

The fire department starts

to prepare for those differ-

ent types of incidents that

could happen to people that

can not wait for the good ice

and decide to push their

luck. The fire department

starts to review cold water

rescue and the dive team

starts reviewing their ice

rescue techniques.

These incidents are outside

the normal situations which

the fire department encoun-

ters which makes it all that

more critical for us to pre-

pare for.

Battalion Chief Charles Beistle

Captain Tom Thrash

325 N 8th Ave.

West Bend, WI 53095

262.335.5054

www.ci.west-bend.wi.us

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 educa-

tion assignment, the members of the West Bend Fire Department are dedicated to making their con-

tact with us a positive experience.

In Their Own Words…...

WEST BEND FIRE DEPARTMENT

Planning to Protect… ...Acting to Save

Lt. Andrew Whitmore start-

ed his career with the West

Bend Fire Department in

1995.

Andy attended Waukesha

County Technical College in

1980 & was certified as an

EMT-Basic. That year Andy

joined the North Prairie

Volunteer Fire Department

as an EMT. After North

Prairie Fire Department was

involved with a large fire

Andy decided to become a

firefighter and started tak-

ing fire fighting classes.

Andy was able to complete

several State Fire Fighting

certification classes includ-

ing Fire Inspector, Stated

Fire Officer, and Level II

Fire Service Instructor.

Andy earned his Bachelor’s

Degree in Public Admin-

istration with a Fire Science

Specialty from Mt. Scenario

College in 1998.

Andy was promoted to

Motor Pump Operator in

1999 and to Lieutenant

in 2001. Andy became a

certified Paramedic in

2010.

Andy is a Fire Inspector

& continues to take fire-

fighting classes. He is

currently a Lieutenant

assigned to the Red Shift.

Personnel Spotlight: Lt. Andy Whitmore