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REQUEST FOR COUNCIL CONSIDERATION Agenda Section: 9 11U50C MHOSReport Number: Report Date: 12-06-95 STAFF REPORT Council Action: iLS' u ❑ Special Order of Business December 11, 19950 Public Hearings COUNCIL MEETING DATE ❑ Consent Agenda O Council Business Item Description: Resolution No. 4864 Resolution of Support in the Efforts of the Spring Lake Park/Blaine/Mounds View Fire Department to Obtain Legislation Enabling the Department to Employ Volunteer rlrefighters ror rrevention Duties Administrator's Review/Recommendation: - No comments to supplement this report Ps - - Comments attached. Explanati ummary(attach aupplemenx sheets as necessary-) UMMARY; Traditionally, the majority of the fire service in the United States combated fire through suppression efforts only. This has been a losing battle in terms of saving lives and property proven out by the worst fire statistics in the industrialized world. Other nations have been extremely successful in combating fire through prevention. Numerous examples exist worldwide, here in the United States and also in the State of Minnesota. For example, the City of Chicago has more fire deaths than the entire country of Austria. St. Paul Fire adopted a program in 1988 that reduced their annual fire deaths for children under the age of 5 from 2 .8 per year to zero. This department is committed to combating the , fire problem equally through prevention and suppression. Prevention occurs in two forms; on the industrial/commercial side it requires adoption of sprinkler codes coupled with strong enforcement and inspection of fire codes. For residential structures, prevention occurs in the form of public fire education. This entails, among other things, school programs, senior programs, cable programming, newspaper articles, mall events, high risk programs such as mobile home parks, and neighborhood floods to name a few. • The resolution before ,you would support this department's efforts to obtain legislation allowing us to recruit volunteer firefighters to perform these prevention functions. Presently, there is a state-wide system operated on a local level that enables departments to compensate suppression volunteers with a pension after vested years of service. This had proven to be extremely effective in retaining volunteers. The legislation this department is seeking is permissive to this department and the communities we serve, allowing us to place these prevention volunteers into the pension program. While the City has a required municipal contribution to this plan, long term goals include the ability to reduce the number of personnel as needs subside thereby reducing the required contribution. JZECOMMENDATIO�T; N e Zikmund, ire Chief