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City Council Regular Meeting Minutes April 12, 2005 Page 4 2 VI. GENERAL POLICY BUSINESS OF THE COUNCIL. 3 A. 2004 Fire Department Annual Report — Chief John Malenick, presenting 4 Fire Chief Malenick stated there were a total of 929 calls in 2004. The calls fell into three 5 categories of: service calls; invalid assist calls that are not medical, lockouts nor animal rescue; 6 and hazardous conditions. The invalid assist calls were about 19 percent of calls. Medical calls 7 were about 63 percent of calls. He noted that 19 percent of the calls were hazardous conditions 8 such as gas leaks and downed power lines. 9 10 Chief Malenick explained that accidents were grouped by location. North of 37`h Avenue has the 11 highest population concentration, and had 41 percent of the calls. South of 29`h Avenue had 22 12 percent of the calls. Between 37`h and 29`h Avenues, there were 24 percent of calls. He noted 13 that 10 percent of the calls were "out of city" which includes mutual aid calls, or misplaced calls. 14 15 Chief Malenick reported the average response time was 2:54. He noted this time included nine 16 months of calls at the temporary station, and three months of calls from the new station. 17 Traumas were the highest amount of calls at 22 percent. Miscellaneous calls accounted for 21 18 percent of calls, which includes medical problems that amount to less than 2 percent of calls on 19 their own. He explained that heart and cardiac pains account for 17 percent. The most common 20 problem is general illness, which includes the illnesses that require testing to determine. 21 22 He reviewed the types of fire calls, and noted that fire calls with actual flames showing was 6 percent of calls. There were 22 percent of hazard calls, and 23 percent of service calls. He L4 explained that 25 percent were from good intent calls, noting that those are calls where the 25 firefighters are dispatched, but a call comes in to say the department is not needed. He said that 26 false alarms are 19 percent. A cause of this could be bad heat detectors or bad alarm systems. 27 He mentioned that 22 percent of calls are related to weather. 28 29 Chief Malenick said the average dollar loss in 2004 was $3,002, which is an increase over the 30 years. He stated the 13 -year average is around $2,500. He noted the 2004 number is about $500 31 over the average, which tells him that there were larger than normal fires in 2004. The largest 32 fire was a restaurant due to a grease fire. Another large fire was in a single - family home due to 33 Tupperware burning. Because it was plastic, it was a heavy, greasy smoke and everything had to 34 be scrubbed and sealed or thrown away. He said the third major fire was a total loss of a mobile 35 home and contents. This was attributed to heat tape, and it overheated. 36 37 Aside from emergency calls, he indicated that much of the time is spent in training, equaling 38 about 84 hours per person in training. He said he had eight people go to Hennepin County 39 Medical Center for training. He said there were two people that were sent to schools for 40 intensified fire fighter training. Chief Malenick indicated some are train in- house. He explained 41 this saves money per student, and then the students are tested at the Vo -Tech. He stated they do 42 housing code when there is time. He said there are 77 documented reports and many more that 43 come in as phone calls. The vast majority deal with appearance problems such as unsightly 44 things in the yard or lawns not being cut. i 40 Chief Malenick explained that public education is done in preschools and for first graders. Third 47 graders go through a training in a mobile home. He said his department goes to senior high rises