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Year in Review <br /> <br />Elk River Fire Department <br />The Elk River Fire Department continued to have a busy year throughout 2001. Our fire <br />department and ambulance service responded to over 1,500 emergency calls. <br /> <br />Once again, training continues to be a priority for paid on call fire fighters. Our training <br />officers do a tremendous job in preparing monthly and special drills. Certified training <br />instructors, from the Anoka Vo-tech, were used to assist in numerous specialty training topics. <br />Specialty training included Rapid Intervention Teams, Airbag Deployment in Vehicular <br />Accidents, Burlington Northern Railroad Awareness, Incident Command, and OSHA and the <br />Firefighter. <br /> <br />During 2001 the fire department received delivery of a pumper truck to replace a 1972 Ford. <br />The newly purchased pumper was placed into service in November 2001. A second set of <br />Amkus extrication rescue tools was purchased during the year 2000 for use during motor <br />vehicle accidents. These tools were placed on the new pumper and will enable our department <br />to have two sets of extrication rescue tools on the scene of motor vehicle accidents. Our <br />department continues to respond to an ever-increasing amount of motor vehicle accidents <br />within our community. Our fire department is extremely fortunate to receive generous <br />donations from within the business community. <br /> <br />Our fire prevention and inspection department continues its work of fire and life safety. Our <br />full time fire inspector and part time fire inspectors are moving forward with inspections in <br />commercial/industrial businesses. One of the key components during a fire inspection is the <br />ability to preplan our commercial and industrial businesses to enhance the fire department <br />response in the event of an emergency incident. <br /> <br />In April of 2001, our department submitted a grant request to the Federal Emergency <br />Management Agency (FEMA) for the area of fire prevention. The grant was for a safe escape <br />house, a tow vehicle, and a smoke detector give-away program for senior citizens. Over 30,000 <br />grant requests were received by FEMA. In September 2001, we were notified that we would <br />receive a $100,000 fire prevention grant. We are very excited to have received this grant for <br />the purchase of a safe escape house as a training aid to elementary school, preschool, and <br />daycare children. With the grant our fire prevention program will be rising to a new level in <br />our fire prevention message to the community. I would like to thank the Mayor and Council <br />for their support to our fire prevention program and participation in the Assistance to <br />Firefighter's Grant Program through FEMA. <br /> <br />During 2000 the fire department responded to nearly 50 gas line cuts within our service area. <br />For 2001 the fire department worked with the planning and the building departments in <br />introducing a new program targeted at reducing the number of gas line hits within our <br />community. A meeting was scheduled with local underground contractors to discuss the newly <br />formed program and the details of the permit and inspection process. A part time <br />underground facility inspector job position, under the direction of the fire department, was <br />created for community wide inspections of the underground service work being completed. I <br /> <br /> <br />