07-23-2018 Council Work Session Minutes

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Orono City Council Orono City Council Work Session Monday,July 23,2018 Council Chambers 5:00 p.m. New homes and why they burn faster than older homes. Research has shown that new homes burn up to five times faster than older homes. What this means is that people have less time to get out of a house when a fire starts- a lot less time. People living in older homes with traditional furnishings were estimated to have about 17 minutes to safely evacuate a home,but the time decreases to about 3 minutes in a home built with modern materials and furnished with newer, synthetic furniture. "Today we have many more synthetic materials in our homes. Synthetic materials are not bad, but today the backing on your carpeting,the drapes, even the stuffing in your mattress and your pillows is synthetic material. And this does burn hotter and faster, and this is something that homeowners should be very much aware of." John Drengenberg, consumer safety director for Underwriters Laboratories. Two recent studies detail the relationship between fire and engineered wood construction assemblies-notable, that they burn quicker and fail faster than their dimensional lumber counterparts. NFPA Journal July/August 2009 ----End of Report---- Mayor Dennis Walsh mentioned that there is a whole lot good things that came out of this and one thing that stands out is that it was a defensive fire. Walsh asked the Fire Chief to explain mutual aid, fox alarm, and how many assets we have within a 10-mile radius. Van Eyll explained that there is two different kinds of mutual aid: Automatic mutual aid, which we use for these types of calls in which we utilize our neighbors for help. They are paged at the same time as our Fire Department during these types of calls. It is not unusual if those responders arrive before our department if they are closer to the fire location. We have mutual aid agreements with all of the fire departments in Hennepin County. We have all agreed to share services or resources throughout. We do have a few other mutual aid agreements with other associations for use of assets or resources such as Carver and other communities. Walsh pointed out that mutual aid is used by all cities and everyone works together to serve the citizens in each community. Van Eyll mentioned another type of mutual aid which is when a member from the Long Lake Fire Department is on the Hennepin County investigation team. This members assists in the investigation process for some fire calls. City Administrator Dustin Rief asked how many mutual aid partners were called to help out with this particular ca1L Assistant Chief Administration David Goman mentioned that help come from as far south as the city of Chanhassen; as far North as Loretto and as far west as the city of Watertown.