At the March monthly meeting, the Ralston Fire Department welcomed 12 new members to the department. The new members bring a variety of experience and training to the department.

Ralston Fire held it's Annual Dinner and Awards banquet Saturday night. It was a great success, and we want to thank everyone that was able to come out and celebrate with us.

Our award winners of the night were:

Top Hours logged- Jack Thomas

Top call responders- 1. Joe Eischied

                                 2. Carrie Wagner

Firefighter of the Year- Kevin Eischied

EMT of the Year- Kim Kohlscheen

*LV "Pete" Petersen Award- Carrie Wagner

Rookie of the Year (Tie)- Mike Erickson and Wayne Neuhofel

**The Screwed Up Award- Wayne Neuhofel

Years of Service Awards- Keith Kettelhut 25 Years

                                         Carrie Wagner 10 Years

                                         Brian Saathoff 5 Years

The family of former Chief Kyle Ienn received a retirement plaque for his 23 years of service. Thank you for all of your hard work Kyle!

*The LV "Pete" Petersen Award is not awarded every year. It is given to the firefighter who was nominated by another member for their hard word, dedication, and "going above and beyond"  for the department and community. The last time this award was given was 2010.

** The Screwed Up Award is also not awarded every year. It is awarded to the member who "Screwed Up". This year, Wayne was attempting to park a support car, when he backed into a water fountain in the apparatus bay.

Tonight, at approximately 1900hrs, Ralston Fire was called to the Fireside Apartments for a possibe apartment fire. Initial report was nothing showing on approach. While investigating, smoke and flames were found in the kitchen of an apartment on the 2nd floor. Ralston made an aggressive fire attack, and extinguished the fire before it could grow into any other apartments. The call was cleared at approximately 2100hrs.

Thanks to La Vista Fire and Omaha Fire for their assistance with this fire, and helping make a great stop on this fire!

Ralston Fire and Rescue will be holding it's annual Open House on Sunday October 7th, beginning at 8 am and ending at 1 pm. There will tons of fun for the entire family including pancakes, a bouncy house, face painting, tool demonstrations, and LifeNet Helicopter. Free to the public, donations accepted. Hope to see you there!

A fundraiser for former Chief Ienn's children will be next Friday, March 23 from 5 - 10 PM at the Papillion Fire Barn. There will be raffle prizes all night. All funds collected will be donated to the kids college fund.

Fire Barn is located at:

11336 S. 96th st

Papillion, NE

http://www.firebarnsportsbar.com/papillion.php

With deep sorrow and great regret, we are saddened to inform you, Chief Kyle Ienn passed away on January 31, 2012. He was a father, a brother, a mentor, and our leader. The Fire Department, and the Fire Service in general are better for having known Chief Ienn. We proudly honor Chief Ienn's life, and we grieve deeply for our loss.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Ienn Children's Education Fund at any local Centris Federal Credit Union.

 

Single Family Dwelling Chief 102 on location with smoke and flames showing. 102 had command. Engine 131 was fire attack and found a small fire in the kitchen. Fire was contained to the kitchen. Home of former RVFD chief and longtime member's widow. She escaped with the help of a Postal Employee, and was not injured. Damage was estimated at 60,000.

Click to read December Newsletter

OMAHA, Neb. -- Cigarettes sparking fires is a multimillion dollar problem that damages homes and endangers lives. But now, a local group is pushing to make apartment living smoke free.

"Smoking-related fires in apartments have been a trend lately where it's just too hard to ignore," Assistant Fire Marshal James Gentile said.

The Omaha Fire Department said the recent fires have caused $1.2 million in damage. Since the end of October, cigarettes are to blame for eight apartment fires in the city.

"Luckily, by the grace of God, we haven't lost any body's life yet," Gentile said.

To help prevent these fires, the Metro Omaha Tobacco Action Coalition created a public service announcement that will air on local television stations in English and Spanish.

Every year in America, roughly 1,000 people die because of smoking-related fires. Twenty-five percent of those killed are non-smokers.

MOTAC encourages apartment owners and managers to consider offering smoke-free living spaces.

"They save money. They're preferred by renters. They add value to property. They protect the health of tenants employees and visitors," Athena Ramos said.

The Omaha Fire Department agrees.

"Make smoke-free apartments if you can," Gentile said.

According to MOTAC, apartment owners have the legal right to make their rental properties smoke free.

Read more: http://www.ketv.com/news/29927832/detail.html#ixzz1foeozGa5

Watch the commercial here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/fndmhotlvemwet#p/a/u/1/0-srIlIQZyw

By Adam Klinker
Recorder Editor

Calls for service continue to go up and response times are still going down for the Ralston Volunteer Fire Department.

RVFD's annual report, released last week, shows an 18 percent increase in calls from 788 a year ago to 932 between the department's Nov. 1, 2010 to Oct. 31, 2011 statistical year.

And with the department's easing of residency restrictions, RVFD Chief Kyle Ienn said the 76 members who were in on at least one call for the year helped drop the average response time to a service call to six minutes, an improvement from last year's time of six minutes, 27 seconds.

"More calls and shorter response times aren't often things that go hand-in-hand," Ienn said. "But with 76 members helping out, it has been a case where we get a group-effort making a difference."

The 76-member department is a 13-member bump over last year's RVFD, more evidence that the department's work to recruit and retain more members and to ease its residency restrictions are all having an effect on the department size.

In 2009, the squad doubled in size to more than 50 members when Ienn and RVFD — through a four-year grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency — was able to put together a recruitment and retention program focusing on bringing in more firefighters and emergency medical personnel from around the area.

Residency restrictions lifted, those new members living outside a proscribed area had to meet a 40-hour standby requirement on a monthly basis to retain membership with RVFD — meaning they had to log at least 40 hours at the RVFD station.

In 2010, RVFD membership climbed to 63 and in 2011, the department is bigger than it has ever been at 76 members.

"It's been huge for us," Ienn said. "But we've seen this as a national trend. Call volume is up, volunteers are down. We had the foresight to get out ahead of that and what we've seen is people are willing to serve. They see this as a very worthwhile opportunity and it's helped us tremendously."

Earlier this year, RVFD received another four-year grant from FEMA to continue the program and Ienn said the department will continue to build its ranks.

While response times and membership are going in the right direction, Ienn said one alarming statistic for the department is the number of large-scale structure fires to which RVFD responded this year.

That figure doubled from seven a year ago to 14 this statistical year, including a pair of major fires at apartment complexes at Ponderosa Pines, 72nd and Harrison streets in April, and at Orleans Square, 84th and L streets in September.

RVFD also responded to two apartment fires in La Vista, first at the Alpine Village Apartments at 84th and Harrison streets last December and again this spring at Shadow Ridge near 84th and Granville Parkway.

The two La Vista fires and the Ponderosa Pines fire, along with a rash of similar blazes in Omaha, were all caused as a result of carelessly disposed cigarettes, something over which Ienn and other area fire chiefs have gone on the offensive.

High winds also helped fan those fires into much more destructive events.

Last week, Ienn filmed a public service announcement for the Metro Omaha Tobacco Action Coalition to explain the added fire danger accompanying the smoking habit.

"The structure fires we saw, especially the ones caused by a still-lit cigarette on a dry wood deck are moving faster, burning hotter," Ienn said. "It's concerning and it's something we need to publicize.

"We can go through all the training and readiness for a fire like that, but sooner or later, if they keep coming, your luck runs out and a resident or one of my guys gets hurt."

That RVFD has gone through another year without serious injury or death is something Ienn always considers at the top of his list when giving the annual report.

"Not every fire chief around the country can say everyone came home," he said. "We lose 100 firefighters a year nationwide. We feel very fortunate to say everyone came home in Ralston."

Up ahead for the department, Ienn said RVFD has already begun the process of evaluating emergency response capabilities at the sports and events center currently under construction at 72nd and Q streets.

The department has also measured its new responsibilities with an eight-building apartment complex just north of the arena.

"We're plunging ahead," Ienn said. "We're getting ourselves ready for a new situation in Ralston. We know the arena has the potential to increase calls, but that's why we're staying ready."

In accepting the RVFD report, Ralston Mayor Don Groesser and the Ralston City Council thanked the department for its continued service.

"We're blessed in Ralston to have the fire department we do," Groesser said. "We thank everyone on the department for their hard work."


http://www.omaha.com/article/20111130/NEWS2005/711309855/1124#service-calls-up-response-times-down--