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Volume 9 , Issue 12

December, 2011 Chief’s Corner John Bales, Fire Chief

David Remington Sr., Roy Chelsen, William Floyd Hopman, Jarrett Eleam, Jim Duane Niles, Pat-rick Hannon, Harold Frey, William Henry Quick, Mark G. Falkenhan, Leslie “Les” Clark, David Eason, Antonio E. Jones, James Walters Sr., Steven F. Auch, Daniel C. Dare, Richard Leo Barbour, Derek Kozorosky, Joshua Wilkes, Larry Gressett Sr., Thomas V. Regan, Glenn L. Allen, Chris Stock, James Von Roden, David Hunsinger Jr., Randy Boley, Gregory Mack Simmons, Jacob Anthony Carter, Robert Dean Watts, Elias Jaquez, Michael C. Webb, Charles Foster, Mi-chael Esposito, Thomas “Todd” Lange, Chip Imker, Thomas Shields, Vincent A. Perez, Anthony M. Valerio, Ronald Dwane Ruprecht, Garet Rasmussen, Scott Davis, Corey Shaw, Robin Eric West, Brent Fulton, Josh Burch, Chris Pham, Matt Hadaller, Harold Gregory Gibson, Walter E. Hauser, Caleb N. Hamm, Charles “Sparky”Sparks, John Lackovic, Travis Lee Miller, Deon Jason Classay, Gaston Gagne, Jeffrey Scott Bowen, Kyle King, Timothy Oliveira, Jeffery Alan Cocke, Timothy R. White, Trampus Haskvitz, Larry Gale Nelson, Todd Krodle, Dennis J. Cauthen, Steve Cox, Anthony Quinten Meyers, Henry Jay Branscum, Christopher Peterson, William Waldner, Jacob Waldner, Michael Collins, George W. Fisher III, Keith Gregory Rankin, Vince Cruz, An-drew k Boyt, Horace Chris Pendergrass, Edward Steffy, Jonathan Young, Gregory S. Baker, Johnny Lynn Norton, Scott Osenenko, Joey King.

As you participate in your holiday celebrations this season with your family and friends, please take the time to remember the above 82 firefighters who have made the ultimate sacrifice and died in the line of duty in 2011 and will not be home for Christmas.

Remember their families and how trying it will be for them this holiday season and remember how fortunate each and every one of us are as we look forward to 2012. Please stay safe and thank you for what you do every day for the community and each other. Happy holidays to all of the Golden Fire Department Family.

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A s this is the last update for 2011, I thought I would highlight the year. First of all, once again in 2011 we had to replace both Fire and Life Safety Division staff members beginning in April when Inspector Berens sought opportunities in another metro area fire department. Likewise, Fire and Life Safety

Technician Ipatenco sought the same opportunities in July. However, I am thankful we were able to replace both positions with well qualified candidates in Inspector Steven Parker and F&LS Technician Kevin Kirby from within the volunteer ranks. Steven hit the ground running and has helped tremendously in reducing our plan review turnaround time. Kevin came in with limited fire prevention experience but the right attitude to-wards learning and living fire and life safety. I am sure most of you have met them by now, but if not please stop by to meet them (and me). It is good for the Fire and Life Safety Division to put a face to you as one of the most important internal customers.

Construction permit activity has remained as strong as ever in 2011. In fact as of the end of November we have 268 permit plans logged in for review and approval, which is on pace to at least match our busiest year to date; 2010 at 286 permit plans logged in. A good portion of this activity involved CSM as the campus continues to grow and improve. They have more projects that will carry into 2012 and future expansion plans as well. Our continued commitment to bettering and maintaining built in fire protection in existing buildings has contrib-uted to this activity as well. For example, the Jefferson County Courts and Administration Building (aka TAJ) is in the middle of a one half-million dollar plus fire alarm system replacement and upgrade needed to replace the 17-year-old problematic and non-ADA compliant fire alarm system. They will continue on to other Jeffco Government campus facilities when this is complete.

We are excited to get a new records management system in 2012 complete with tablet computers to make our fire and life safety maintenance inspection process more time and record management efficient. Additionally, the web based system we are leaning towards is integrated with NFIRS AND has a pre-plan component that we want to implement in an effort to improve our pre-plans.

Lastly, I want to thank each and every one of you who faithfully volunteer or have volunteered your time and talents to help make us the organization we are. I also want to wish you all a happy and safe holiday season as well as a happy new year.

Fire and Life Safety Jerry Stricker, Fire Marshal

Ending the Year 2011

Total Calls - 106 Hazardous Condition - 7 Mutual Aid Given - 0

District # 1 - 53 Clear Creek Canyon - 7 Average Response Time - 06:28

District # 2 - 46 Miller Coors Property - 0 Average Firefighters/Call - 6.64

Fire Response - 2 Out of City/Other - 0 Average Total Time/Call - 24:15

Rescue/EMS - 58 Mutual Aid Received - 1 Est. Fire/Damage Loss - $6,100

NUMBERS FOR NOVEMBER 2011

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T he city of Golden has over 7000 single family residences. Of those, estimates are that several hundred of these are over 4,000 square feet in size. Areas where we can find homes of this size include Canyon View, Mesa Meadows, Mountain Ridge, and Stonebridge. If we respond to the report of a structure fire

in one of these homes what are the special risks you may need to consider? First, it will be important for the first arriving unit to get as thorough a size up and 360 as they can. The access to the home can be difficult due to a long driveway, size of the lot, and steep slopes. There can be multiple sto-ries not visible from the front with multiple and irregular roof levels. Large houses pose special challenges for search and fire attack due to complex floor plans, multiple levels, high ceilings, void spaces, multiple kitchens, and numerous sleeping areas all compounded by a large fuel load.

Monster houses can have lightweight wood trusses that will fail in 2 to 10 minutes, plywood I-beans that can fail in 2-3 minutes, and metal trusses that fail in 3-7 minutes. The roofs may be real tile, metal sheets that look like tile, and/or imitation wood shingles and can be structured with multiple ridge lines, valleys, and steep pitches. This complex roof construction can also leave compli-cated void spaces. Unique construction features can include multiple gas shut offs, private generators, lightning conduit lines, large hot water heaters, HVAC systems on the roof, and large outdoor kitchen areas. There may be extensive walk out basements not visible from the front, sub-basements, and complex crawl spaces. Large appli-ances and heavy stone floors can add weight to the structure.

All of these features can add to the potential for an earlier structural collapse than we would normally antici-pate. The amount of resources needed for a fire of this size and the increased difficulty in search and offensive fire attack will lead to longer operations and increased firefighter fatigue. Many of our larger homes in Golden are also part of our urban interface so the potential for a wildland fire starting from a large house fire is a threat to be considered. Many of you are working with our Probationary Firefighters in completing their district familiarization. When you are driving in the city or driving back from a call, visit one of these neighborhoods and look at some of our larger houses. What unique features do you see and how would the fire be managed? Being aware of the po-tential risks will help us be better prepared if and when it happens. (Thank you to Retired Aurora Fire Battalion Chief Katherine Ridenhour for the information presented during the lecture on this topic)

Training Notebook Jeanette Kehoe, Training Division Lieutenant

Monster House Fires

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C an you believe it? Christmas time is here already. How do I know it is Christmas time? Because I was walking through the mall yesterday and saw a mother trying to get her child to sit on Santa’s lap and the child was screaming “no” at the top of his lungs.

All joking aside, I love this time of year. I love all the preparations that go into it, time with my family and friends, and what it stands for.

My favorite thing at my house is our tree. Now some people really love those perfectly decorated trees where all the decorations are the same and they look like they came right out of a magazine. Ours is not that way. Ours is a very eclectic tree. The decorations on our tree have been collected over the last 27 years as we have traveled the world and raised our children. We have decorations from several countries and things that were very important to us or our children over the years. I love our eclectic tree because although each of the deco-rations is different, every one of them is important and has a great meaning or memory attached.

I see Golden Fire Department like that. The members of this department are a very eclectic group. You come from many different backgrounds, professions, places, races, etc. Yet every one of you is very important. Every one of you together makes up the whole. If you jump on a rig in Golden you might find yourself sitting next to a lawyer, a librarian, an engineer, a mechanic or any number of professions. Yet you come together and you make up a great team that accomplishes the important task of protecting the citizens of Golden day after day. I would say that’s pretty awesome.

One of my favorite passages of the Bible says: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.” Acts 10:34-35 At Christmas time we are reminded that we are all important to God and to one another. May this be a blessed Christmas for all of us this year and may we have a great year in 2012.

Fire & Brimstone Mark Testroet, Interim Chaplain

Christmas Time

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On The Scene With The Golden Fire Department

Birthdays & Anniversaries

Anniversaries No anniversaries for December

Birthdays Sean Arbuthnot 12/06

Valerie Hastings 12/15

Brandon Phelan 12/04

Debbie Testroet 12/19

On Sunday, November 27 at approximately 09:00 the Golden Fire Department was dispatched to a reported fully involved vehicle fire in Clear Creek Canyon near Tunnel 3. Upon arrival Engine 1 found a vehicle off the side of the road with heavy fire from the passenger side. Fire crews made a fast attack on the vehicle fire and a small 1/10th acre wildfire. Crews over-hauled the vehicle and then cleared the scene. The cause of the fire is undetermined at this time.

Vehicle Fire in Clear Creek Canyon

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Be sure to check out this exhibit as the GFD is well represented!

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Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fr i Sat

1 2 3

4 Work Detail Battalion 2

5 6 Business Meeting 19:00 Station 1

7 8 9 10

11 Work Detail Battalion 3

12 13 Maze Survival Training 18:30 Station 1

14 15 16 17

18 Work Detail Battalion 3

19 20 No Training

21 22 23 24

25 Work Detail Battalion 1

26 27 No Training

28 29 30 31

December 2011

A Glance Back in to the 1970s Golden Fire Department personnel were introduced to the community by short biographies and photos. These articles appeared in the Golden Transcript.

Golden Fire Department

911 Tenth Street

Golden, Colorado 80401