WSTribune • Oct. 10, 2015...Page 7
To Be A Firefighter…
Jennifer Edwards
Staff Writer
The Big Lake Fire Dept.
is getting ready for their annual fall open house Sunday, marking the end of Fire
Prevention Week.
The BLFD serves the
City of Big Lake, Big Lake
Township and portions of
Orrock Township and funding for their budget comes
from each of these governing bodies, who split the
costs.
The department consists
of Fire Chief Paul Nemes,
who is a fulltime firefighter
in Minneapolis, and a corps
of 35 other volunteers,
three of whom are women.
“Our complement is 35,”
Chief Nemes said. “So we
are one over right now.”
Having an extra recruit
on hand seems like a wise
idea, when five of the crew,
Ken
Halverson,
Pete
Ahrens, Dennis Nagorski,
Shawn Redepenning and
Dan Mooney have over 25
years of service each. Several others already have 20
years in. Chief Nemes has
been with the department
for 19 years.
The department responds
to an average of 17-18 calls
per month, but not all the
calls involve fighting fire.
More often it is a call to an
accident where traffic control and perhaps the jaws of
life are needed.
Life as a firefighter can
be hectic. First of all, any
new recruit must agree to be
available to be on-call for
day shift for their first five
years with the department.
“This really helps us because otherwise there is always a risk of not having
enough trained people
available in the daytime
when most people are
working,” Chief Nemes
said.
Training
Signing up to volunteer is
just the start. Then the training begins. Each volunteer
spends a minimum of eight
hours per month going
through required training.
“That doesn’t include
their time going to other
schools for specialty training,” Chief Nemes said.
Specialty training can include things like driving the
big rigs, pumping water,
hazardous materials training, using the jaws of life
and more. All firefighters
are first responders, trained
in CPR and first aid. Training is offered Tuesday and
Thursday evenings and Saturdays.
Firefighters can get called
out for all kinds of reasons,
from a child with its head
stuck in a railing to a hazardous materials spill. They
respond to all of them.
“But we will not get your
cat out of a tree,” Chief
Nemes said. “No matter
what, when the cat gets
hungry enough, it will figure out how to get down.
The proof of that is you
never find a dead cat stuck
up in a tree.”
While the number of calls
for help have increased over
time, the department received their highest volume
of calls six or seven years
ago when housing construction was going strong.
“When the economy
slowed down, so did the
number of calls,” Chief
Nemes said. “If there is a
spike in the number of calls
now, it is weather related,
like grass fire season or severe weather situations.”
Mutual Aid
All fire departments have
mutual aid agreements with
their neighbors and firefighters can find themselves
volunteering in a neighborhood community.
Saturday, while the Big
Lake Fire Dept. was attending a mandatory training at
the Minneapolis Training
Facility, Becker Fire Dept.
was on stand-by. A call
came in about a combine
harvester on fire in a field
behind the fire station.
Becker went to put it out.
Once the fire is out or the
crisis is over, there is the little matter of housekeeping
to attend to. The engine
must be made ready to go
the next time a call comes
in.
Wet hose is removed and
dry hose is packed, floors
are swept or vacuumed and
cleaned. Trash is removed.
The fire station and the
trucks are kept in tip-top
shape at all times.
It is also the scene of the
annual firefighters dance, an
over-21 event which raises
funds for the firefighters relief association. Firefighters
become vested after 10
years of service. All the
money in this fund is raised
by the fire department and
does not come from public
funds.
Besides the hours spent in
training and helping out
when a crisis occurs, Big
Lake’s firefighters volunteer hours and hours of time
every year with events like
Spud Fest, the all night
graduation party, Movies
and Music in the Park, the
Big Lake Chamber of Commerce annual Block Party,
the Night to Unite Picnic in
the Park and countless other
BLFD OPEN HOUSE!
Sun, Oct. 11, 2015, 11am – 2pm
Big Lake Fire Station
FIRE SAFETY & DEMOS
FREE* pumpkins - while supplies last
FREE* Hot dogs, popcorn, cookies,
& bottled water
(courtesy of Fire Fighter “Pumpkin” Pete)
THROUGHOUT THE DAY ENJOY:
• North Memorial Helicopter
• Big Lake Police Department
• CentraCare Ambulance
• Centerpoint & Connexus Energy will be
demonstrating gas and power line safety.
• Sherburne Wildlife Refuge Fire Service
• MN DNR
• The American Red Cross
• Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office
• K9 Demonstration
• Kitchen Fire Simulation Trailer Demonstration
• Fire Truck rides & demonstrations by the
BL Fire Fighters ...& MUCH More!
*Please bring a food shelf item donation.
WE OFFER:
Firefighters Cont. On Pg 9
BLFD FIRE CHIEF Paul Nemes. (Photo by
Jennifer Edwards.)
BIG LAKE FIREFIGHTERS spend hours each month in training. Saturday they were at the Minneapolis Training Facility in Hennepin County, where they have an opportunity to practice techniques
in a safe environment. They have an opportunity to see what it is like to fight a fire in a high-rise building or a warehouse situation. Their safety gear is an important part of the training and can save their
lives. Some of the training is mandated by the state. Everyone on the department also takes specialized
training.(Above), firefighters gear up to begin training. (Middle left), As one of the newer members of
the department, Firefighter LaDonna Hensel is the last to enter this practice burn in Minneapolis.
(Below), Chief Nemes teaches the crew at the Big Lake Fire Hall. Firefighters train a minimum of eight
hours per month, Tuesday, Thursdays and Saturdays. (Photos courtesy of Firefighter Laura Hayes).
THANK YOU FOR
YOUR SERVICE AND
DEDICATION TO THE
BIG LAKE COMMUNITY!
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events.
The fire department collects donations for the Big
Lake Food Shelf at their annual chili cook-off and
Smelt Fry. They volunteer
to ring the bell for the Salvation Army.
Fire Prevention
They also spent hundreds
of hours every year teaching
others about fire safety. Volunteers from the department
go to Liberty and Independence Elementary Schools
and to the local day cares to
teach children about fire
safety.
They host groups of children at the fire hall and let
them explore the fire trucks
and handle some of the
equipment.
And they put on the best
attended fire department
open house in the state,
thanks in part to the efforts
of one man, who had an
idea.
Firefighter Pete Ahrens
has taken it upon himself to
go to the trouble and expense of planting and raising a field full of pumpkins
to give away to those who
attend the open house and
learn something new about
fire safety.
“We went out and helped
him harvest them a couple
A salute to our fire department! - Thank you to all the local firefighters!
A salute to our fire department
19912 Industrial Drive
Big Lake, MN
763-263-3582
887-509-6920
www.audiocombiglake.com
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A salute to our fire department! - Thank you to all the local firefighters!
WSTribune • Oct. 10, 2015...Page 8
A salute to our fire department
Lots of history on the BLFD
Jennifer Edwards
Staff Writer
Big Lake Firefighters
Shawn
Redepenning,
Daniel Mooney, Pete
Ahrens, Dennis Nagorski
and Ken Halverson have
seen lots of changes over
the 25 plus years they have
volunteered with the department.
Redepenning has been
there the longest. He,
Ahrens, Mooney and
Nagorski all have 28 years
in. Assistant Chief Halverson will have 26 year with
the department in January.
Redepenning is a third
generation firefighter. Both
his grandfathers were firefighters and his dad was a
fire chief, so it seemed natural for him to volunteer
and his wife, Janel, understood that from the start.
Mooney said he was in
the National Guards when
he decided to sign up to be
a firefighter. Two of his
wife Marcia’s relatives
were firefighters.
“It was something else I
wanted to do to serve the
community,” Dan said.
Dennis and Pete were in
the same grade in the old
school on Hwy. 10. Dennis
said he saw some of his
older school mates working
with the department and decided to volunteer.
Pete and his wife, Gayle,
live along the railroad
tracks. Back then, trains
started a lot of fires as they
passed by dry brush and
weeds. Pete often saw firefighters he knew out putting out fires and helped
them. Signing up was the
next step.
“I just thought it would
be fun,” said Halverson,
who describes his decision
to join up as spur of the moment, made before he married his wife, Julie. Twenty
six years later it is still fun,
he says.
“The only bad thing in a
town this size is that sooner
of later you will answer a
call and it is going to be
someone you know,” he
BIG LAKE’S OLDEST FIRE TRUCK dates back to 1936. It has not been used in years, except for parades. Pictured from
the left are Shawn Redepenning, Dennis Nagorski, Pete Ahrens, Dan Mooney in the driver’s seat, and Ken Halverson. (Photo by
Jennifer Edwards).
said.
The five firefighters have
seen many changes over the
years, from the old fire hall
on
Putnam
Avenue
(jammed against the railroad tracks and the old
MacDonalds parking lot,
the building was condemned by the city, although still used by the Big
Lake Fire Dept.), to the facility they have now on Co.
Rd. 43.
“There were cracks in the
walls and you could watch
the trains go by,” said
Halverson. “We had four
trucks and three doors
“There have been a lot of
changes,” said Mooney.
“And a lot of people have
come and gone over the
years.”
There old turnout gear
left a lot to be desired.
Some of the pants still had
silver reflective strips down
the legs. Dennis recalled
going to a fire call and getting burned on the shoulder
because the jackets offered
Honoring the BLFD
Hwy. 10 • Big Lake
263-7676
so little protection.
“The firefighter who was
with me went to the hospital
for treatment,” he said.
Good Government
Redepenning said he was
grateful for the way the
governing bodies from the
city and the two townships
they serve have stepped up
to provide for the needs of
the department, from the
fire hall to their equipment.
“The other major change
is the leap forward in technology,” he said. “What we
have today, from paging to
thermal imaging, to electronics for the control panel
is amazing,” he said.
“Equipment can actually be
to good. It let’s you go
deeper and further into a
fire than we have ever been
able to go.”
“The quality of the training we have now is phenomenal,” Halverson said.
“There is a lot more training
than there used to be.”
Besides the training mandated by the state, the de-
partment has participated in
trainings at the nuclear
power plant and Sherco, on
the Northstar train and in
their maintenance facility, a
fertilizer plant and more.
The department also responds to a lot more calls
for help than they used to,
from 40-50 per year to
around 250.
“The calls do come at the
worst possible times,”
Halverson said. “And if the
calls come in the middle of
the night, you still have to
get up and answer them,
then probably go to work
again the next day.”
“If you spend three hours
at a fire scene, you spend
another three hours cleaning up afterwards to get
everything back together
for next call,” Redepenning
said.
Mutual Aid
Firefighters have mutual
aid agreements with other
fire departments in the communities around them. If
someone else needs help,
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they turn out.
“We have great mutual
aid partners,” Halverson
said.
Fire calls can go in
streaks. One year they had
10 structure fires in nine
weeks, then nothing for
months.
Dennis recalled a thunderstorm with lots of lightning that started three
separate fires. Dan recalled
the year the tornado went
through town and tore out
the doors of the fire hall.
“I spent three days here
before I could get them
fixed,” he said.
Then there are the accidents.
“I never forget the name
of a fatality,” Redepenning
said, as each recalled some
of the worst things they had
seen and had to deal with.
“There is no training that
tells you how to tell your
kids one of their classmates
has died,” he said. “I had to
do that.”
There was the old feed
mill that burned and the day
McDonald’s caught on fire.
There were two plane
crashes where people died
and several helicopter
crashes, mostly involving
the same pilot.
There were the three men
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Finacial Associate
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Thank You for your
Dedication & Service.
763-262-BOAT (2628)
women of ou r
&
n
me
e
th
to
u
yo
Tha nk
tment for their
Big Lake Fire Depar
our commu nity.
to
ice
rv
se
d
an
n
dedicatio
Mayor Raeanne Danielowski
JC’s U Lock Storage • 612-219-2857
18005 198th Ave. NW, Big Lake
Owners: Erv & Raeanne Danielowski
216 Cedar St., Monticello, MN 55362
www.montiprinting.com
THANK YOU
for your service to
our community!
Big Lake
Knights of Columbus
e
Thanks to the Big Lak
eir
Fire Department for th
nity.
Service to Our Commu
Office: 763-263-6878
Cell: 763-238-0182
www.KGCCorp.com
Integrity • Excellence • Uncompromising Customer Satisfaction
We Appreciate
Your Service to the
Big Lake Community!
Jeff Nagorski, GRI, CRS, CNE
763-234-5000
www.MNsota.com
[email protected]
Dedication Cont. On Page 9
Thank You BLFD!
Monticello Printing
[email protected]
817 Main St. NW, Elk River MN 55330
who died when they fell off
a grain elevator and people
who died jumping from car
to car on the railroad tracks.
Numerous vehicle accidents
are etched in their memories.
“My son works for another department,” said
Mooney. “One day there
was a report that someone
from his department had
been hit and killed on the
freeway. It wasn’t him but it
was one gut-wrenching
feeling.”
Meeting People
One of the things all five
firefighters said they enjoyed was meeting people.
“For every person who
can make life challenging,
there are plenty more good
people,” Redepenning said.
“I am so thankful for them.”
The public relations and
fire prevention education
side of what the department
does has also become more
time consuming.
Sunday’s open house,
capping fire prevention
week, will draw around
2,000 people. Some will
only come to get the free
pumpkins Pete Ahrens
grows to give away at the
event each year.
“It seemed like a good
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SPORTS BAR
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763-263-0800
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The Big Lake Chamber of
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Appreciate the Big Lake Fire
Department’s Dedication and
Service to Our Community.
763-263-7800
www.biglakechamber.com
COURAGE, HONOR & SACRIFICE.
We appreciate the men
and women of the BLFD
and their families.
Big Lake Lions Club
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WSTribune • Oct. 10, 2015...Page 9
A salute to our fire department
Dedication Continued From Page 8___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
BEING A FIREFIGHTER is a big commitment but it is also a great way to give back to the community, Big Lake Firefighters say. Besides the time it takes to answer calls for help, which includes
accidents and mutual aid, a lot of time is dedicated to training and educating themselves and others
about fire safety. The flame pictures were taken by Firefighter Mark Hedstrom (right), at training burns.
Above right is Firefighter jason Smith, who spends hours each fall talking to children in schools and
day cares about the danger of fire and fire safety. Below is Firefighter Sam Olson. Sam has volunteered with the department for 20 years. Lt. Olson also serves with the Big Lake Police Dept. Thank
them all at Sunday’s Fire Dept. Open House, marking the end of Fire Prevention Week.
idea so one year we thought
we’d try it,” Pete said.
The pumpkin giveaway
has been a huge success
and Ahrens considers it
well worth his time if even
one person learns something new about fire prevention which might save a
life.
“Everybody
brings
something to the table,”
said Redepenning. “Some
people are mechanics or
engineers. Nobody else
brings pumpkins.”
Anyone who is considering joining the fire department should really consider
the idea carefully and make
sure their family is 100%
on board with the idea, Redepenning said.
263-2408
HWY 10 •BIG LAKE
“I tell new recruits once
they have passed the test to
think about it very carefully,” he said. “It costs a
lot of money to train someone before they can even
respond to their first fire
call.”
“Sometimes you get
someone and it seems like
they will do well, but then
those calls come in at 2
a.m.,” said Halverson.
“It is a great gig though
and I highly recommend it
for anyone who wants to
give back to the community,” Redepenning said.
“You really get to know
the community said Dennis. “And you meet so
many people.”
Tha nks
Firefighters!
Firefighters Continued From Page 7___
of Saturdays ago,” Chief
Nemes said. “They are all
in storage now so they
won’t be harmed by frost.
The numbers are down a
little because we had so
much rain.”
To earn a pumpkin, every
person who attends the
open house will be given a
passport to fire prevention
and they must get the card
stamped at a minimum of
three exhibits or stations inside the event.
“Our focus is on fire prevention,” Chief Nemes
said. “This is not just a
pumpkin giveaway. There
are lot of dedicated, hardworking people here.”
Dr. Reed Dill &
Dr. Roger Gerloff
FAMILY & COSMETIC DENTISTRY
290 Eagle Lake Road N., Big Lake
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THANK
Thank You!
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Thank You
Firefighters!!
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763-320-3600
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THANK YOU BLFD We appreciate all you do!
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Directions: From Big Lake —1 1/2 mi. S of Hwy. 10 on Co. Rd. 43
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Keller
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pt.!
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Thank You for All You Do!
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A BIG Thank You
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photos.)
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