Monticello Fire & Rescue News

Times photos:  by Tere Dunlap

About a dozen fire department vehicles from Monroe, Monticello, Juda and Brodhead rolled into the Monroe Emergency Response Inter-agency Training Center Tuesday for the final night of a three-part training session. For the past month, the four fire departments have been involved in "Company Operations," focusing on the essential skills firefighters need to use specific apparatus. "They have to do the basics to survive, or why go to the next level," Monroe Fire Inspector Lane Heins said. Classes consisted of brush fires with human rescue; a hose residential and commercial obstacle course with a nozzle information station and an aerial exercise with ladder trucks plus a rescue challenge course.While the purpose of the training is to ensure a level of competency for each firefighter, Heins said joint training also builds camaraderie between the departments and familiarizes firefighters with differences in department equipment. "One problem is couplers of different sizes," Heins said. "But we've made modifications and are adapting." The cross departmental training also adds a bit of competition, with each exercise being timed and recorded for each department to compare with its past training records. When adrenaline gets going at the scene of a real fire, firefighters can "forget in the moment," Heins said. As an officer on scene, he has had to tell his firefighters to "relax, relax." Training ensures things are done a certain way, until "it becomes second nature," Heins said.

Fire and Explosion at Risley Pellet Solutions   Feb. 6 2007

New Fire Buzz Words and what they mean to the general public

New changes by FEMA and Home Land Security have brought down 2 new changes that you will see in how your local fire departments operate. They can be summed up in two words and you will be hearing more about them in the future.

Accountability: Departments now are required to adopt a standardized accountability system this system is to be used to monitor what every firefighter is doing at any fire scene. Generally one firefighter is assigned the reasonability of monitoring the system. To the outsider it may look quite strange for a firefighter to be standing of to the side armed only with a large clip board and portable radio. Its that firefighters job to track all active movements of fire crews, having crews rotate to and from the fire scene if the work load requires a rest period for firefighter rehab. All firefighters are issued 2 small name tags that are Velcro equipped, they are given to the Officer in charge of that responding unit he then relays a set the tags to the "Accountability Officer" and relays to him that crews function at the fire scene. Accountability is used to insure knowing the location of all firefighters at a fire scene and assuring that firefighters have adequate rest periods if doing strenuous jobs.

MABAS:   MABAS is a mutual aid organization that has been in existence since the late 1960s. Heavily rooted throughout northern Illinois, MABAS includes over 550 member fire departments organized within 46 divisions. MABAS divisions geographically span an area from Lake Michigan to west of Rockford and south through Champaign-Urbana, Douglas County, St. Clair County, and St. Louis. Four Wisconsin divisions also share MABAS with their Illinois counterparts. MABAS is basically a automated mutual aid call-up system. Its purpose is to insure a rapid response from mutual aid partners  to structure and other large fires. Departments may be paged and respond to a adjoining district only to be dismissed from the call before arrival, to some outsiders this may look like a erroneous call but it is not. Each call been different a fire officer may elect to start a MABAS Call-Up while they are in route to the emergency thus speeding up the response time for Mutual Aid. Departments will be spreading the call-ups across a wider area as to not deplete any one departments recourses, Preliminary plans have placed the City of Monroe FD as a 3rd level MABAS response to a Fire in Freeport, Beloit and Rockford. Depending on department staffing and equipment more mutual aid calls will be responded to. Of concern to us is the possibility of our Squad-4 being asked for more often, this unit is our primary responding "First Response" unit.

MABAS Update: MABAS is now Operational for Green County and soon to be functional in Dane County also.

Fire Prevention Week at Monticello Schools

Firefighter Ron Blumer gives presentation to grade school children

As part of fire prevention week Ron is showing Teri Fahey's 5 year old kindergarten class what to expect if they have a fire in their house. Ron gives the presentation to K-4th. graders, Ron is also a full time member of the City of Madison Fire Department.  Ron's farther Wilbert is also a long time member of the Monticello Fire Department.

Fire Truck Rides for K-4th. Graders  

Rural Fire Safety

Each year more and more grass fires seem to be started from improperly maintained or supervised trash/burn barrel burning. Please be aware of your surroundings and wind conditions when burning in dry times. Maintain an adequate buffer area of mowed grass surrounding all dwellings and out buildings in case of a grass fire. Also keeping shed doors closed if they contain hay or straw will be an added safety measure. Your family auto and Fire Service Vehicles have only one thing in common (they both go down the highway). Fire trucks are growing larger and heavier,  pumpers and tankers today now approach 50,000 to 60,000 lbs loaded, squad/equipment trucks are 11 to 12 ft. high. For your own protection maintain your in-drive to allow for easy and quick access for multiple Fire Service Vehicles in case of an emergency.  If you live in a rural development area that is serviced by a "Private Shared Drive" take a active part in assuring that all property owners and your developer plan and maintain drives that will allow for adequate access in times of a Fire or EMS emergency.