October is National Fire Prevention Month, and the firefighters with the Northfield Area Fire and Rescue Service have been busy making visits to elementary schools and daycare centers, educating the kids on fire safety and how to prevent fires from happening. Fire Chief Tom Nelson said the hope is that those lessons get brought home to the parents, who will then review and evaluate their home and take the proper precautions.
Kitchen fires have been a national focus this month. Nelson said the most common place a house fire will start is in the kitchen. Often times, he said, people will get careless and forget to turn the oven off or they leave a burner on the stove on and unattended. Or they use water to try to put out a grease fire. Or he said, sometimes they use their oven as a storage space.
“Another thing that people do sometimes is they store plastic stuff in the oven, or you know, could be pans or whatever. And then somebody comes in, you’ve got a babysitter, or you’ve got a neighbor, or your folks come over, they’re going to use your oven, and you say, ‘Don’t forget to check.’ Well, think of somewhere else to store that stuff.”
While the kitchen is the most common place for a fire to start, Chief Nelson said most of the fatal fires come from unattended smoking. Falling asleep with a lit cigarette in hand can be very dangerous, but he said most people now smoke outside, which can present its own dangers. As the fall moves on, he said, plants and grass will die and become very dry, which makes it combustible. Or people have wood chips spread around the perimeter of the house, that can be very dry and dangerous as well. Nelson advised anyone who smokes to be very careful
Another common mistake that can make for a severe tragedy is the storing of propane tanks in a garage, especially over the winter. As things get colder, the valve on a tank can leak, or it could get bumped which will cause propane to build up in the garage, presenting an extremely dangerous situation. And should there be a fire in the house, the last thing firefighters want to see is a propane tank stored inside.
“Don’t store propane in the house. Let’s say we have a garage fire, and we get up there and ask what they have in the house. And they answer, ‘Ohh, I’ve got my grill and two bottles of propane.’ Those things become missiles, and they can explode. And so that’s a hazard to firefighters. That’s a hazard, basically, to the neighborhood.”
Finally, Nelson said, candles can be a big issue as well. They can be lit and then forgotten about. Sometimes they are near an open window, and blowing curtains coming into contact with a lit candle can catch fire very quickly.
With the holidays coming up, Nelson said everyone needs to exercise caution and common sense. Preventing fires can be an easy thing, he said, if people pay attention to the situation.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Northfield Area Fire and Rescue Service Chief Tom Nelson can be heard here
911 Dispatch Center would move to vacated Rice County Law Enforcement Center
The Minnesota House of Representatives Capital Investment Committee was in Faribault last week to hear a request from officials in Rice and Steele County for bonding funds from the state that would help convert the building that is currently the Rice County Law Enforcement Center into the new home of the joint Rice and Steele County 911 Dispatch Center.
The Dispatch Center has been a joint effort of both counties, and the cities of Faribault, Northfield and Owatonna since the late 1990s, serving a population of 105,000 people. The dispatchers who work there handle approximately 200,000 calls annually and dispatch to eight law enforcement, nine fire and three emergency medical service agencies. It is currently located in the Steele County Law Enforcement Center in Owatonna, a building that also houses both the Owatonna Police Department and the Steele County Sheriff’s Office. Space is at a premium in that building, and according to an evaluation done in 2021, the center is in need of more than 1200 square feet at minimum, and more when future needs are considered.
The Rice County Law Enforcement Center is currently home to the Rice County Sheriff’s Department and the Rice County jail. Both will be relocating to the new Rice County Safety Center when completed next year. While a portion of the old building is expected to house the County Probations staff, there would still be enough space to meet the Dispatch Center’s current and future needs.
Remodeling the building’s lower level to accommodate the center will cost an estimated $4 million, according to Rice County Administrator Sara Folsted, who was one of the county leaders making the presentation to the committee. Folstad said Rice and Steele County are requesting up to $2 million in state bonding for the proposed project, as requests of this nature require a 50% match.
While that space study and a second done in 2022 considered other locations, the joint powers board – made up of representatives from the partner cities and counties – agreed in June to pursue state bond funds for the Rice County Law Enforcement Center option. That decision has also been endorsed by the Rice County Board of Commissioners.
Democratic leaders in both the House of Representative and the Senate have indicated the need for another bonding bill in 2024, despite passing the largest bonding bill in state history this past spring.
Bonding requests must be approved by the House and Senate before going to the governor’s desk for his signature.
Trunk or Treat at Memorial Park tonight
And with Halloween coming up on Tuesday, tonight, the City of Dundas will host its annual Trunk or Treat event in Memorial Park.
A statement released by the City of Dundas said area businesses and organizations will gather at Memorial Park and decorate the trunks of their vehicles, offering area kids a safe and fun way to go trick or treating.
The Trunk or Treat Event is scheduled for tonight at Memorial Park in Dundas from 6-7pm. It is free and open to the public.
