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Fire chief gives operational report

MFD marks successes despite retention, response time challenges

File Photo Minot Fire Chief Kelli Kronschnabel, left, swears in new firefighters at a ceremony last May.

The Minot Fire Department saved 97.9 percent of the value of property and contents threatened by fire last year and did it at a cost that compares favorably with other city departments, Minot Fire Chief Kelli Kronschnabel told Minot city council members Tuesday.

Kronschnabel was the first of several department heads who will be delivering presentations to the council during its committee sessions in coming months.

Response times and personnel retention are the challenges that face the department, she noted.

She reported her department responded to 758 fire calls in 2017, up from 381 calls in 2009. It responded to 2,182 emergency medical service calls in 2017, up from 1,903 in 2009.

The department’s goal is to respond to structure fires within five minutes and 20 seconds, 70 to 90 percent of the time. That includes four minutes of drive time with the remainder of time used to prepare to leave the station. Kronschnabel said the department has been successful in meeting its goal 66 percent of the time.

A fifth fire station proposed in west Minot also would improve response times in the north and west portions of the city, but lack of city funding has kept that project on hold.

Another metric is the ability to provide 15 to 18 firefighters within 9 minutes and 20 seconds, 70 to 90 percent of the time. Minot meets the standard 50 percent of the time, Kronschnabel said.

“We believe it is absolutely unrealistic for us to meet this metric 90 percent of the time. We will strive to meet it at 70 percent but our roads and our topography restricts our responses,” she said.

“The recruitment and retention challenges have taken a toll on your fire department. I can’t thank you enough for your support of the pay plan and for the benefit package changes as proposed in the 2019 budget. Health care and pension have been the top two reasons for personnel leaving,” she told the council.

Last Friday, the department added nine new firefighters to fill vacancies.

“We have diversified our recruitment and retention initiatives and will continue to evaluate them and change as we need to,” Kronschnabel said. “We knew 2018 would be a key year for the department. Due to retirements this year we have promoted a new assistant chief, three new battalion chiefs will be appointed, seven captains, including the one that became our training manager and we hired a part-time fire marshal. We are heavily invested within our officer development because we knew the new leaders would have to be prepared to take on their new roles.”

She also presented statistics showing Minot’s department is at the lower end in comparing the number of firefighters per population to sample cities. Studies suggest targets of 1.16 to 1.31 firefighters per 1,000 population when considering cities of Minot’s size. Minot is at .812 firefighters per 1,000.

Minot’s per capita cost of its fire service is $131. Some other cities in comparison are Bismarck, $132; Grand Forks, $135; Fargo, $104; Sioux Falls, South Dakota, $147; and Great Falls, Montana, $143.

Kronschnabel pointed out Minot residents also save on fire insurance premiums because of the city’s low fire rating. Minot is one of only five cities in the state with an Insurance Service Office rating of 2, which Minot attained last year. Only one city has a better rating of 1.

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