Good afternoon, everyone.

My name is Nara Lifani Gonzalez.

Welcome to the October 13th County Council session.

We're gonna start with a proclamation recognizing fire prevention month by the County Council's public safety committee.

If you're here for that proclamation, please move forward.

Tell me when we're ready.

We're ready.

Well, good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for being with us.

The public safety committee is honored to present this proclamation to recognize fire prevention month.

The official theme this year is charge into fire safety.

Safe charging is a superpower.

During the month of October, the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service will hold educational events emphasizing proper charging habits, device care, and battery disposal to keep local households safe.

This month is a good time to check smoke and carbon monoxide alarms in your home to ensure they are operational, replace alarms when they reach the end of their service life, and to discuss and practice home fire escape plans.

All households should have a fire escape plan that identifies two ways out of every room if possible.

It establishes a des to establish a designated meeting place outside the home and is practiced regularly.

Everyone can further reduce fire risks by keeping all exits clear, safely cooking and heating their homes, properly maintaining electrical equipment, and making sure everyone in the household knows to call 911 if a fire occurs.

Fire safety is not limited to one month, but is a year-round responsibility, and simple actions can prevent fires, reduce injuries, and provide the knowledge and confidence to respond quickly in an emergency.

We're going to end with thanking our courageous fire safety professionals and volunteers, uh career and volunteers who keep Montgomery County residents safe.

Thank you very much.

What we're going to do is we're going to hear from Councilmember Mink, then Councilmember Lukey, then the fire chief, and then I'm going to ask everybody behind me to introduce themselves, and then we're going to read the proclamation.

Councilmember Mink.

Thank

you so much, Chair Katz.

I'm Kristen Mink representing District 5 and very pleased to be here with the public safety today alongside Montgomery County Fire Rescue to really lift up all of the important tools that residents have and community members have at home to make sure that we are all doing our very best to keep ourselves safe and to make sure that everyone knows the tremendous resource that we have here in our fire rescue team, really truly the epitome of excellence, and we're very, very proud here in Montgomery County of the services that are offered.

Since doing doing these proclamations, I've learned a lot uh from seeing uh community events that um many of our our leaders up who are up here with us uh come into the community and do.

I now know to close before you doze.

You close bedroom doors uh before you go to sleep.

It's not something that I knew before, but now not only do I know that, but my kids know that.

My parents know that.

Um, any of their friends who come to sleepovers know that.

Um so if you're hearing this now, uh you can go home and implement these tools at home, and you can also spread the word.

So I'm so grateful uh to everything that Montgomery County Fire Rescue, both career and volunteer do to make sure our communities stay safe.

And with that, I will hand it over to Councilmember Lukey.

Thank you.

And uh, in the best interest of being additive, not repetitive.

Um I too have learned a lot about fire prevention from the deeper work that I've been able to do with our fire rescue service.

But I also I wanna I want to shout out because at least this this side of the house right here uh I know have uh have come to my district to do direct outreach with constituents about how to be better and how to prevent fires in your own home.

But I also I wanna I want to shout out because at least this this side of the house right here uh I know have uh have come to my district to do direct outreach with constituents about how to be better and how to prevent fires in your own home and it is fire prevention um awareness month but it's also the start of our trend you know it's the end of our hurricane season and we're transitioning into um our cold weather season um where power outages are a thing and sometimes uh so you know we have awareness months for different things but but sometimes you need to think about them hand in hand uh because a lot of the choices we make if we do end up having a power outage may involve choices that may be more or less safe and should be thought of through that fire prevention lens in order to avoid uh problems so I want to give a huge shout out to the entire uh Montgomery County Fire and Rescue our blended fire service and all of their efforts across our community to make sure folks stay informed stay knowledgeable and know that we have a top notch team ready to serve in case of an emergency with that uh shit I'm gonna turn it over to our chief chief Smedley Thank you um the fire service what a great way to spend your life serving others and keeping them safe so you're probably wondering where are all our firefighters behind us as they usually are well uh just understand it is fire prevention month in Montgomery County and the nation is fire prevention week we take it to the next level uh but they're out there responding to your calls for service but more importantly they're out there we're doing no less than 10 outreaches a day throughout the community around fire prevention month so that we can get the word out so we can stop responding to your calls for service um so before I get started I'm gonna be very brief uh let's give our first responders firefighters and paramedics out there a round of applause they they truly are out there doing everything they can to keep you safe so historically there were three reasons generally speaking why you thought of us one if you purchase a home and you had to go through some kind of inspection you thought about the building of fire codes two you adopted or had a child and you wanted that environment to be very safe three there was a fire in close proximity to you and you wanted to be safe and see what happened fire prevention has been going on for over a hundred years through the National Fire Protection Association so that you can think of us more than those three times so we can make sure you're safe so everything we talk about the smoke alarms close your door before you doze keeping your emergency kit up to date refresh your medications your your perishable food your potable water all those things because we're about to go into the season where we could have some power outages but more importantly engage with us up front so that we won't have to respond to you there are many ways to do that.

311 is the the best way to get in contact with us and I promise you we'll come to you we'll tailor your prevention needs to meet your family and your pet situation.

So please stay safe and have a prevention state of mind just like we

do.

Thank you very much Chief we're gonna ask

everyone to please introduce themselves.

Thank you Jim Resnick from Community Risk Reduction Brian McCullough from Community Risk Reduction Fire Rescue Service Good afternoon Michael Kelly Division Chief of Volunteer Services Good afternoon Beth Ann Nestle Community Risk Reduction Office of the Fire Chief Christy Duke Community Risk Reduction Franz Finthier Acting Division Chief Human Resources Dominic Colletti Assistant Chief Office of the Fire Chief Thank you very much we're gonna read a proclamation please we have some to hand out afterwards whereas Montgomery county is dedicated to protecting the lives health and property of all who live work learn and visit our community and recognizes that fire prevention and preparedness are essential to keeping our homes and neighborhoods safe and whereas fires can spread quickly leaving families with only minutes to escape making working smoking smoke alarms carbon monoxide alarms clear exits and a practiced home fire escape plan essential components of household safety and whereas rechargeable lithium ion batteries power many of the devices used every day including smartphones tablets laptops power tools toys e-bikes and e scooters and improper charging or damaged batteries can result in overheating fire or other serious hazards and whereas fire prevention theme whereas the fire the 2026 fire prevention theme charge into fire safety safe charging is a superpower encourages everyone to make safe charging part of their everyday routine by using the charger and cord provided were approved by the manufacturer and adhering to other safety practices and finishing off please whereas the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service County departments community organizations, schools, businesses and fire safety partners work throughout the year to provide education inspections, code enforcement, emergency preparedness, and community risk reduction programs that help

Safe charging is a superpower, encourages everyone to make safe charging part of their everyday routine by using the charger and cord provided or approved by the manufacturer and adhering to other safety practices and whereas the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service, County Departments, Community Organizations, Schools, Businesses, and Fire Safety Partners work throughout the year to provide education, inspections, code enforcement, emergency preparedness, and community risk reduction programs that help prevent fires and protect residents.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the public safety committee and the entire council of Montgomery County, Maryland, hereby recognize October as fire prevention month, presented on this 13th day of October in the year 2026 by the public safety committee and the full county council.

I hope uh Councilman Katz have many more fire prevention months in his life, but in his official capacity.

This is his last fire prevention month.

And we know he wears many hats, so we just wanted to give him one more.

Thank you very much.

You can see I have a large head.

I just thank you.

It's very kind.

That's perfect.

No.

That was great.

Thank you so much to the county council's public safety committee, especially to the chair, Sydney Katz.

I have this feeling that we're gonna see more recognitions due to your awesome leadership.

So with that, we will move on to general business.

Thank you.