Like to now call to order this will be the third meeting of the 30 second Board of Representatives Public Safety and Health Committee at 6 30 p.m.

on the 26th of March 2026.

I'd like to quickly take attendance with the other board members and then uh any additional uh members of the board of representatives.

So uh committee members in attendance, please respond with present when I call your name.

Uh Vice Chair Adams.

What is it?

Thank you.

Uh Representative uh David Blank.

Nope.

Uh Representative, I'm sorry, Matt.

Did O.

DLO.

Okay.

I'll get it eventually.

Probably at the end of the term.

Um representative representative Mike Michael Field.

Present.

Thank you.

Uh Representative Kara Gilbread.

Didn't you see her on Representative Chanta Graham?

President.

Got it.

Again.

I'm sure at the end of the term, I'll have it.

Um I know that Representative Morris was at the uh fiscal committee meeting.

Uh Representative Kendra Wilson Wilt Walston.

I'm sorry.

Oh, yes.

Did I get it?

Well, yes, you got it.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, ma'am.

Um okay, and I did see that there were at least uh Representative Camparelli is on as an ex officio member.

So thank you for joining us.

Um so we have two agenda items this evening.

Uh the both are review items.

The first one is um item uh PS32.004.

It is a review of the public safety um conditions at the at an abandoned building located at 200 Henry Street.

And this was submitted by Representative Adams.

I think joining us for this review, I I noted was um Lou Doribus, uh Stanford Director of Public Safety, Health and Welfare.

Um, and I think Sean Reed, who is the Stanford's uh chief building official.

Uh and I don't know if Matt Keonis uh was able to join us or not.

Um but at this point I'd like to entertain a motion to take up item number one.

So moved.

Uh is there a second?

Second.

Uh so moved and so seconded.

Uh so representative Adams, I'd like to turn this over to you uh to initiate the discussion on this item uh introduce it.

Thank you.

Yeah, um, yes, uh I put this on the uh on the gender because we had a situation where um a body was found in this building.

Um and um and at the same time I want to thank Matt umas um for um taking control of this um unsecure building at 200 Henness Street and making it safe uh for the neighborhood.

Um so I I noticed uh the way they secured a bill in that would um stop a lot of these homeless people from going in the building getting hurt uh or injuring.

Um so I want to appreciate what the city did.

And I think the what they did was um divert some of the stuff that was going on in the past because this abandoned building across from the shelter is uh perfect um place for the overflow at the shelter at night uh when the shelter closed up, there's always an overflow of homeless people.

So I want to thank the city for coming out and um doing what they did and um like to know how they plan on maintaining this.

I see that the building was boated up.

Uh I think it's um one window on Hindi Street, which is the smallest window where they broke the glass out that they um take had already taken the plywood down and going in every night.

Uh I like to get them to go back out and do that again.

But um, I don't know, is uh Derubas is gonna do the presentation or uh the officer of how they plan on securing this billing and bank charging um the owner of the property.

So thank you.

Uh you're on mute, Tom.

Sorry.

Uh so I can turn it over to Lou.

Do you want to uh take up a point of discussion there as far as uh what the city's approach is?

So I I think uh that's why Sean Reed and Lou Castlow are here.

Uh I did uh have a meeting with Chief Shaw today.

I just want to make the uh the point that the the incident that occurred on February 4th at uh 23, 30 hours, which is 1130 at night, when we did get a call into our 911 center in which uh an individual was reporting that his friend uh was missing, he hasn't seen them in in a couple weeks, and he had a feeling that he had been um staying in that abandoned building that we've been dealing with for the last couple of years.

Uh we've had legal involved, engineering, building department, pretty much every city resource available um and trying to work with the landlord to secure that facility.

Um, but it's been an ongoing issue back in December of 2024, our public safety uh departments met and we flag that location in our CAD system.

So any calls into that uh at that address were flagged as no first responders were to enter, unless if it's a life safety issue because of the uh dangerous conditions of that facility.

Um so that night um officers responded, they started to uh assist in trying to locate this individual.

I think the fire department was called as well.

Um he kind of had an idea where he might have been in the building and they were able to locate him, deceased.

And again, this is still under criminal investigation, so there's not really much more we can get into at this point on that.

But uh with that, in result of that incident, we called the team back together.

Um, and I think we came up with a pretty uh much more aggressive plan to deal with this situation to prevent other uh individuals from from some squatting in that building.

So I don't know if uh Sean or Lou, if you want to kind of take it from there in regards to what steps we've taken since then.

Yeah, I I can speak to some more on that.

So we've we've engaged several fencing companies to give us quotes uh in order to secure a eight-foot barrier around the entire building.

Uh so we have fencing quotes.

We have companies ready to install fencing around the entire property to keep uh people from being able to enter the building.

I know there's plywood that's been done installed around all the first floor windows, as well as the glass entrances to the buildings.

Uh I was there a few days ago, and some, not all of the metal doorways have been screwed shut.

I don't know if um the screws have been removed recently since I've been there, but that's quite a possibility.

Um but I know there's a hazard to installing the fences, the fence posts um we can't really dig into the ground because of there's a uh a liner installed because of the hazardous material that's in the dirt in that area.

So there's a there's an issue with digging up and puncturing those liners around that area.

So we're still working on a another form of securing a fence around that perimeter to keep everyone out.

Well, we are we are gonna add a few um more details to Sean's commentary there.

Lou Cast here uh the other day the director of operations asked for my opinion about additional um access control around the property above and beyond what Sean just described.

And um I'm very familiar with the the landfill liner that encapsulates you know much of the South End's new development with that as a environmental land use restriction.

So I communicated that to Sean and the director that what whatever uh options are um chosen, whether it be by private ownership or the city, we we reduce we don't go we don't go subsurface with anything.

Driving fence posts, and we're talking about a very large building, maybe 800 linear feet of fencing, um, because that could open up more exposure in terms of the from the environmental side.

So there's a couple of um options of mounting things that grade on a either a concrete barrier curve or something like that that could be feasible, feasibly done uh to provide some additional security around the perimeter.

As uh Representative Adams mentioned, there is at least there's one panel, one plywood panel that's been defaced at the along Henry Street, and the glass has um been broken.

And so I'm sure that someone tried to breach the building back there as a result.

So although when you walk there, it looks very uh formidable in terms of the protection.

You would you would think as a common person that it would be very difficult to get access to the building, but somebody has already.

So when I saw that, I realized that it's probably it requires maybe more.

Um and the fencing is a is probably the most cost effective option.

However, the fencing can be cut, that type of thing.

So it would it would um come along with like a monitoring program to make sure that if it was cut that gets restored too.

So that's those are a couple of ideas.

Um the other just thing to be mindful of, and I know the fire department is here, the fire chief is here tonight as well.

Uh the prior fire chief, uh, fire marshal rather was involved in uh in addressing issues with this abandoned building prior to his retirement.

And um if we do if the whoever does the fencing, private property or the city, um, in the event that somebody was in the building, it would probably be prudent to have some type of um I don't know, panic hardware, something to get out in the event that somebody broke in, there was a fire, and uh they couldn't get out because the the fencing was secure around the whole perimeter, meaning locked.

So just something to consider um as a detail and in terms of adding more um more protections.

Uh Sean Sean, I believe mentioned in terms of the current doorways uh to the building, there are they are open, but when you go into the building's vestibule, there's there's hard plywood with with chain and lock.

So someone can still get into the vestibule.

And um it looked like one of the doors was I could pry it open with a screwdriver.

So those areas are weak points at the moment.

Um the another possibility, although it's um, you know, you're sort of balancing security with aesthetics, you know, because it is a it is a uh residential neighborhood, and there's people living right next door.

Um, so that barrier curb and fencing option isn't the most aesthetic looking thing to see, and behind that a wall of plywood, it's potentially uh feasible to wrap the building and and fencing all together, so you could remove the potential of the barrier curb, which is expensive too.

Um, when you're talking 800 feet of it.

So if you can sort of imagine a chain link fence anchored into the masonry around the perimeter, is something another consideration.

But again, I would I would recommend that um there be some uh ability for uh access into the building should someone either get stuck in there or the life safety people have to get access to the building.

But I'll let I'll let them you know kind of comment on how they want to deal with that.

Thank you.

Thanks for the presentation.

Um I can open it up for questions, but I'll introduce my questions first.

So as much as you can discuss it, what are the legal situations with the land or the owner of the building right now in recouping some of the costs?

And what is their obligation to make the building secure?

And is there a process that we could pursue or the city could pursue for ultimately demolishing the building if there is um a complete lack of uh taking responsibility for its upkeep?

Um so I I throw that out to the group.

I guess uh Lou, if you've got a an any sense for ability to ask any of those or answer any of those questions, or at least um you know, let me know who we should potentially uh address these questions to.

Yeah, no, those are those are reasonable questions.

Um I think um one of the first things that could be done is you know, prior to taking these steps is you you you send the owner um, you know, put them on notice type of letter.

And I believe Sean, you have some information about that, you know, in other words, a cure letter, that there's a security concern.

We're asking you to cure the problem.

Here's some ideas.

Um, in the event that you're non-responsive, you will be responsible for reimbursing you know the city.

That's one approach.

Um that's that's one way of at least documenting uh the action and putting the responsibility on the owner to do.

And if the owner fails to cure, then you know the city um may have legal recourse to go further.

Yeah, I've sent them uh over the course of the last year and a half, three notices of violation in order to obey.

Uh, and in those notices, I've sent I've ordered them to secure the building.

I've ordered them to install a fence.

Uh, and then those notices I've uh let them know that failure to do so that the city would um do the work ourselves and then pursue uh the cost of that labor and material um through the court systems.

They didn't secure the building in any way, shape, or form, other than closing the doors until the person died.

And then they then they proceeded to ward up the windows.

Um but that's that's about it.

So I did issue three notices of violation.

One matter of uh I guess clarification, aside from the public safety issue that you you all are talking about tonight, and that occurred um prior to that the you know, everyone is probably well aware that the building has some structural issues.

Um when that became known, there was some um uh controls that were put along Henry Street, temporary fencing is what I'm talking about, to keep the public as far from the building as possible.

So uh um the there is a company that was brought in uh I believe by the owner to install fencing along the sidewalk of Henry Street, and that was merely to tour key people as far from the building as possible, should should something become dislodged on the building.

That fencing is um a lot of it has been uh blown over, not maintained.

Um so there was an initial effort to put in fencing for that purpose.

But what we're talking about tonight is um some additional shoreing shoring up of the building from an access point of view to based on this death that occurred inside.

So they're two different things, but I just wanted to make you aware that um initially fencing was put on Henry Street for the purposes of sort of protecting the general public from any debris that might come off the building due to settlement.

The other um matter that the chair chair chairman brought up was use the word demolition.

Um so you know, you're you're you're aware that this is an active um the site is being litigated currently, so uh I'm not in the position to really talk about any of that.

Um the building was um renovated, sold, um, occupied.

So there's a lot of people involved in this matter.

Um, but in terms of demolition, it's it's one of the oldest buildings in Stanford, so and it's uh probably one of the largest.

So it's it would be a significant um effort uh for the city to take on to demolish this building.

Um not only not only because of its age, which is has its own complications because it's a historic building over 50 years old, it probably has a lot of um hazardous materials associated with that.

So there are processes by which you can you know mitigate and remediate and all of that, but it comes at great cost.

And there is an active community around the property too.

So that's another consideration.

So in terms of you know, what the city is um in a position to do versus what the the owner is in a position to do is something that has been sort of an ongoing debate for many months.

All right, thank you for that.

Um I'll open it up for questions of recognize uh vice chair Adams.

Go ahead and ask your question, please.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Thanks.

Thank you, Lou.

Um I I guess um about the fencing that was put up on the outside of the building.

I thought it was put up when they firstly said they had um structure work that needed to be done.

And it was engaging having it done.

The fencing went up.

Then they decide to um I guess uh put everybody out the building and condemn their own building.

And the fencing been up there without any appears being done.

Um if I'm correct, or uh a defense that was put up there just as a safety precaution.

I think you're generally on the right path with that.

I don't know either, Terry.

I think that that fencing was put up because of structural reasons for the building.

Um I don't recall the timing and you know whether people were in it or not in it at the time, but that was the primary reason.

And it was just put put up in a in a section along Henry Street, as you know.

Yes, I mean I would appreciate if they could put the fence because they already got an iron rail fence there.

You know, run that whole building the whole length of Hindi Street, they got like an iron old rail fence.

It'll be nice if they can attach that fence to that and um stop letting the people that's in the Yellen town have to walk in the street to take their walk around the block.

I think it will be safer for everybody.

But um, I I gotta say I appreciate the jobs um Sean and um you and everybody been doing to make the um the building safe because it's been abandoned for a while and it'd been unsecure for a while, and you know by being right across the street from a men's shelter um every night when the shelter is have an overflow and they close, most of those men's have no way to go.

So by this building being open, you can see like a trailer guys going there, like 15, 20 people just walking into the building.

So I mean, would you guys make them put the plywood there?

I I think you just make it a lot safer.

But it was there if they're a way that we can send in, because I got a lot of people in the hindscript, the guy cameras.

Uh yeah, uh you muted.

Yeah.

There's a way that some of the homeowners can send their videos in while people going in that small window.

I think it would be a great opportunity for the community to help you guys out.

So thank you.

All right, thank you, Representative Adams.

Um recognize uh Representative Graham.

Ask your question, please.

You're on mute, Representative Graham.

Thank you, Chair Burchard.

I apologize.

Good evening, guys.

Um that was my question.

The the fence that was up there uh temporarily it has blown away since we had the last storm last week, and half of that is on Cedar Street for what a resident reported to me.

So uh that needs to be reinforced again.

And I was going to um ask two questions.

Number one, is the building owner currently being cited for blight as in addition to this problem?

Are they paying a fine every day for them not uh securing the building or having that uh temporary fence around it?

Are they uh has the legal department, I guess, uh sent them notice that uh there is a blight issue?

And number two, is there any way to have um a patrol um uh right around that building at the time the same time that the uh the men's shelter closes in the evening, or put some sort of uh surveillance camera in the entryway of the building or wherever access point that they are accessing the building so that um sort of an alarm or something to notify uh uh the city that they're it's being um you know broken into so I can speak to the to the blight issue as the blight officer for the city.

I did issue a blight citation to them a while back, uh maybe during the summer for all the garbage that was around the entire property.

Um and they I did force them to clean up the entire property.

They did that, and we closed the blight case.

Uh so at the moment there is no ongoing blight case uh for anything.

So every time I initiate a case, they remedy the situation, it gets closed, and then I open up a new one, they remedy it.

So it's kind of an ongoing situation with them.

They do just enough to get me to close the case, uh, and then I open up a new one.

So it's I'm I'm on them.

Uh they they're they're very wary of of the blight ordinance.

They take it very seriously.

Um so they they do respond to it when they when they issue a citation.

They do act very very quickly on those.

But as of now, right now, there is no open blight case.

Thank you, Mr.

Reid.

I and I yield.

Thank you, Representative Graham.

Um Representative Walston, please ask your question.

Sure.

Good evening, everyone.

So I I kind of like what I'm hearing just a little bit that there is communication and they are receiving letters.

They're doing bare minimum.

I don't like that part, they're doing bare minimum.

But as the public and safety committee, what I would like to see is I would like for them to come to be invited to come and speak to us about how they're going to try to remedy the situation and also just to get them on record so that at least the South End um residents, they would know that at least we see and we're trying to help them, but we need to get them to come on in and get on the record and let us know what what they're trying to do, where they're going with all these because basically we're kind of at our wits' end in a sense.

So once we get them on record, you know, it's there and uh, you know, is there for perpetuity?

So please let's get them in next month so we can talk to them if possible.

And I see where they're going, what they're what they want to do.

So we all can put our expectation and talk, not with the paper, we can talk on the record what we expect and what the residents expect of this um particular property.

Uh thank you, Representative Wallston.

Um, as a chair, I think we'll bring that item up for um discussion or at least investigation.

I think it'd probably the better word as far as the authority to call a private business or private owner in in front of the board.

Um I like the idea.

Um, I think it's worth trying to do.

Um, at least it demonstrates that the building is attracting attention.

Um, and we're doing our jobs.

But um the authority to do that, I think has to be determined.

So I appreciate the recommendation, and we'll uh take it in revision.

Um at this point, I'd like to.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Um, Representative Dilat.

Close, still low, almost.

It's all good.

Um this probably will be more of a question for um you, Sean.

What's the actual structural status of the building, you know, and how often is the building department going in there and getting updates?

You know, I don't I'm taking for granted did that.

It's not a severe structural issue, you know.

But there is, if you know, if you're going in, you know, please fire EMS or not going in the building, it's got to be in pretty rough shape structurally if there's a clear life hazard.

So, you know, I'm kind of thinking I know the short term here is being discussed, but also what is more that medium term, you know, or is they're worrying about facade issues and you know something falling out of the sidewalk because problems expand quickly, and as problems expand, they get more expensive, you know.

So that's kind of what I'm trying to get at and see what's the actual status of the building when it comes to its structural stability and you know how fast should the city be moving before it gets into be a bigger problem.

So I issued an unsafe structure notice based on an engineering letter I received from the owner.

Uh I want to say in 24.

So we have not so occupancy has been uh prohibited by the billing department, so we do not go in there, and no one else should either.

It's been prohibited by that order.

Um, but I also have um hired a structural engineer, Conlin Engineering, uh, to go out periodically, and he walks around the building and does an assessment of the structure and he provides a report to us.

Uh I just met him out there a few weeks ago.

He has not provided the latest report yet.

Um he's still working on it.

So there's been no indication of any imminent danger um so far, for what he can tell from the outside.

But we we haven't gone inside because we're just not allowed, you know.

I haven't allowed anybody to go in there.

All right, thank you very much.

Um appreciate that if we could get a copy of that assessment, I think that would be uh in you know, put that into record, it would be would be great to have.

Um so at this time and entertain a motion to conclude discussion of item number one, uh move on to item number two.

Oh, one last question, please.

Oh, sure.

I'm sorry, Terry.

Go ahead, Representative Adams.

Um, Sean, with the security of the billing, apply wooden all the windows.

Isn't that the definition of blight?

Because they won't security billing, they want maintain uh nobody not going in the building.

So the city order you to security bill, and you'll go around and play the play with all the windows.

Isn't that the perfect definition of blight at that point?

Oh, because you're securing the billing.

Um you look at it with a different eye.

Well, they so you're you're you're referring to the the ordinance where they're violating uh a city ordinance or a state state statute.

Is that the one you're you're referring to, Mr.

Adams?

When we first started the blight, and perfect definition of blight was any building in the city of Stanford that had boarded up windows.

Oh for whatever reason it was boarded up.

Okay, missing the board is there.

Right.

So now this building's been abandoned, it's been unsecure, unsafe, because now we find a body.

So they say secure the wind uh secure the building.

So the owner bowed up all the women.

So I solve women but to create another problem.

I I could buy them for board up windows and then make them re remove the the plywood, and then the building's unsecured again.

But I've already ordered them to secure the building.

Okay, so they're gonna secure the building in a different fashion without the windows being boarded up or boarded up from the inside, so they don't like an ISO.

But um, yeah, I appreciate what you guys are doing.

Um I'm thrilled by the quick reaction to which I did, and I keep with the good work.

I mean, the only thing I seen is a small window in Hindus Creek where they actually took a Christmas tree and broke the glass and cut um and and pull out the plywood and they crawl in there at night and they actually take the plywood and hold it back up to the window like it's really nailed.

So if you can have them to go back out and resecure that plywood, I think you would have no problem.

And I guess you've seen the one inside of Yale in town where when you walk in the double glass door is plywood, but maybe they should take the initiative to plywood that door on the outside.

That way you can know nobody's not in the building because you still could go in and close the door and sleep.

Yeah, you're right.

I will reach out to them again.

Thank you.

I appreciate you guys, and um uh long as I got this on the record, I think my constituent would be satisfied, and I can always point them towards this um recording.

So thank you and appreciate you.

Thank you.

All right, thank you very much.

So again, I'd like to uh have a motion to uh conclude discussion of item number one and move on to item number two.

So moved, second.

Great, thank you very much.

Uh so at this time I'd like to introduce uh the second agenda item, which is PS32.005.

It is the uh item for review, overview of the Stanford Fire Department.

Um at this point, I'd like to uh introduce uh Chief Robert Morris.

Um, and then uh so I could have a motion to have uh Chief Morris provide his presentation.

So moved seconded.

Anybody second?

Thank you.

I'm trying to do this uh Roberts Rules things that continues to befuddle me.

Um so at this point, uh thank you very much, uh Chief Morris, uh, for taking the time uh to give us your presentation.

I'm hoping you're able to uh share your screen.

All right, let's give that a try here.

Second, can you see it?

Uh in a second here.

Uh-huh.

I see it.

Thank you very much, gentlemen.

At this point, I will uh turn the presentation over to you.

Well, thank you, committee.

Uh happy to address uh this committee.

I think it's the first time I've actually uh tested, you know, been here to uh speak before you and I'm gonna go over what the uh Stanford Fire Department is and does.

Uh we are um you know a consolidated fire department uh comprised of the career fire department and the volunteer fire department, and I'll just move through this.

I have a short program we can uh move forward with.

Okay.

And I'm sorry, I think we lost the screen sharing.

I think we did.

All right, try that again.

Okay, you're back again.

Thank you.

All right.

So I'm gonna try it one more time.

Hold on.

Hold on, one second.

Okay, now try it.

All right.

Okay, so this is really our department strength.

Uh, we have a career department, as I said, with 267 career members of all ranks.

Uh approximately 100 volunteer members spread out between the five volunteer departments, which still have their own districts, have their own customs, their own traditions.

So we kept it that way on purpose because that way we were one of the few departments that actually was successful in combined combining a career department and a volunteer department.

Usually is usually not that successful.

Working out of 12 stations.

So we we have a firehouse in just about every neighborhood in the city.

We have one of the largest uh outreaches of any city agency.

We have a lot of facilities here.

Basically, fire departments have always been set up that way.

Uh closest units respond.

Uh and we know time is of the essence.

Fire is uh a chemical reaction that increases rapidly every few seconds.

So we want to get there as quick as possible.

It also lends itself well to EMS calls where we actually respond, uh, and we are usually the first people to arrive at the scene of a medical emergency uh in your home or business.

Uh we staff three, we staff nine stations with our career personnel.

Long Ridge uh is a volunteer firehouse, has uh uh two stations.

They have their uh personnel uh uh in those stations, they uh one person in each of those stations.

Um all the stations are have are manned.

Belltown is all volunteer, but they're very active, and um they they get out to calls about 100%.

So that's you know, we're we're we're very well covered on that regard as far as uh where the stations are located.

Our uh department organization is basically just an organizational chart, chief of department.

I have two assistant chiefs, Miguel Robles is with me.

He is my uh chief of career services.

I have Vicarella is the chief of the volunteer services, and we just have these different divisions going down the line.

We have a training deputy chief and two uh captains.

We have a fire marshal, uh assistant fire, two assistant fire marshals and nine deputy fire marshals and an administrative assistant uh that handles all our fire uh marshal services.

We have our own vehicle shop under uh direction of a mechanical supervisor and two master mechanics there, heavy-duty fire apparatus specialists, and that's a separate facility from the department shops uh because uh fire apparatus are quite um specialized, and you have to be certified in order to even work on them.

Uh and our suppression side, which is our largest side.

Uh, we have a deputy chief uh in this central district, which is downtown.

We have a deputy chief in the northern district, which is uptown.

Okay, we have eight deputy chiefs, so they work in shifts.

We work a uh like a four platoon system, four shifts, uh so we have 24 hour coverage, 28 captains spread out between the shifts, same as our 29 lieutenants and our firefighters uh at 183 at this time.

We are looking to increase our staffing.

Uh, you'll be seeing that in fiscal.

You probably saw it already in our proposed budget.

On the uh volunteer side, we have Belltown.

Belltown is uh these are neighborhood fire departments.

You know, Stanford has lovely neighborhoods, and the volunteer departments kind of reflect those neighborhoods.

So Belltown basically protects that neighborhood.

Uh, same with Glenbrook.

Long Ridge is all the way up north.

They have the they have a very large district.

It's extremely large, it's as big as some cities almost.

Uh Springdale is uh covers the Springdale district uh on the eastern eastern border of the city and uh Turnover River, which is has a very large district as well.

And we have uh we have uh our career, we have at least a career engine in every one of those stations, with the exception of the Belltown and the two Long Ridge stations.

The other ones have career engines and volunteer staffing.

These are their patches, they kept their own traditions.

You can see, I mean, they are you know when you're addressing the Belltown Fire Department or the Glenbrook Fire Department, and you can see the Rigs are their own, you know, they have the rigs are actually uh somewhat unique.

Uh the guys with the white rigs are Belltown, of course.

We wouldn't want to change that tradition.

I wouldn't change it if I I wouldn't change it because I I came from there, so I'm still a member there.

So I started on the volunteer side as many, many of our career uh guys and gals have done.

Uh we start as volunteers in this city, in this city.

And me and me and uh Mike Robots here, we both were born here, grew up here.

Uh we go to calls at all hours because we live close.

And uh we're part of this community just as much as anybody else.

Uh that's a not a very good map shot of the city of Stanford.

So when you look at demographics of the city, it is the largest city in square miles of any city uh with a population over 100,000.

It's big.

I mean, we have a big landmass to uh uh protect, uh which makes our city very complex.

It's a complex fire department, it's probably the most complex fire department in the state, due to the fact if you take a look at that halfway point, where you see the yellow, and then the colors down below it.

A good part of that yellow is a non-hydrant district.

Uh with um we consider it to be non-hydrant.

There's water mains up there, but they're few and far between as far as hydrants go.

So we have to do a whole different type of firefighting than we would actually do down in Center City.

We're the only city of any size that even has to even consider that.

Uh, and you'll you'll see you know, you know, as well as as residents here, the city is quite different.

The downtown area is booming.

It has a population density, I believe is larger than anybody in the state in the downtown area.

It is a lot of people live in downtown.

I have some statistics on it.

But you take a look at the city, it's wider at the northern border, that's the New York State border, and it narrows down towards the lower third, and down at the bottom, it's relatively narrow, shaped like a almost like a keystone shape.

Makes it pretty difficult actually to get apparatus to and fro.

So we do have uh we have we cover our response areas very well.

We use it closest to the pin uh uh dispatch, which gets the closest unit.

If they're on the road, they go.

So it helps us with that.

Uh the Stanford Fire Department will do all disciplines, all the rescue disciplines, fire all the different firefighter disciplines.

Uh we are one of the few uh departments that are have full-time uh scuba divers.

We are the only one actually has it full-time uh 24-7.

So we have a lot, we have a lot of aspects to what we do.

Our downtown, our downtown is where the growth is.

Our downtown is uh very, very densely populated at this time.

We have the most high rise in large area buildings in the state, more than any other city.

Uh we have between 50 and 60,000 people living in five story or large or taller buildings.

A lot of our population now is in large buildings, and 3300 new housing units are planned.

Rapid growth.

This is what we it was startling to me.

It's like you're not noticing it until you actually research it.

So since 81, 1981, uh, we've gone from 103,000 people to 141,000 people.

That's the latest.

I thought it was 140, actually.

I looked at it today.

It's 141,000 people living in the city.

And this is the one that shocked me.

Between 2010, 2020, 40% of the growth in population in this state has been right here.

So the city is changing right.

Uh, I mean, if you drive through it, you'll see as it seems like there's a new building going up uh just about everywhere.

So we're we're trying to keep up with that pace uh with uh at least one of our requests for manning because we we are stretched very thin in the downtown area for sure.

We know that.

Incidents, so this is our incidence, total incidents in essentially five, six years, depending on how you look at it.

Five-year change going up 35, almost 36 percent.

We've gained population of around in that time, maybe 10%, 15%.

Our increase in activity has gone up quicker than our population uh total population.

It's because of the type and style of buildings and the way people live.

They're living in downtown areas, elevators, more vehicles on the road.

These are all kind of calls that we go to.

Uh, and our increase in population is causing a larger increase in our activity, our our incidents per year, and all these trends are up.

Our fire suppression division.

So this is what we do for a living.

We're there are the fire department.

We are known as Stanford Fire, all of us, volunteers and the career side.

This was our typical housing stock for many, many years.

We're set up for the private dwelling or smaller multiple dwelling type fires.

This is what we handle.

With a I use the term, I believe it.

We're as good as anybody in the business at this type of fire.

We can get water on the fire as quick as any department, anywhere, anytime.

This type of building is what we're set up for.

When you change the script a little bit, and it's changed, changing rapidly, and now you go to what we have in the downtown.

We got these single family dwellings everywhere in the city.

But when you deal with the downtown area and the large area, complex buildings, like the one I'm looking at.

And we we've had fires in this building.

You can see the difference in the activity.

The building on the left is basically we handle that with a one alarm assignment.

One alarm meaning maybe three engines, we have nine, and one ladder company, we have three, and one rescue company, we have one.

The building on the right, the larger multiple dwelling, it's a newer building, it's all wood.

A uh attic fan that extended into the walls of the building, required every unit in the city to respond to bring that fire uh under control.

All three ladder trucks and all the engines and the and the rescue and uh you know, we had to get coverage for the city.

So we're we're facing a different, we're we're facing uh a different challenge right now.

I mean, these buildings have been around for a while, but the housing stock now is going more to the multiple dwelling style than the private dwelling, single family, or small multiple dwelling type fires that we're that we actually uh have been very accustomed to.

And we're we we handle these buildings as well, they just require more resources.

We know that we have an incident command system.

Uh we have a deputy chief on duty in the downtown, what we call the central area, and the north area, uh the uh north deputy chief was in the northern area.

Uh they are just they are there to manage uh the amount of people we get on a fire call and other uh all kinds of incidences they go to.

They're the they manage the scene uh and they act uh to make sure we safely um you know affect the uh the outcome of these fires.

And they're very experienced.

I mean, you know, these these um these chief officers are you know, some of them handle at least 10 calls a day.

So they they're they're used to this uh command and control that they're so good at our engine companies.

We have nine of them on the career side.

Okay, we have nine engine companies uh in service on the career side spread throughout the city.

Uh the volunteers have their own engine companies as well.

Each one of the volunteer departments has two engines of their own.

Uh that we we are in some cases it's a city rig that we assign to that volunteer house, and then a lot of times they have their own uh rig that they purchased on their own.

So they're very similar to these.

An engine company, this is what they do.

They are the guys who put the fire out and bring water.

Okay, that they have hose, they have a pumping engine, and they have a booster tank, which is a water tank on the rig.

So they're water supply, fire suppression, uh, they investigate all alarms, they go to every call that are workhorses uh of the fire service.

Uh they go to the medical uh emergency medical calls.

Actually, all our units go to medical emergency calls.

Uh this is this is what a majority of at least half our calls are uh EMS or medical medical, a medical emergency uh related call.

And they go to any public service.

We have a we have a saying if you're not sure what to do, send an engine.

They can go and investigate it.

It could be, I mean, you you name it, we get them.

I mean, it's there's no call that we will blow off.

You you think you got something, you call us, give us the address, we'll be there uh most of the time in about four minutes.

The trucks, the ladder companies.

The ladder companies, we have three career ladder companies.

We have one in downtown Stanford Central, we have a South End ladder truck two, we have a West Side Ladder Truck Three.

Uh, we have a Belltown ladder, truck 45, which is manned as needed.

It's a volunteer ladder truck.

We bring it in uh for multi-alarm fires for coverage, or if we need it at a very, very large fire, and they also run in their district.

Uh they do basically everything except water, uh, aerial ladder operations, portable ladders, which are our ladders that we can carry around up to 35 feet.

That's the tallest ground based ladder.

They force entry, uh, they break into the uh premises, uh whatever means necessary, uh search and rescue.

So they search for the um location of the fire, they search for anybody who still might be in the building, might be in the building.

And if they have to uh rescue or remove someone from danger, they do.

That's their job.

Uh they take care of the utilities when you have a fire in a building or situation in the building, they will shut down the electric service, the gas, or the water.

Whatever is necessary, that's their job.

They salvage a lot of the damage, fire damage is actually caused by the water damage from the fire or uh some other suppression system and overhaul is where they open up the building, open up the walls.

Uh, people I think now understand we have to get into the the heart where the fire may have started or have extended to to make sure we do a final uh extinguishment of the fire.

They also do vehicle extrication.

So they'll go to the calls where we have a uh vehicle accident, and someone might be trapped therein.

So they do those jobs.

Uh the issue is we only have three in a city of this size.

Every other city in this side of this size in the state has four or five.

So we are definitely right on ladder trucks that are that are manned uh to the proper level.

The rescue company, we have one heavy rescue.

Uh, and they do a myriad of jobs.

I mean, they register they should do pretty much every job the other units do, uh, with the exception of water.

They don't do the water supply or supply hose lines.

But a big part of their job, and one of the reasons they were formed in the first place is actually uh for fire search and rescue, similar to what the trucks do.

Uh they at a fire, they're very similar to what a truck can do.

Uh, and we use them extensively.

We have one, and what I'm looking to do in my uh budget request is just to increase the manpower by two firefighters, so I can get more capability for fire search and rescue.

We know we're we're lacking in ladder company uh service, but if we put two people on this rig, I can do I can do all those functions with less people.

They're going to the calls anyway.

They go citywide, by the way, they go everywhere in the city, uh, and they're extremely adaptable to what we need to do.

They do the forcible entry, they run EMS calls, they go to vehicle extrication, uh, and even heavy vehicle extrication.

We had two uh very serious um uh accidents on I-95 where trucks trucks ran into the back of trucks, they usually are fatal, and they ended up uh being able to um extricate the patients in uh a good amount of time.

Uh good enough so that one of the one of the uh truck drivers.

Uh he lived, he was critical.

We didn't think he was gonna make it.

He lived in another one, lived, uh, but he uh he unfortunately lost his leg, but it got him out of the truck.

There that's the type of thing that they do.

And all the technical rescue disciplines, high angle rope rescue that picture on the left, they're doing high-angle rope rescue drill.

Uh they do trench, like an excavation crap collapse.

Uh all the construction going on, uh, the need for technical rescue is very um apparent.

Uh they do a lot of rescue work.

Scuba, you know, underwater diving.

We're really the only fully manned dive rescue uh between here and New York City.

Um I don't know of another department that has trained divers on duty that can go right to work right from the get-go.

They don't have to call anyone in for home, they don't have to call in mutual aid or anything like that.

And our combined space uh rescues where people are get caught in vaults or tanks or things like that.

Uh they do all these disciplines, technical rescue discipline.

So you take a look at the high angle rescue on the left, uh water rescue, whether it be scuba or just regular water rescue, and then rope rescue at a fire, which is uh pretty dramatic, but that's a that's actually a picture from New York City.

Uh but that does we're getting that type of situation at fires here.

Uh our hazmat unit, we have a standalone hazmat.

Well, we may be the only buddy in, I think we're maybe the only people in the county that have a standalone hazmat unit that can respond with a full company.

There might be a few others, I'm not sure, but our our folks do that, and it's quite busy.

They go from everything from fuel leaks.

Uh a recent one is battery overpack because of the battery powered world we're in.

Uh batteries um basically over energize themselves.

Uh, and they go into where thermal condition, they call it thermal runaway.

Uh, these things are quite nasty, uh, and they cause some very, very uh serious fires, but sometimes they just overheat and they start to smoke and they start to burn.

And uh we we we get those.

They're not that common, but that type of situation is becoming uh becoming more common, actually, because we there's a lot more batteries out there.

So uh these folks are uh they're getting busier than worse.

Not truly busy, but we can handle this uh on with our own um resources.

We're part of the we're part of the Fairfield County hazmat team, and we respond and work with them, and they work with us as on a mutual aid uh partnership.

We have our own fireboat.

Uh it's a 36-foot boat.

Uh that's why they call it 236.

They said one we call it FB 236, fireboat 236, and they operate it uh, you know, they operate at all kinds of things.

That's a fire, which is less common than water rescue, which is more common.

So that boat gets hauled out every winter for some maintenance for a few weeks.

They got it back in, I think 10 days this year.

They got it out, they got it all the work done, uh, all the bottom work done, and it is back in the water at its birth right now.

It is manned by a um engine company that's uh assigned to it.

So engine four, which is the Chipan Company, uh that is also assigned to the fire boat.

They're all uh trained in the operation and uh handling of the boat, and we have uh operators that can operate that boat, and that is fully manned, 247, 365.

So we have that boat for that.

We also have other water resources.

Uh we have a couple of boats that we can trailer to inland waterways.

So we have a uh uh boat called a Wiley boat with a 35 horsepower outboard motor.

We have that in fire headquarters on a trailer with a uh a um marine uh support unit that brings it.

We also have a thing called an ocean ID uh inflatable boat uh that we can use basically anywhere, a pond behind somebody's house in North Stanford where you can't get a trailer, can't get a boat, you can carry that in there, we can uh inflate it with a air bottle and and uh go to work with it.

So we have capabilities with that.

Well, I gotta show you this because this is what we're facing uh in the urban environment today.

How many people see food delivery guys, people on uh these um electric scooter bikes, some people even on almost like a uh a skateboard type bike that's battery powered.

These are becoming these are big problem in New York City.

And when they're in a house and they're in a garage, we've had fires like that.

I've yet to have one inside of a crowded apartment.

I don't look forward to it because it is happening in other cities.

New York City has them a lot.

So if you take a look at this, this is this is the type of reaction you get when you have an overcharged or a malfunctioning lithium ion battery inside of a building.

I'm gonna do it one more time.

I'm gonna do it one more time.

I think I'm gonna do it.

Okay, and you watch him grab his kit.

Thank God.

You can Google this, and you could find these all over the place.

That was not in our city, but this is the type of thing that we are really concerned with.

They were able to run out the door, they keep the door shut.

Maybe sprinkler system would uh kind of contain the fire.

The smoke that comes out of these is very, very toxic.

And uh it had uh uh some I think they were batteries, a rack of batteries for some smaller electric um, they could have been go-karts or something like that.

My and I was outside.

My voice is still hoarse from it.

Okay, these are out there.

We've had these in house fires.

I was at one two weeks ago.

Didn't a lot of damage to a house.

This is a different world that we're in, and we have to be very we we can't think of the way things were 10 years ago, 15 years ago in the city.

It's changed, and I just want to make you aware of it.

We're on top of it, believe me.

We we know about this stuff.

Here's another one.

That's a scooter bike.

Uh actually, yeah, like a little scooter.

So, what happens?

He's trying to get a thing of water because he thinks it's like a regular fire.

Watch what happens.

He slips, loses his balance, the water gets to the uh lithium ion, and there you go.

Yeah, so that you know, this is what's going on here, and I just want people to be aware of it.

We're aware of it, we're on top of it.

We don't have an epidemic of these things going on, but we've had them and they are there, and they're real.

And we're not walking past them and saying like there's nothing there, they're there.

So this is another thing we do.

This is our community engagement with the public.

We've everybody likes the fire department.

You know, uh, you know, I'm willing to talk.

I've done it all my life.

My father before me, and my son, he's a firefighter in New York City as well.

Everybody is interested in the fire department, and we're interested in everybody is for sure.

People want to see what we do.

We want to show our our equipment off and show our stuff off to people.

We do a lot of community engagement of all different types.

This is our fire marshal division.

Our fire marshals are actually the people who meet the public a lot as well.

Uh, they you know, this is the fire prevention week.

We visit schools, that's our fire marshal, showing how uh a firefighter dresses out, so people are familiar with it, uh and we meet the public that way.

The picture on the right was actually uh our one of our former assistant fire marshals just retired.

Um, these turkey friars are a problem.

And channel seven news asked us about it, and we ended up doing a demonstration here at fire headquarters uh in front of a group of people, and I actually had a bunch of people here, channel seven news that are live uh broadcasted this.

This is the type of thing our fire marshals do.

But this is what you know, this is kind of the stuff that people see, but this is what they really do.

Uh, really important stuff.

Public education is one of them.

They enforce our codes.

Our codes are, you know, our codes keep us safe, but we have to stay on top of it.

Plans review.

We want to review the plans of buildings when they're still in that planning stage.

It's very difficult to get any builder to make any changes once we approve the plans.

So we really want to scrutinize those plans very well.

And in fire investigations, we we investigate every fire.

We even a food on the stove, you know, burnt food on the stove.

We go there and see what caused that and what the situation is.

So we're very up on that, and they do a lot of these fire investigations.

Public education, we do these school visits.

Any of your children probably saw our Stanford firefighters or our volunteer firefighters on that side, go up and do these school presentations.

We do open houses.

Uh, we put out PSA, all the P uh public service announcements all the time.

We did a whole winter about CO, smoke detectors, and things of that nature.

And while we're on smoke detectors, 1,000 smoke and CO detectors have been installed by Stanford firefighters, both career and volunteer.

And the volunteers have done a great job with that.

I'm very proud and happy of what they did.

If you need a smoke detector in your home or your apartment, you contact the fire department, and we will send an engine company over there, and they will install it.

And these are good 10 years, you don't have to change the battery.

Ten years from now, you're gonna go get it, call again and get another smoke detector.

And they are CO and smoke detectors.

Now tell a little story.

That we went to, um, the smoke detector did not go off first.

The CO detector went into alarm.

Before the CO before the smoke detector, the smoke part didn't go in.

They had a hard wire, central station smoke detector in the house.

The CO detector went on first.

Mother ran into the area where the two kids thank God for the moms.

They do as much rescue work as anybody, I think, in this world.

Ran in and got the two kids out, got them out of the building or out of the house.

And she was out on the front porch before the central station notified the fire department.

Took about five minutes.

So those CO detectors in certain fires, especially uh, especially anything that has a lithium ion battery, they give off a lot of toxic gases, which it seems like I don't know the chemistry of it 100%, but sometimes the carbon monoxide will alarm first.

So message to all of you and your constituents.

You need smoke detectors.

We'll send an engine company, whether it's no matter what part of the city it's in, and they'll put them in properly for you.

So that's really our message with that.

And we're very very proud of that.

They have saved lives in this city, I know for sure.

Uh fire investigation, we check out the cause and origin, prevent fires in the future.

We want to know what's what's causing these things.

Uh identify who's responsible, what is responsible, and provide evidence for criminal prosecution.

We do not have a lot of arson um fires in the city, but uh, you know, we want to investigate every fire.

And the these are recent fires we had.

Um the smoke detector program back to that.

It was funded by a recent grant, so we didn't pay for them.

Uh, but we were we were able to get how many mic did you about 1300.

So we got 1300 of them, and uh we've gone through almost a thousand of them, and we want to keep that program going, and we really really uh employ people to make sure you got smoke detectors if you're not sure.

Contact us.

Our training division, uh, we train daily on the career side.

Most of the volunteers train weekly.

Belltown's Tuesday night.

Uh, the rest of the uh the other four volunteer fire departments dress on uh drill on Monday nights.

It goes from basic training to more advanced training.

Uh and uh we do all kinds of training, you name it, and we do it, and we also recertify and certify our EMTs uh in-house on the career side.

Uh the volunteer side usually goes to uh uh some uh one of the providers to do that.

But the certifications are the same, and the certifications for the career and volunteer are essentially the same as far as uh state certification and uh um what they call that uh national registry certifications.

Uh we train together, you know.

We used to be six different departments.

We're working together, especially on the picture on the left-hand side.

That is a tanker drill.

Remember that first picture you saw the city, pretty close to one-third of the city has no public water system within a thousand feet of your residence.

So we rely on tanked water, and that's what we rely on.

The volunteer departments to work with us for tanker support for engine company support and other surrounding uh other surrounding jurisdictions.

We have signed mutual aid agreements with six other entities in two states.

We work strong, we work very readily with the Westchester County, Banksville, New York, Town Ridge, New York, Bedford, and uh Vista Fire Department is part of our CAD system as long as as well as New Canaan, Greenwich, and the two dairy in departments.

So we work, we work with career and volunteer and other departments as well.

And the picture on the right is uh uh Belltown doing some training at uh one of the parking garages, so we do joint training together.

We try to work together, we try to train together.

Our mechanical division is our shops where they work on our rig.

We have our own shops, specialty uh uh working on those apparatus, and uh that's done in-house and community opportunities.

We always look for any opportunity to work together and uh work as a team.

That's uh the that's the bell town boy.

I would say the belltown boys, but it's the belltown boys and girls actually now, because they are very uh very uh diversified uh departments.

The volunteers are very diverse uh and they work together great, and they work with this career department great, and you can see that apparatus in the back is a white apparatus, so then you know you are in belt town.

That's one way you can tell.

Is that Matt Didderwell in the picture?

You know what?

I think it is.

Uh probably is uh a few years ago because he's tall and he's always smiling.

Yeah, that is me.

That's uh I've commented on your smile before, you know.

It's not really a family trait.

Thanks.

That's good to know.

Yes, that's letting you know.

I know Matt, I know everybody in that picture, and I know Matt, but that you you you picked up on them very well.

Thank you forever that was.

Uh, and then our community opportunities don't stop there.

Uh, these open houses that they do, uh, the volunteers do them as well.

That's a simulated kitchen fire with using a fire extinguisher thrown up at Long Ridge.

They do a very nice uh uh open house with pumpkins and it's it's it's great.

You know, I live up that way, so I'm also a member of I'm a member of those two departments, actually, which is uh which is great still to this day.

And uh this is our toy drive.

This is the the career guys and gals.

Uh we do a toy drive and we work with the um Toys for Tots and we collect a lot of toys, two fire trucks full of toys, and we bring it over to the shelter.

So I don't know how long I took.

I hope I didn't take too long.

Who's got a question for me?

Come on, Matt.

You're on the screen.

What do you got, Matt?

No, I'll look at that very much, Chief.

I will open it up for questions.

Uh, I do see uh Representative Camporelli had her hand up for a while.

So please go ahead, Representative Camparelli.

Thank you, Chair Bouchard.

Um my question comments are to the chief and also director DeRubis.

Um the border reps recently passed a um electric-powered leaf blower and lawn equipment ordinance.

And as part of that ordinance, uh, we inserted that the city needed to educate the public um on safety regarding you know electric batteries.

And when I spoke to some of your fire marshals, you know, they had gone over that the bike issue with me.

They said that the biggest problem, and not that it was an exorbitant problem, but the the biggest problem was the the bikes.

Um I guess what I what I just want to say is I just wanted to encourage um the chief and also director DeRubis to maybe work with the operations department on that education.

And also, um, you had said how interested people are in the fire department, and I know that that's true.

Um, and I think that would be a really good opportunity for you guys to educate people on battery safety, because you know, we all have these batteries in our homes, we hold them in our hand.

And until I worked on that ordinance, I didn't know that it was dangerous to use um plug-in devices that didn't come with my telephone or putting my phone under my pillow, just silly things like that that can spark a fire.

Um, and I think as our society moves more into these batteries, education on them, you know, is so important.

And you guys have a couple of great opportunities when you're out in the public um to educate the public, and also because it's going to be mandated because of this ordinance.

Maybe you could work together, you know, with the operations department.

To that end, um, organizations like Sierra Club and the Connecticut Green Bank can help us with educational paraphernalia and material at no cost to the city.

Um, so I'm happy to connect anybody with them, the people that I'm working with.

Um then I was I wanted to ask you uh if you felt an ordinance on electric batteries specifically would be something that would be important.

Uh my opinion, I I'm not sure.

I'm not sure how we would do that.

I mean, the battery question is if you use them properly, they are not they're not terrible, except they they there's a lot of knockoff batteries or battery uh chargers that aren't used properly, and that is a great start, starting point because we're going to do a PSA on it, so we could put it out there on our Facebook account and for our firefighters they go out in the field.

We're still learning about them.

You know, this is this is this is very new to fire departments.

You know, I I had a recent fire where we had a rack of these small batteries.

It was like for you know, might it might have been leap blowers, I don't know what it was.

We actually actually operated a 300 gallon a minute stream on this one spot that kept burning at this fire, and it was like it had no effect on it because the the agents that are needed for us are not available yet.

Right.

The best thing we can do is remove people from the danger as quickly as possible at these fires.

But I'm not saying in any way that you should be fearful of them.

I think it's an educational uh lift that we're going to have to undertake because they are more common than people think, and they're getting and it's the way it's gonna go.

I mean, who's how often do you see someone have a drill that they plug in?

They use a battery powered electric drill, a battery powered just about everything.

Right.

So it's so good.

The way I understood it is that these fires are rare, and when they do happen, they're mostly um due to misuse of the items.

So that you know, education would be key in this.

Yes.

It's that's kind of correct.

Uh, the reason they're rare, rarer than we think, there's less of them out there.

But the the number of devices that are gonna be using these, and it's the large amp batteries are the ones that really do it.

A cell phone can smoke, it can burst into flames, it could do a few things.

I've never seen one do it personally, but I've seen these other ones do it of the larger ampere and larger uh voltage batteries you see in like power tools and things of that nature, bikes and things in that nature.

But I don't fear them.

I think we just have to learn how they actually work and how we can work with them.

But we're gonna put out a PSA on it.

I I agree with you.

And if you can't fear them, but we have to learn how to use them.

So if you want to send them to my city email, and it's just R.

Morris, Stanford CT.gov.

You can contact me and I'll I will uh I will I'll work on it personally, be honest with you.

I I will do that, absolutely, and uh and I yield.

Thank you very much, um, Representative Camporelli.

Uh recognize representative field.

Go ahead and ask your question, please.

Thank you, uh, Chair Bouchard.

I actually just wanted to say thank you to the chief.

I thought that was an extremely informative presentation, and I really appreciated all of the detail and time you took and the logic in which it was delivered, and thank you for that.

It was super helpful.

Great.

Uh appreciate that.

Uh Representative Field.

Um Representative DLO.

Yes, your question, please.

Thank you.

Uh Mr.

Chair.

Uh I got a couple things.

Actually, um, I brought up with uh Lou De Rubis, uh director of Derubis, kind of about seeing if we could work on an ordinance.

Um, maybe focusing on I brought up the idea I'd have to look in and get into the legal counsel about either um you know, non-UL battery operated items was the direction I was thinking.

If we were the board supported that, um, of kind of heading in that direction, at least seeing if we can manage the sale and or repair of non-UL uh listed items, um, especially.

And I think that's something I can reach out to you as well about Rex.

Um, especially if there's you know, representing Camperelli expressed interest in that.

I'm happy to work with her on that as well and kind of get some more information on that, if that's something within our uh legal purview as a city and not a state issue.

Um and then kind of the other question I got.

Um what is the game plan with the tanker that was in the Capitol request um for up at you know, you mentioned about this tanker.

Um, is that gonna be staffed by Turn River?

Are you planning to have some people going um paid to staff that just kind of want to get some uh more information on that?

Two good questions, Matt.

I want to do the first one first.

So uh a um to get an ordinance, it's a good idea because New York City, you know, I copied a lot of things that New York City does because that's I worked there for 40 years.

What they did is they successfully dropped the number of fatal fires from I think six a year, eighteen a year, and hundreds of fires down to no fatal fires, a lot of fires still from those batteries by monitoring the places that sell these batteries and making sure they're not using the knockoff batteries.

Uh and that's a good, and I'll probably tag on to what they did as well.

That might not be a bad idea for an ordinance.

You know how ordinances go, though.

They may work and they may not, but it's a good idea.

Going back to the tanker and putting in for another request of capital money for a tanker.

Uh we actually have three of our own city tankers.

One is a long range tanker and two are turned river.

Turner Rivers old tanker is the oldest, one of the oldest rigs in the city.

Uh it's not worth fixing.

It's not even a modern type rig.

And I would like to replace it or get it replaced and work with Turner River as a partial.

They put in money, we put in money, similar to what we did with Belltown.

And it'll be a it'll be a Stanford City asset assigned to Turner River.

But as far as who mans it, it'll still be manned by Turner River because it's in their quarters.

So they're their volunteers can man it.

Maybe there'll be a uh workaround for other volunteers to man it, or maybe even the paid uh career guys to man it.

So it's not we're not looking for any additional manpower for that because the tanker pro uh the tanker program that we have is outstanding.

I mean, you've been part of it at fires and drills.

Uh it's made a it's made a big difference.

It's even made a big difference in our insurance rates uh uh for citywide uh service.

So our tankers are very successful.

I want to keep that three tankers of our own, plus the uh mutual aid tankers, and we can get 10 tankers on the road, it's very important.

So the answer to that is um we're not gonna ask for additional manpower for the tanker.

I'm looking for more people on a rescue company to do those search and rescues in all areas of the city.

Appreciate that response.

Thanks.

Well, I appreciate the question.

Um, Representative Caporelli, did you have another question?

I'm sorry, no, my hand was up from before I'll put it down.

All right, great.

Thank you very much.

So let's see other questions.

Uh, again, thank you very much, Chief Morris, for taking the time for your evening and giving this uh excellent presentation.

Um it's uh we really appreciate the outreach and and keeping all the members of the uh committee informed of the activities of the fire department uh is really critical.

So uh at this point, I had to entertain a motion to adjourn the meeting.

No move.

Second.

All right, appreciate it.

It was approved, and I adjourn the meeting at 7 53 this evening.

Thank you all for participating.

I look forward to seeing you all soon.

Thank you as well.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.