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Posts Tagged Rockford Fire Department

Rockford Fire Department news

Jul 30

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | Comments off

Excerpts from wifr.com:

Rockford’s Fire Department is one of the first in the country to use drone technology to help with controlling fires and investigating them afterwards.

“It can stitch together a live map while you’re flying it, so basically you can have a damage assessment almost immediately available after flying it over a large area,” says Rockford Fire Leutenant, Trevor Hogan.

After recording footage, firefighters can make 3-D models of fire scenes.

The fire department mainly uses this technology for large building fires like the recent Hanley Building and two fires in vacant buildings on 7th St. in downtown Rockford. All three of those fires are still under investigation.

“You’re just collecting information/data that can be used at many different stages of the fire. Information can be used to keep people safer, firefighters safer,” says Hogan.

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Rockford Fire Department news

Jul 19

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | 1 Comment

Excerpts from wrex.com:

There are two 911 call centers in Winnebago County, one for the county and one for the City of Rockford. 

The city and county continue to look at ways to be more efficient and collaborative, and one thing that is moving forward is consolidation of the two call centers. 

The fire department says it’s focused on technology first, and that could take as long as 18 months, but if the two centers combine, Fire Chief Derek Bergsten says it’s the citizens who benefit. 

“The biggest thing that citizens would have is they would have one answering point. They make one phone call, all the 911 calls come to one location, you don’t have to be transferred, it will be handled more efficiently and quickly, and then have less chance for errors,” said Bergsten.

Bergsten says there would still be the same number of dispatchers, so it’s not necessarily a cost-saving measure. 

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Rockford Fire Department news

Jul 8

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Excerpts from wifr.com:

Finding out what or who is sparking fires in vacant buildings in Rockford is the fire department’s top priority.

Rockford Fire Department Division Chief Matt Knott says it’s “clear we have a fire problem” after a fourth vacant building was destroyed in an early morning fire on Thursday. The first fire happened at the old Hanley Furniture building on June 25th, followed by a fire on 7th Street a week later on July 2. On July 4, a third Rockford downtown building caught fire in the 800 block of South Main Street.

Investigators are actively working on finding the cause of a fire in the 600 block of 7th Street, the site of Thursday’s fire. Three of the four walls of the building collapsed.

The fire department says they are treating all the fires as independent events and have confirmed that there was no electricity in either the Hanley Building or the fire on South Main Street. Division Chief Knott says arson remains a possibility with some of the fires, but they are not ruling out other causes.

thanks Dan

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Rockford Fire Department news

May 18

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Excerpts from wrex.com:

The Rockford Fire Department was given the green light to purchase four new ambulances.  Rockford Fire Chief Derek Bergsten says the new ambulances will replace old vehicles that frequently break down due to wear and tear. The four ambulances cost $1,096,736 and will be paid for through the Fire Department Capital Budget. 

thanks Dan

This from the Fire Service, Inc. Facebook page:

We would like to thank Chief Derek Bergsten and the City of Rockford Fire Department on their order of 4 new Wheeled Coach Type 1 Ford F450 4×4 ambulances. These will compliment the existing Wheeled Coach fleet with the reliable Cool Bar HVAC system, Knox Med Vaults, Hoseline temperature control cabinets and other customizations to enhance the delivery of EMS to the City. We’re pleased to have the City of Rockford FD as part of the Fire Service, Inc. family. Delivery late summer.

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Rockford Fire Department news

Apr 20

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Excerpts from mystateline.com:

“Everybody has that on the job. Everybody always has two or three calls that they’re going to remember.”

Rockford Fire Department Chief Derek Bergsten on the traumatic events that firefighters encounter in the line of duty. And although they all go home at the end of the day, he says sometimes, those experiences can have a lasting effect.

“We know that once you’re hired on the Rockford Fire Department or any fire or police, that you are going to see things that are going to impact your life, that are going to be engrained in your memory for the rest of your life,” said Chief Bergsten. “The big thing we really want to focus on now is how do you deal with that.”

That’s one reason the Rockford Fire Department has produced a new video. It’s an attempt to get firefighters to discuss traumatic stress they often hold inside. One of the biggest challenges they face is removing the stigma of needing help.

Dan DeGryse has been in the mental health field for the last thirty years, and has been with the Chicago Fire Department for 28 years. He is currently the director of the Florian Program at Rosecrance-one that is specifically tailored to attend to emergency personnel who understand where they’re coming from.

“You can really just have a conversation. That’s how treatment starts. It starts with a conversation,” said DeGryse. “We have to make it okay and when I say we, I mean everyone in the fire service, and the police and the military to get checked.”

Chief Bergsten saying it’s important those struggling know they’re not alone.

“You know, at the end of the day, everyone is a human being and we need to make sure that we provide the best support for those individuals.”

Rosecrance will be holding it’s second annual Florian Symposium September 21-22.

It’s a 2-day training for firefighters, police officers, EMS providers, military personnel, clinicians, and others where they will learn more about mental health, trauma, and peer support.

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Rockford Fire Department news

Apr 1

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Excerpts from wrex.com:

Rockford Fire Chief Derek Bergsten says that response times have been an issue for Station 7 on the city’s south side for years. It’s why the station is moving north, from the airport  into the fire maintenance facility on sawyer road.

“The amount of calls in that area has been increasing, so us not meeting those service demands has definitely had an impact on patients and on fire and EMS calls,” said Bergsten.

According to the 2016 Standards of Cover Report, Station 7 had the worst emergency response performance out of all the city’s stations, taking more than eight minutes to respond to 18% of its EMS calls. That’s twice as long as the benchmark standard of four minutes.

The project’s been in the works for almost ten years, but finally moved forward when MercyHealth announced its new campus on Rockford’s east side. It’s a collaboration the chief says will benefit the community in more ways than one.

“To build a brand new station and fully staff it, the city did not have those funds. So, this was an agreement that was met with the city and mercy to take those funds for permit fees to recommission the station,” said Chief Bergsten.

Chief Bergsten says they expect to move into the new station by August 1.

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Rockford Fire Department news

Mar 30

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Excerpts from wrex.com:

Rockford Fire Chief Derek Bergsten has been selected to join a national panel focused on the future of emergency medical services.  the EMS Agenda 2050.

Ten professionals with medical, fire and public health backgrounds will develop a roadmap of what the future of EMS holds for the country.

“I think the biggest idea is really linking up our emergency response to the entire health continuum. That involves the emergency room, the primary care physician that we’re all talking and working together to benefit that patient.”

Bergsten joins firefighters from LA, New York City and Boston on this panel. The first in-person meetings for the panel are scheduled for late 2017 in four cities across the country.

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Rockford Fire Department news

Mar 1

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Excerpts from the journal stand.com:

Rescue workers say a man who was kayaking in the Rock River near the Fordam Dam downtown will be OK after being pulled from the water.

Rockford firefighters were called to the area before noon Wednesday. A 46-year-old man in a kayak wearing a life preserver got caught in the strong current and needed to be pulled from the lower part of the dam. The cold temperature of the running water rendered the man unable to perform even the smallest effort, the Rockford Fire Department said.

Two men who were fishing on their lunch break from MegaFab helped rescue the man.

They drove from the west side of the river to the east bank, where they scaled a 10-foot fence with barbed wire at the top in order to reach the walk above the dam and drop the chain to the man.

They kept the man safe until firefighters arrived. The Rockford Fire Department described them as heroes in a news release.

Once firefighters arrived, they dropped a ladder and rescue rope down to the man. Two firefighters donned cold-water suits and went into the water to apply a rescue harness and help him up the ladder.

More with videos on the Rockford FD Twitter page

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Rockford Fire Department news

Mar 1

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Excerpts from mystateline.com:

“This fills a huge service gap, our largest for the city by relocating that station out at the airport more up to that Harrison (and) 11th St. area,” said Rockford Fire Chief Derek Bergsten, about the possibility of moving fire station number seven.

The relocation would mean the departments current repair shop on Sawyer Rd. would be replaced by station seven. The move would cost the city just over 1.2 million dollars, something Bergsten thinks is well worth the expense.

“Better response times, better coverage, and what that translates into is better protection for the whole city because now it keeps companies in there own still companies, instead of running into that area that has the high call volume,” he added.

Chief Bergsten says council has been supportive of the move. “They understand that we have not had any new facilities, any capital investment in over 25 years to the fire department,” Bergsten said.

“We want to make sure we keep them updated, make sure we keep things repaired in a nice clean order that everything functions properly,” he added.

thanks Dennis

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Cherry Valley Fire Protection District news

Jan 30

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Excerpts from WIFR.com:

Cherry Valley officially has a new fire chief. After a 28 year career with the Rockford Fire Department, Division Chief Joe Corl is leaving one role to accept another as the fire chief of the Cherry Valley Fire Protection District.

Chief Coral says the first things on the docket will be replacing some equipment, a maintenance program, and working hard on recruiting part time firefighters.

District Chief Michele Pankow a 24-year veteran of the Rockford Fire Department has been named the new division chief of operations for the Rockford Fire Department.

thanks Dennis

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