Volume 1, Issue 1

Chief’s Message 1/2

Recent Promo-tions

3

Visitors From Japan

4

Dept. Happen-ings

5

OEM 6

Fire Chief Ale 7/8

Training Division

9

Retiree’s 10

Recruits 2014 11

Tower Climb 12

Toledo Service 13/14

Birthdays 15

Oso 16

BFD Retirees 17

What’s Inside

April2014 Bugle Volume 12, 2nd EDITION

Fire Chief’s Message

Now that Daylight Savings Time is here again we can look forward to longer days, warmer weather and another round of Budget One within the City of Bellevue. While it might seem to those not directly involved with the City Budget process that budget development and monitoring is a year round activity, the official Bellevue Budget Kickoff was held on Tuesday, March 24, 2014. During the next four weeks, we will be busy writing budget proposals that will be reviewed and ranked by the Results Teams and ultimately considered for approval by the City Council in December. Their decisions will establish our budget for 2015-2016. The Finance Department began the budget process by researching and presenting an economic forecast for both the General Fund and Capital Improvements Program. The Reader’s Digest version of that extensive report is there is very little new money. Unlike the last two biennial budgets which required that all of the departments reduce expenditures, this budget will not require budget cuts but does not have revenues to support adding new resources. Despite the economic forecast, the department is drafting budget proposals to add resources and programs to maintain our current levels of service and allow the department to remain innovative, efficient and responsive to growth over the next two years. Budget proposals are due to the Results Teams by April 28th, and we will share the details of our proposals later in the month. A preview of some of the resources/programs we will be submitting include proposals to restore Engine Company capabilities to Station 7, funding for the

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From The Desk Of Deputy Chief of Operations Mark Risen

As March is gone and we are only mid-way through April, I wanted to take a breath and reflect on some of what we have been through collectively in the last several weeks. On March 22nd the small community of Oso was devastated by a massive mudslide. As I write this, 37 people are confirmed dead, and 7 are still missing. These numbers are statistically devastating to this small community. But as we all know so well, statistics are in reality people. Each is a life disrupted, dreams not fulfilled and a sense of loss for those left behind that will never heal. We are also reminded that tragedy is indiscriminate, mercilessly taking the young, old and all in between in a manner that is hard to justify or even begin to understand. However, as with any significant even of this kind, we were able to watch a system of response and recovery swing into action. As the call for assistance went out from Snohomish County, the City of Bellevue Fire Department (and many other City Departments) responded. From the Office of Emergency Management, Luke Meyers, Charles Bolanos, Jennifer Jennings-Carr and Sophie Lie assisted in various capacities, both in the field and at the Snohomish County Emergency Operations Center. With the Urban Search and Rescue Task Force activated, we have sent two waves of Operations personnel: Capt. Rich Christensen, Lt. Paul Davison, Firefighter Jeff Negrete and Firefighter/Engineer John Grace were deployed for the initial two weeks; Firefighter/Engineers Randy Hart and Dave Kast, along with Firefighter/Paramedic Paul Hyatt who are currently deployed.

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Bellevue CARES Program, resources for the Fire Prevention Division in response to the increase in development activity throughout the City, and funding for technology and mandated training activities. April also marks the end of the Recruit Academy. This year we hosted a Recruit Academy with candidates from four of the five EMTG agencies. A total of 18 new firefighters graduated on March 28, 2014, with ten new members from the Bellevue Fire Department. More detailed information on each of the ten new probationary firefighters can be found in Special Notice 14-020, and other articles in this edition of the Bugle. Please extend a warm welcome to our newest members of the Bellevue Fire Department Charlie Cooper, Miles Farrow-Johnson, Sean Hayes, Scott Lambert, Jarrod Larson, Russ Ordonia, Nathan Schaefer, Steve Seiwerath, Dan Sobole, and Josh Williams. As these new members of the department begin their probationary training, Recruit Class 2013-1 completed their probationary year with their one year test on March 6, 2014. All ten members of Class 2013-1 successfully completed their probationary year and it was my pleasure to Approve their transition from probationary to regular firefighters. Congratulations to both Recruit Classes.

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As we welcome new members of the department, we also say good bye, congratulations and best wishes to others. Battalion Chief Lou Faehnrich retired on March 31, 2014, marking more than 37 years of service. Lou has been assigned to nearly every division within the department and most recently served as the Acting Deputy Chief while Chief Risen served as the Acting Fire Chief in Woodinville. Lou will be missed by all of us who have worked with him over the last 37 years and we wish him the best as he begins the next chapter of his life. Lou’s retirement has resulted in three new promotions effective April 1, 2014. Andy Adolfson was promoted to Battalion Chief and has been assigned to B-1/A, Bill Evans has been promoted to Captain and has been assigned to Engine 9/B, and Andy Oltman has been promoted to Lieutenant and been assigned to Engine 1/ B. Additionally, Tony Dodson was promoted to Lieutenant on February 15, 2014 and was assigned to Engine 5/B . Again, Congratulations to our newly promoted Officers. On April 1st, three members of the department celebrated a significant milestone, namely the completion of 40 years with the Department. Don Cowdrey, Larry Lindenmayer and I joined the department in April of 1974. We join a select group that includes Paul Paylor and retired Lieutenant Joe Franco as the only members to complete forty years with the Department to date. Sadly, not all of the news is good.

(Continued from page 1) And we were also amazingly impressed by the outstanding work Lt. Richard Burke did as one of the most visible and articulate PIO’s one could ask for. He was relieved by Lt. Troy Donlin, who continued this fine effort. Just as we were getting our feet on the ground during this event, tragedy struck locally. At approximately 1:20 a.m. on Monday April 7th, a structural response was sent to 141st and SE 8th street. Engine 2 (Lt. Todd McLean, Firefighters Nick Kramer and Chad Egger) and Aid 2 (Firefighters Matt Crabtree and Mark Pan) arrived to find a well involved townhouse, with a frantic mother indicating a trapped child on the 2nd floor. Engine 2 and Aid 2 immediately launched an interior attack under extremely tough conditions. They reached the 2nd floor, quickly found the 3 year old victim and removed the patient to Medic 2 staffed by Firefighter Paramedics Ty Warren and Steve Medina. With the Aid 2 firefighters aboard, they transported to Harborview. Sadly, and despite some incredible effort on our part, the child did not survive this event. While one can take all that happened at these two separate, but tragic events and rightfully let them overwhelm our sense of humanity, I also walk away from them inspired by the dedication and professionalism of our personnel that were involved. In each instance, people stepped up and did what needed to be done to provide the best chance for the best outcome possible. While we are often not in control of that ultimate outcome, some comfort should be found in the fact that, without hesitation, “we did our best”. And for that, I could not be more proud of the collective and individual effort put forth by the members of this organization. In talking with those involved, it was obvious that these incidents had a strong personal impact; and given the scope of each, I am not surprised. I will only ask that you each remember that we need to take care of ourselves and each other at least as well as the citizens we protect. Thank you once again for the outstanding service that you provide.

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BFD promotions 2013

Fire Chief’s Message Continued from page 2: As many of you have undoubtedly heard retired Lieutenant John Fox’s long battle with cancer has resulted in his untimely death on Monday April 14, 2014 . Several weeks ago, John posted the following message on his Facebook page. In John’s own words, posted on his Facebook page, he says,

To all of my, home, fire department and Facebook families. I was told the other day that I am at The end of life, no more options exist for me to receive treatments for my cancer. I have from a couple of weeks to at best a couple of months to live! I wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of you (sorry not individually!) for touching my life in some way, it is all of you that helped me in my 10+ battle with this disease! And form me into who I am. It was a great . . . run with no regrets. A 40+ Fire Service career, a wonderful family, great friends, married to the love of my life, being at my daughters and sons wedding and working a dream job! Hard to ask for more. I could go on and one but I know you get the just of it! As I look out over the beautiful sunrise, holding the love of my life’s hand, I take solace knowing I was blessed in this life as I will be in the next! Thank you all! God bless, and see you in the next life! John Fox, Be Safe! Always do the right thing!

Please keep John, Becky and his family in your hearts and prayers.

Captain Bill Evans

Lieutenant Andy Oltman

Battalion Chief Andy Adolfson

Lieutenant Tony Dodson

Japanese Physician and students visit Bellevue Fire

Dr. Hideharu Tanaka believes the Bellevue Fire Department’s emergency medical services system to be the best in the world, and didn't hesitate to travel with eight students of his Kokushiakn University students for more than 9 hours by plane from Tokyo to prove it! Dr. Tanaka and his students spent time with the crews at station 2 as well as Superbowl Sunday at the individual medic units. The group also visited with Bellevue Police.

We have a rich history as an organization, help us capture it. Dig out those photos and help us create the 50th anniversary at BFD

Welcome to a new member of the Fire Prevention Division!

Clint Haymond has over 15 years of experience in the fire service and fire prevention. He started his career as a firefighter in the Salt Lake County area and has been the Fire Marshal for Salt Lake Community College for the past 7 years. Clint is from Salt Lake City and enjoys spending time with his son and 2 daughters.

The 2013 Annual Fire Prevention

Report is available!

Explorer and Intern helps Bellevue Fire with 50 years of photo history!

Fire Explorer Justice Richards worked in conjunction with the Big Picture School to help our department with our 50 years of photo processing. Justice reviewed thousand of slides and photos to start putting our history into a digital format. Justice also was able to make a presentation at Career day and discuss his dream of working in the fire service with the students at his schools. Thanks for all the help Justice!!

Mike was awarded the “Golden Pretzel” in

concert with 25 years with BFD

FF Doug Halbert in his youth

Son of Faun & Carrie

Bellevue OEM is Recruiting for its 1st ever Citizen Corps Council!

The City of Bellevue Office of Emergency Management is proud to announce the first of many opportunities for citizens to get involved:! What is Citizen Corps council? Citizen Corps is a national network of volunteers fo-cused on preparedness, loosely coordinated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Cities form their own Citizen Corps councils. Bellevue’s council will advise the city’s Office of Emergency Management on public education and outreach, and assist with the adaptation and promotion of the following programs for 2014:

Map Your Neighborhood (MYN), a state-run pro-gram designed to help citizens organize their neighborhood block. Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT), a series of classes that teach citizens the skills to save lives during and after a disaster. The Citizen Corps Council will also work in conjunction with our current Eastside Amateur Radio Sup-port (EARS) group, who provide auxiliary communications support to Bellevue and agencies served by Bellevue's 911 Communications Center during a disaster or emergency.

In other words, citizens will basically be the Avengers of community preparedness. (No decisions yet on who gets to be the Hulk.) We are looking for 14 individuals who have a passion for prepared-ness, desire leadership roles in their community, and are looking to sharpen their skills to re-spond to a catastrophic event. What will the council do? Council members will each represent 1 of the 14 neighborhood analysis areas as designated by Bellevue OEM’s Community Profile. They will meet on an every other month basis for meetings facilitated by me, Sophia Le, the Public Education & Outreach lead, at City Hall and assist with outreach events, help organ-ize neighborhood blocks, and overall promotions of preparedness activities. During a catastrophic event, we will look to council members for information about their neighborhood area. Applications are due April 18th, 2014 and can be requested at oempubliced@bellevuewa.gov or through our online form. Please spread the word! Sophie Le, Public Education & Outreach Lead

Do you know which crews were on this incident?

Tell us your story... We have had our members deployed and responding to a number of “once in a career” type incidents. Help us learn from those experiences.

Station 3 “Delivers” Once Again!

On New Year’s Eve at 23:03, in the midst of a thick pea soup fog, PFF Earle and FF Dhanens (A3) arrived first on scene to a “delivery in progress” at a single family residence. Upon our arrival, mother was stable but baby was already crowning. Thanks to excellent training received on childbirth and a healthy mother, we were fortunate to have a textbook delivery within 5 minutes of arrival. The mother managed to be so quiet that the 2 year old sleeping in the room next door never even woke up (the father’s first request upon the arrival of A3, L3, MSO7, and M23 was that we not wake the 2 year old…we aim to please! Yesterday, that same family stopped by Station 3 to say hello. We suggested they name the baby ‘Earle,’ but mom and dad opted for a much more complicated name I don’t know how to pronounce. I know not all deliveries will be such joyous occasions, but I’m thankful that this one could be my first. I certainly couldn’t have asked for a better way to spend New Year’s Eve. Firefighter Maia Earle

Pictured on the right, with responding crew, is a 29 year old female who suffered a cardiac arrest on Super Bowl Sunday. According to her, she was watching the game with a group of friends when in the 2nd quarter at the time the Seahawks intercepted a pass from Payton Manning and ran it back for a touchdown, she jumped up, high-fived her friends and collapsed to the ground. Enter Aid 3 (Dave Brown), who shocked her into a per fusing rhythm. She was transported to OHMC by Medic 2 and outside of memory loss of the event, suffered no deficits. She attended the February Medic Meeting want-ing to say, “thanks” to the Bellevue Fire Depart-ment. What a peach!

Overtime Form Has A New Look & Telestaff OT Codes…

Have you had a chance to read Special No ce 14-017? A quick review states that the FD310 Over me Form has been updated. All Non-staffing Over me “Other” (e.g. off-duty training, mee ngs, etc.), require a completed FD310 form. TThere may be a chance the form will be returned to you or your BC if the form is not complete. Please check it for accuracy regarding me worked, hours, lunch break and the OT code. Another change is how the forms are entered. To help alleviate extra steps, we ask that any Over me Other (those with a “2” - “9” code) only be entered into TeleStaff by the Fire HQ mekeeper.

What has not changed? A few years back department members were no longer required to submit an Over me Report for staffing over me. (everything with “1” code). All “Opera onal” Over me will con nue to be entered into TeleStaff and managed through the Ba alion Office. No FD310 form is required.

With the form update, comes the opportunity to “clean-up” Over me Other TeleStaff Codes. Please take a moment to visit the Fire Administra on SharePoint site to ensure you have the most up to date OT codes list to put on your OT Other form.

Refer to Special No ce 14-014 for details regarding the FD310 form. If you have any ques ons, please email or contact Bobbi Lane at x4462

This is a “Power Swing” to tap these

kegs!

By Captain Bill Larson

I don’t know about the rest of you; but, when I signed on to be a pro-fessional firefighter nearly 35 years ago I knew the job was inherently dangerous. After all, there’s that old cliché about firefighters running towards things that most other people run away from, right? Back then the concerns were mostly about being burned or experiencing some sort of orthopedic injury from the work we do. I didn’t realize how sig-nificant our knowledge of those job hazards would evolve over the years. The dangers are still there as they relate to the effects of fire and stren-uous work on our bodies. The more sinister, sometimes unforeseen, hazards are those related to the things we may not see or specifically identify. I’m talking about the stuff we breathe in, absorb through our skin, or ingest on the various incidents we go to. There is now a bright-er light being shined on these exposure hazards. In October of 2013 results were published regarding a study conducted through the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). This study analyzed cancers and cancer deaths through 2009 from about 30,000 firefighters from Chicago, Philadelphia and San Francisco fire departments who were employed since 1950. This study came to a couple of significant conclusions:

Cancers of the respiratory, digestive, and urinary systems accounted mostly for the higher rates of cancer seen in the firefighters studied. The higher rates suggest that firefighters are more likely to develop these cancers. The firefighter’s studies had a rate of mesothelioma two times greater than the rate in the U.S. pop-ulation as a whole. This was the first study to identify an excess of mesothelioma in U. S. firefight-ers. Researcher said that it was likely that the findings were associated with exposure to asbestos, a known cause of mesothelioma.

I could bore you with a lot of numbers and graphs; but, that’s not the point of my writing this article. The point is to make you even more aware of the potential hazards you face each day that you come to work, and to pro-vide some simple advice on steps you might consider that may mean you don’t find yourself as the subject of some future study of firefighter mortality. Simply stated you can increase your protection by following some pretty easy steps:

When you go on a call with any potential for breathing something nasty make sure you wear your breathing apparatus. It’s the gold standard in respiratory protection; but, it does you absolutely no good sitting the compartment of the rig. Wearing it should become so automatic that you feel un-comfortable at a fire without it. Properly launder your turnouts, and anything else you wear into a fire or hazmat call, as soon as you can, preferably upon return to the station. Don’t forget your hood and the uniform you wore underneath the PPE. If your turnouts and helmet are soot drenched and smell like the last fire you were at they are not badges of experience they’re an advertisement of your own ignorance of per-sonal health and safety. Wash your hands and face as soon as possible, and take shower as soon as you return to the sta-tion. Some of the cancers are thought to be caused by ingesting carcinogenic agents. This means we’re eating them! This is probably from having them on our hands and face and then eating before washing. Consider wearing EMS gloves if eating something in rehab!

The toxic nature of the air in and around a working fire is not unlike a hazardous materials response and we should keep that in mind when decontaminating from our activities at those fires. If you’re interested in looking into this subject further you might consider researching this particular study. I’m warning you, it’s an in-depth study so be prepared to spend some time analyzing the information. Be safe, Bill Larson

2013 Retirees

Battalion Chief Lou Faehnrich

Firefighter Paramedic Dennis Olsen

Thank you for raising..

$6,479.54!! Enough to send...

Welcome to the Bellevue Fire Department Recruit Class 1-2014

Charlie Cooper Miles Farrow-Johnson Sean Hayes Scott Lambert

Dan Sobole Jarrod Larson

Russ Ordonia Steve Seiwerath Nathan Schaefer Josh Williams

2014 BFCSF Scholarship Winners Announced Your BFCSF recently awarded $2,000 in scholarship money to f our high school seniors of Bellevue Fire members. This years’ recipients are:

Alec Scappini (Jim Scappini, retired) Alexa Gerard (Scott Gerard, FPO) Carson Swart (Dave Swart, SA B Plt) Nicholas Flores (Mike Flores, FF/Eng A Plt)

The Foundation has been pleased to have provided these one-time scholarships to our graduating seniors for the past 12 years. We are continually impressed with the high level of scholarship and community involvement our young people have shown. It’s very encouraging to see what our children have done and the great potential they have to shape our future. Any dependent of a City of Bellevue Fire Department employee, that is currently a high school senior, is eligible. Any money awarded students will be sent directly to the educational institution. It can be a Voc. Tech., Community College

Can You Name This Former Medic?

A big thank you to everyone who took on this challenge for a great cause with a special shout out to Mike Williams for all his work to make this event a success!

The 2014 Leukemia Tower Climb Raised $20,500!

Keeping The Team Organized!

Paying Tribute To Those Lost By Captain Dean Harn I t all started Wednesday morning with a call from Andy Oltman asking me if I want-ed to represent the Bellevue Fire Department at the memorial service for privates Stephen A. Machcinski and James Dickman of the Toledo Fire Department, Local 92. I said I would be honored to, by the way who am I going with? Andy told me Tim Yaw and I said ok let’s make this happen. Next thing I know it’s Thursday afternoon, I meet Tim at his house and we’re on our way to SeaTac airport. The usual scan by a TSA agent and I’m picked out of the line up to have another agent thoroughly go through my car-ry on and my garment bag, even though it is clearly marked Bellevue Honor Guard “Commander Harn”. Ap-parently that’s the only place where that title doesn’t carry any weight. Now Tim and I are on the plane to our first stop at Chicago’s O’hare airport where we would spend a short 3 hour layover. While in a restaurant getting some dinner, we meet a couple Army guys and quickly strike up a conversation that helps to pass the time, they too were on a 3 hour layover before heading to Wisconsin for some field training. Noticing the time was getting close to our departure times, we all said our good byes and headed to our flight gates. Upon arriving at our gate, half an hour early mind you, Tim asked the desk jockey if we were indeed at the right gate, his reply was “why yes you are”. So Tim and I took a seat about 15 feet from the desk. We noticed a plane taxi up to the door and passengers unload. Now at about 5 minutes before our flight was set to leave we got nervous and Tim asked the desk jockey when our flight was to board, his answer was “didn’t you hear the page? Your flight took off from a different gate about 30 minutes ago”. Tim’s reply was “uh, obviously not because I’m here talking to you and not on the plane”. So he said “the best I can do is get you on a flight tomorrow afternoon to Toledo”, which we in-formed him that wouldn’t work. He typed on his machine for a few minutes and said there was a flight that was headed to Detroit that would that would leave in 3 hours and would get us there by 0100 am. I looked at Tim and said “Detroit at 1 in the morning, what could go wrong?” “We said fine we’ll take it”. Another 3 hour wait, this time we waited right next to the desk jockey to make sure we heard all the announcements. During our 3 hour layover, Tim is trying to get our car rental changed to have us pick up the car in Detroit instead of Toledo. Everything was fine until the agent said that the change would cost us an additional $800. Apparently it costs $800 to drive the car back to Detroit from Toledo. By the way, it’s only about a 45 minute drive. Tim said well we’ll talk to you when we get there. Arriving in Detroit, we headed for the rental buses to take us to the car lots. After standing at the bus stop in the snow for 15 minutes, another rental car company’s bus told us that the company we’re waiting for doesn’t run after midnight and that he would give us a ride. Arriving at the car lot, we discussed the $800 deal with the agent and why we needed to pay so much. Apparently when Tim arranged for us to pick up the car in Detroit while wait-ing for our second flight out of Chicago, no one told the Detroit office. So after about 20 minutes of trying to figure out who dropped the ball, he said “why don’t I just cancel the deal and start over and it will actually save you about 20 bucks”. Well why not, make it happen. So off to Toledo airport we go to get Tim’s luggage that made it on the flight. We make it to the airport at about 0230am only to find that the airport was closed. Of course. So now we’re off to our hotel making it there at about 0300am we finally got to bed. Thursday morning. We head back to the Toledo airport to retrieve Tim’s luggage and were successful this time. Back in Toledo we go out and scout out the area; it’s a balmy 1 degree. The Maumee River and the part of Lake Erie we can see are frozen solid. Now the cold is hitting me harder because I’ve recently lost some weight and that means less body fat to insulate me. We go to the convention center and it looks impressive. They have 2 fire engines draped in black in there that the two fire fighters worked off of, a huge stage, flowers all over and seating for 5000. They really did it up nice for our fallen brothers. I got a chill just being in there. That night we donned our class B’s and headed back to the center. 5000 seats and they were are full, mostly with uniformed fire fighters. It started off with the flags being marched in followed by the bagpipers, then the chief got up and spoke. He talked about both firefighters and then gave the podium to two other firefighters who each told stories of their fallen brothers. It was a very moving ceremony. Continued on next page...

After the ceremony, we were invited by the Toledo firefighters to toast their fallen brothers with at a few local rehydration establishments, which we couldn’t refuse. There were firefighters from all corners of our country and Canada. And boy do they love to toast. Apparently there is a Bellevue Ohio, so no one really paid any attention to Tim and me until they found out we were from Bellevue Washington. Then they were grateful that we had come from so far away to pay tribute to their guys and thanked us with drinks, quite a few drinks. Friday. Tim and I met a Detroit firefighter at the rehydration establishment the night before and he invited us up to Detroit to see his town, so we did. We talked to few guys up there and they said that they only ran 7 calls the would take us to Chicago’s O'Hare. While on the plane, the flight attendant took a liken to Mr.Yaw. all I heard the flight attendant say as Tim was handed a drink was, “I always buy the sexiest man on the airplane a drink”. Way to go Tim. I can’t remember the name of the flight attendant, you’ll have ask Tim for more details on that. Now we’re sitting on the tarmac at O'Hare waiting for the plane in our stall to get de-iced, that by the way took one hour and forty minutes. People on the plane were worried they wouldn’t make their connecting flights, but Tim and I knew that we had plenty of time. Finally we get off the plane and head to the gate that the flight attendant told us to go to. Getting there and having some troubles before, we went straight to the desk and asked if we were at the correct gate. The answer was “no, you guys need to be at the other end of the airport and you need to get there soon. So we started a brisk walk towards the other end of the airport when we heard over the airport loud speaker “will passengers Tim Yaw and John Harn report to your gate immediately, you flight will leave in one minute”. Tim got an early jump on me and looked like OJ Simpson in his airport commercial, jumping over things and dodging people. I could have stayed up with him but I had to stop and help and elderly couple with their bags. Tim got to the gate just as they were closing the doors to the airplane. When I got there I could taste blood in my lungs. I think it was because I wasn’t able to properly stretch before the run. Finally on the plane we got to sit again on the tarmac while they were plowing the snow off the runway. All in all it was a great trip.

It would be great to receive articles, pictures and information from the

Truck and Engine Companies about new programs or training tips. What is your crew doing to “raise the bar”? Let us

know.

Can You Name These

3 Musketeers?

Can You Name These Fires?

Don Cowdrey Blaine Singleton Steve Willis Nanette Hayes Rich Christensen Chuck Heitz Chris Marsh Jeff Byrd Steve G Thomas John Harn Mon Park Mike Flores

Randy Hart Mark H Anderson Luke Gilbertson Jon Nielsen Darren Rainey Bryan Adams Brian Fialdini Mark Pan Luke Steere Nathan Schaefer

Ron Moses Steve P Thomas Carole Harper Dave Kast Dean Harm John McNeill

Greg Wilson Bobbi Lane Tyron Warren Brian Snyder Andrew Schneider Brian Regalado

Phil Pierson Art Cole Doug Milligan Steve Swarthout Cindy Pancerzewski Pat Nipert Zan Teague Tim Willmorth

John Sobieski Will Dunne Brian Grant Sean Sturgeon Clint Haymond Sean Allen Dan Sobole

Ms. Nannette becomes a 1st time

Grandma!

Ashlynn Mae Congrats!

1.2 miles, 760 acres, 70 million cubic tons of material. Facts and figures that help to describe the dev-astation that occurred on March 22nd at 10:37 a.m. in Oso Washington. What these numbers don’t describe is the loss that occurred, and the impact that loss represented to families of this small rural community. Visualize standing at the top of Somerset, facing west and all of the western face of the hill side slides away, over the top of Factoria, across SR 405 and interstate 90, through the Enatai area and into Lake Washington. No land marks exist. 10 to 80 feet of debris covers the entire area. And it will be dark in 6 hours. Within hours members from the Bellevue Fire Department deployed with USAR in support of Search and Rescue operations on the Darrington side of the 530 slide. These members arrived in “small town USA” to a chaotic situation and a community devastated by the loss of so many. Their actions led to a num-ber of rescues and recoveries throughout the days and weeks that followed. This team was part of the initial “incident Command” structure that established the plan that would set course for the entire oper-ation. Sunday March 30th Public Information Officers from the Bellevue Fire and Police departments, Lt Rich-ard Burke and Officer Carla Iafrate were deployed in support of the Joint Information Center (JIC) lo-cated in the town of Arlington, Washington. Lt Burke arrived for the 0600 operations briefing to preview the days goals and challenges. With mini-mal direction and 30 minute drive, Lt Burke arrived at the Oso Fire Station to coordinate an exchange of duties from the outgoing incident commander. The feeling of loss was palpable in this rural volunteer fire station. After a cup of coffee and a few handshakes locals provided instructions to “drive a few more miles to the East” where the magnitude of the devastation became clear. Linking up with the inci-dent commander, you could see the fatigue in his eyes and the intensity of his dedication to support this community. Media had been managed on a “when time allows” basis. It became clear that the news outlets would be critical to generating continued support for the efforts, while respect for those lost and the families that arrived every day in search of their loved ones needed to be preserved. Officer Iafrate was deployed the same day at 1700 hours and arrived to the Arlington JIC. Immediately she was redeployed to assist with operations and media communications on the Darrington side which is now a two-hour drive following the SR 530 destruction. Officer Iafrate arrived in Darrington after dark to the volunteer Darrington fire station, which was now the “eastside” operations headquarters. I walked into the make-shift communications area, which consisted of tables set up in the bay areas where the fire engines would regularly have been parked. There were five PIOs working on laptops that looked up when I walked into the room and were happy to see reinforcements. The PIO team was just about to have the 2030 evening communications briefing. I was told that I would be providing me-dia escorts out to the “debris field” for interviews with operation specialists and photographs. After this briefing, I needed to find a place to stay for the next five days. What followed was six days of sharing the story of community, loss, destruction and memories of fami-lies lost. As we sat and talked with family members about what existed prior to, what was now being described as, the “530 slide”, it became clear that this small tight-knit community held a special bond of history and traditions. Our responsibilities first and foremost were to the families; to share accurate and appropriate stories to the media of who they were and how they would try and rebuild their lives.

530 Slide: A PIO Perspective By Lieutenant Richard Burke

Life after Bellevue Fire: Retiree’s Corner

Hi Everyone, Hope all is well with all of you and still enjoying the everyday life of the Fire Service. It has been over two years since I left and I cannot tell you how fast that has been. The life off of the red trucks and laughs at shift changes is one that is full of surprises and different experiences. Instead of a dispatchers voice telling me where to go I listen to an inner voice that gives me directions to places I never thought I would be a few years ago. For many of us who have left, it has been a calling to many different destinations and adventures. I chose to leave to begin another career in finance and be independent of the ties of having a job. It has been a true blessing to be able to be in control of my life in so many areas. I have and will continue to use the lessons I learned from being firefighter/paramedic and apply them to what areas of my life that it can help in finding a solution to a situation or problem. I get asked frequently from people who have never served in the FD what it was like and how in the world did I end up in whatever place they are seeing me at. I usually laugh and tell them God does work in mysterious ways, just try to follow mine and you will see how great it is when you give it to Him to lead you. Since I have left, I married the girl who makes me forget myself and motivates me to bring every dream she has had come true. I have traveled around the world, worked with Indian Christians who are literally killed for expressing their faith, talked to missionaries who have been imprisoned and tortured. I have become friends with a 26yr old who has created a process for mapping genomes that helps in curing cancer. Debbie and I have had the opportunity to help military families that have suffered from the many stresses that come from serving in combat. I have been mentored by financial leaders on how investing really is a game against yourself and learned of a man who made seven million by trading shares of American Airlines from the moment the first plane hit the twin towers to the time of the second impact then donated the money (all of it) to the survivors of 9/11. I have been able to spend time working with Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission in helping gang members to become permanent former gang members. Listened to an Italian evangelist (with passion that can only come from being Italian) who has taken on the Sicilian mafia and who worked with ambassadors from around the world combating hunger in third world nations. And for fun, sat in Fenway Park and watched a game and laughed so hard it hurt listening to them yell at each other and the ball players. The world of finance has also taken me to places, experiences and challenged truths that I thought were rock solid. It makes you look at the world in many different perspectives. In my travels I have found that besides the true need for the gospel there has been the need for financial literacy. It empowers people to live life on their own terms. Using the skills I have been given from the FD has helped greatly in this. I guess my main point is this, I would have never met or experienced all of the above if I had not left the fire service. It was no small leap of faith to leave the fire service. The sense of financial security is nice to have. I cannot think of too many other professions that are more self-satisfying. The fire service provided me with giving me the confidence, communication skills and untold opportunities to be challenged in ways few are. But I do want those who have always thought about leaving to give it serious thought as to why you are. The world is full of stories to be told with you being a part of them. There is a path for all of us to follow and each of us make decisions each day on which way to step. Don’t be afraid if you feel you are being called for whatever reason to leave before retirement. It may give you an adventure that you never thought of. I have loved mine. I pray for all of you daily and please know many others are also who have worked or been impacted by the services you provide. Debbie is my biggest blessing and she always keeps me up to date on how things are. I miss you all and I always enjoy the times when I am given the opportunity to see some of you. Respectfully,

Bob Rossie