Fire Territory Board Hears Update On Palette Fire, CARES Program
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David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
Warsaw-Wayne Township Fire Chief Mike Wilson’s monthly report for December on Tuesday led to discussion on the Palette/Wyndham Gardens fire Dec. 17 and the growth of the fire territory’s Community Assistance, Resources & Emergency Services (CARES) program.
In December, the fire territory responded to a total of 311 calls, of which 214 were medical calls. Of the fire calls, the hotel/restaurant at 2519 E. Center St. had a value listed at $812,900 with $550,000 in damage from the fire.
“Mainly because of the smoke and water damage. So we had water damage inside the building, on the floor and in the whole restaurant area,” Wilson said. “When you have something like that, it also affects the kitchen so you have a large loss of food and whatever they have in storage.”
Structural-wise, Wilson said the fire was contained to the exterior of the building, specifically the front side of the building.
“Could not rule out an accidental electrical cause on that fire,” he said. “We’re very very lucky. Smart command decisions in the beginning to get a lot of people in to assist with that in the event that it did get into the roof line. Battalion Chief Brubaker was on duty. His crew, they maintained and kept that fire from moving into the structure, even getting into the roof line.”
Fire Territory Board member Brandon Schmitt asked if the sprinkler system at Palette/Wyndham Gardens activated at all.
“Actually, no,” Wilson replied. “There wasn’t even any smoke in the building until we opened the doors.”
He said how the fire was called in was that a hotel guest pulled in, walked in the front door and reported to a hotel employee that they either had a light or something burning in the opening between the two buildings where they’re connected.
“If that guest wouldn’t have come in, because there’s no detection to it until it would have gotten into the interior, we would have had a real fire,” Wilson said.
He said the fire crew did an awesome job of stopping the fire. Wilson and Schmitt compared the fire to the one that burned the former Ponderosa building and Gordy’s.
Wilson also reported there were 17 CARES calls in December.
Mayor Joe Thallemer asked, with the CARES program, if they were being dispatched by Kosciusko County Central Dispatch.
“Yes, we are. Or, we’ve had a couple people that are repeats that need assistance and they’re calling direct to Karen. So some of these phone calls are already starting to go into the 453-7901 phone number. The majority of these are being dispatched to us,” Wilson said.
“And those are the incidents that we looked at as we worked through this that were considered potential mental health type of calls?” Thallemer asked.
“That is correct. Some form or another,” Wilson said. “Then, between EMS Chief (Chris Fancil) and myself, we have a communication device and text message system that if we know it’s an individual associated with Fellowship Missions, it goes to that group; if it’s an individual associated with Bowen Center, then it goes to that group. Bowen Center, once we’ve passed that off to them, they make a response to see. But both of those agencies are pretty much instantaneous at answering us on our text message group, no matter what time of day or night or weekend.”
He said Central Dispatch is giving them the calls, and some of those calls are generated because law enforcement arrives on the scene of something they realize that Wilson or Fancil needs to attend to.
“It’s exactly working toward the design” that we had in mind, Wilson assured Thallemer.
Fancil said they are sent out on CARES calls in a variety of ways. One of them is through dispatch. Warsaw Police Department will ask them to come out now, he said.
“We’ve been dealing with some homeless issues. And the reason this program is so great is because it bridges mental health, homelessness, resource management and it just all kind of forms together,” Fancil said. “We’ve got great partnerships set up with Bowen, K21 Foundation, Fellowship Missions. Trying to bring those key people to the table so that we can make a phone call or text and get somebody involved.”
He said they had a woman the other day sleeping on a mattress in an abandoned building. The police department wasn’t really sure what to do with her, so Fancil went down there, interviewed her for about 10 minutes and got her back into a mental health facility and back to the care that she needs.
“One new thing we did add that’s kind of a new wrinkle is, when our guys go out and initiate any kind of a 911 response, if they think it’s a CARES situation, they’re flagging the chart. So then we get a report printed off every day on those follow-ups and we go out and follow up,” Fancil said.
“It’s kind of all coming together under one big umbrella,” he said. As it continues to grow, he said it’s a lot.
Thallemer said the discussion as they planned the CARES program was that it would really go slow to make sure they had all their partners and process.
“I appreciate that it’s starting out slow, but we’re attracting the intended types of calls so we can be most effective,” Thallemer said.
Wilson said he’s confirmed a new date for the Crisis Intervention Team training that Parkview Police Department is providing, which is Feb. 24-25. “We’re going to be the pilot program for that,” he said.
Thallemer asked for an explanation of the CIT training. Wilson said it’s a prelude to a 40-hour class that will be done in the fall. All frontline officers in the fire service will be going to it, along with other officers, and it will be opened up to Warsaw Police Department supervisors and the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office training officers.
“We’ve been asked to come out on suicidal kids, suicidal teenagers, adults that are dealing with homelessness and mental health crisis to helping people get wheelchair ramps built,” Fancil said, adding that the connections they’ve made with other agencies have become very important. “We’re just getting started.”
Thallemer said he knows the CARES program has started slow, but he anticipates the growth of it to be “pretty significant pretty quick. I think we’re in a good position to do what we set out to do and, again, the chief focus is to handle these incidents that come up in an emerging situation that require ... de-escalating defusing and getting everybody trained and having the resources to be able to move on. And that’s kudos to what you all have done and I’m really proud of what you have done, so thank you.”
