Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory Worked 213 Incidents In October

Along with approval of board members and fire chief for 2020, the Warsaw-Wayne Fire Protection Territory heard the fire department had 213 responses in October, including an arson. Fire Chief Mike Wilson said among the 213 responses was a vehicle fire on Biomet property, a couple of trash fires and a mulch fire. One of the assists to other agencies was to Explorer Van at 2749 N. Fox Farm Road. “We went and assisted them. I do not have a dollar amount of loss in that, however, we did complete the investigation, along with Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office detectives,” Wilson said. He said it was an incendiary fire and it was proved it was an arson case. The KCSO is doing the interviewing investigation. Medical calls the fire territory responded to included 64 by station 1, 53 by station 2 and 20 by station 3. Motor vehicle rescues, involving injuries, totaled three responses by station 1, two by station 2 and two by station 3. Firefighters had 960 training hours in October. Another report to the board covered events per category. Under non-personnel attendance per event type, Wilson said it was a breakdown of where firefighters went, provided public education to and the number of persons spoken with. “You know I’ve been talking about what firefighter Max Kinsey and the public education crew have been doing with kids. And you will see this is a large amount of children that we have been able to visit in the month of October within the school system,” Wilson said. He said a total of 2,896 people were reached in October in fire public education. “We won’t be in school as much each month, but as our continual goal for 2020 is to be able to start working to be in businesses throughout the community and to the nursing homes, the residential areas, the assisted livings and being able to educate people about fire and life safety,” Wilson said. Councilman and board member Mike Klondaris asked if this was a new approach. Wilson said the program has been there, but “with our customer service outreach, it’s going to grow.” Klondaris said he thought that was “great.” Brandon Schmitt, board member, asked what the “Learn Not to Burn” program was. Wilson said the program was duplicated from an Allen County program. It takes care of students in kindergarten to sixth grade. During the meeting, the board members agreed to continue to serve for another one-year term in 2020. The provider unit appointments – from the mayor’s office and city council – are Mayor Joe Thallemer and Klondaris. The participating unit appointments are Jeanie Stackhouse and Gordon Nash. Those four members approved for Schmitt, a former firefighter, to continue to stay on the board as his position requires approval from both the provider and participating units. The board also approved a recommendation for Wilson to continue as fire chief. The oaths of office for the board will be held at the January meeting.