Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
Lake Township fire chief Brandon Rosebrock provided a response timeline for two recent house fires in Walbridge at the township’s latest trustee meeting on April 21.
The first fire occurred inside a vacant home at 205 Meadow Lane in the early morning hours of Feb. 27, while the second one occurred at 102 W. Union St. around 9:15 p.m. on March 22.
In response to the two fires, village council members in Walbridge spoke at their April 1 regular meeting about sending a letter to Lake Township, which serves the village’s fire needs, to get “a better understanding of what the village’s fire department does” in an effort to see if anything could have been done better.
While Walbridge mayor Ed Kolanko said the village is still working on drafting the details of that letter as of April 20, Rosebrock and Lake Township officials saw the article about the village’s meeting in the April 6 edition of The Press, and Rosebrock provided a detailed letter in response at the township’s meeting on April 21.
The full report, beyond what is listed below, is posted within the images in this story.
MEADOW LANE
For the first fire, the initial 911 call was received at 2:11:46 a.m. Lake Township and auto-aid units in Northwood, Allen-Clay, and Perrysburg Township were dispatched at 2:13:02. A second 911 call was received at 2:13:59 with a report that the house was fully engulfed.
The first Northwood fire engine was en route at 2:16:55. Lake Township’s Millbury station engine 28 was en route at 2:19:36. Northwood fire arrived on scene at 2:20:50. Lake Township’s Walbridge station engine 27 was en route at 2:22:11, and Perrysburg Township was en route at 2:23:53.
Water was on the fire at 2:24:06. Lake Township’s Millbury station medic was en route at 2:24:22. The main body of the fire was knocked down at 2:42:31 with the chimney collapsing at 2:51:03.
“Our first truck out of the Millbury station was on the road three minutes after Northwood,” Rosebrock said. “Being a volunteer department, I think that's pretty good considering people have to get from home into the station.
“The first truck that entered the Walbridge station was on the scene within 10 minutes of the time of call. I think all in all, it went pretty good. Considering the amount of fire that was already in the house before somebody even found it and called, it wouldn't have mattered if the fire station was right across the street. Nobody was awake to see it, and nobody called 911. The homeowners weren’t there. It just happened the guy (who called) was coming home.”
Rosebrock said he believes the insurance investigator said a ceiling fan was the cause of the first fire.
WEST UNION
The initial 911 call at the second fire was received at 9:24:01 p.m. with Lake Township and auto-aid units dispatched simultaneously 37 seconds later. Lake Township Chief 27 was en route at 9:26:58. Northwood fire was en route at 9:28:04, and there was a requested medic from the township en route at 9:28:29 because of a potential victim inside the house.
Rosebrock later said the victim was already out of the house when officials arrived on scene.
Perrysburg Township was en route at 9:29:13. Lake Township’s chief was on scene at 9:29:42, and their medic was there at 9:30:41. A second Lake Township engine was en route at 9:31:50. Northwood was on scene at 9:32:47. Another Lake Township engine was en route at 9:33:44, and water was on the house’s exterior at 9:33:44.
At 9:40:05 dogs were found in the house. At 9:41:30, a search brought out the first dog. At 9:47:55, a second dog was brought out.
The third dog was also found, but it didn’t survive after all three were transported to the emergency vet.
Rosebrock said that fire is under investigation right now by the state’s fire marshal office, so he couldn’t go into further detail.
A resident asked who decides to get the state fire marshal involved, and Rosebrock said the local fire department will do that if they feel anything is suspicious.
“If we feel that something isn’t right, we turn it over to them and let them handle it because if something criminal turns up out of it, it’s better to have them (do it),” Rosebrock said.
ONE FULL-TIME MEMBER
Rosebrock and Lake Township’s trustees stressed that only Chief Rosebrock is full-time. They said the most recent levy was for EMS only, and it didn’t cover fire or staffing.
“To reiterate, we have one full-time fire person, and that’s (Rosebrock),” Lake Township trustee Melanie Bowen-Greenwald said. “The rest are all volunteers. The levy that was passed a year ago was for EMS only. (It was for) paramedics, not firemen. We are still operating under a volunteer system.”
Lake Township administrator Mark Hummer added that the levy for $4.2 mill for full-time fire was turned down.
NFPA LETTER
The document that Rosebrock put together also contained a recommended staffing and response time table put together by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), as well. While the table is also posted online at PressPublications.com, it said rural areas with less than 500 people per square mile has 14 minutes listed as an acceptable response time from the time that the call is dispatched until the first unit is on scene. If it jumps to 1,000 people per square mile, the response time should be less than 10 minutes.
“While we strive to get to the scenes as quickly as possible, when considering distance from people’s houses to the station and then drive time, most of the time Northwood will beat us if the fire is in the Walbridge/Northwood area,” the letter said. “However, this does not factor in if they happen to already be out on a run, or on the other side of their district for drill.”
