Osseo Police Receive Donated Device To Improve Fire Response
Osseo police officers have had fire suppression devices at their disposal for a few years in the back of their squads.
“To me, looks like a grenade,” said Lt. Todd Kintzi with the Osseo Police Department. “We pull a pin on it and can throw it into a room.”
The devices are purported to disperse fire suppressant over about 300 square feet.
Osseo police respond to all fire calls, and, according to Lt. Kintzi, they arrive well before the city’s paid on-call firefighters.
“They have to get to the fire station, get suited up, get a couple of people together before they can actually get a truck out to a scene,” he said. “The police department? We’re already rolling around the city, patrolling.”
Now, thanks to a donation from the city’s local Masonic Lodge, the police department will have a newer, more comprehensive fire suppression device: The Fire Suppression Tool from Wisconsin-based Fire Suppression Solutions.
The larger, padlock-shaped device can reportedly deploy enough suppressant to cover more than 5,000 square feet, much more than the grenade-like devices. The newer fire suppression too retails for about $1,200 apiece.
Osseo police officers now have this fire suppression tool at their disposal.
“The cost of this is less than the deductible the city would have to pay for a firefighter or for police if somebody had smoke inhalation,” said former Osseo City Council member Larry Stelmach, a member of Northeast-Winslow Smith Lodge #125. “So, the fact that it makes the room more survivable for a human being, and maybe to recover the room in that house–how could we say no to helping that way?”
The Masons will formally present the device to the police department at Monday night’s city council meeting.
“If we have an opportunity to deploy something like this, maybe we can mitigate some loss,” said Kintzi.
