The Safety and Licensing Committee met 04/07/2025. They had two items related to the Fire Department on their agenda, a request to apply for nearly $20,000 in grant dollars from Capital Credit Union to purchase a digital fire extinguisher trainer which was approved unanimously and a review of the Fire Department’s 2024 annual report which was received with gratitude by the committee.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
ELEVATE COMMUNITIES GRANT – The Fire Department was requesting permission to apply for an Elevate Communities grant from Capital Credit Union. They wanted to seek $19,910 in grant funds which would cover the cost of a BullsEye Digital Fire Extinguisher Trainer. There was no local match requirement, so the full cost of the extinguisher trainer would be covered by the grant if the grant was awarded.
Fire Chief Captain Jeremy Hansen told the committee that this was training prop that had been around for a decade. It consisted of a TV screen that stood on the ground and then the fire extinguisher that a person held and made sounds like a extinguisher made when being used.
Chief Hansen had used such an item a decade ago to teach his daughter’s Girl Scout troop how to use fire extinguishers. If the Fire Department had such an item they would be able to use it at public safety events and during things like Octoberfest to give kids an opportunity to use a fire extinguisher. They could also use it to train city employees.
The committee voted unanimously to approve the request to apply for the grant.
2024 ANNUAL FIRE DEPARTMENT REPORT – Chief Hansen did not go over the report in-depth but he did touch on some highlights.
They had a total of 7,365 incidents last year which was an increase of 400 over the previous year. Over the last five years, incidents have increased roughly 20% each year. Of the calls they received, 74% (5,434) of them were medical calls.
They had 101 confirmed fires in Appleton last year which ranged from things as minor as trash can fires all the way up to a major house fire.
They had 693 false alarms. He noted that last year the city had updated the fee schedule related to false alarms which created higher fees for businesses that continuously and habitually had false alarms. He said that there was one business on the north side of town that received $28,000 in false alarm fees. They refused to pay the fees and they were then put on their taxes.
They conducted 4,449 inspections and wrote up 2,299 violations most of which were corrected within 30 days.
He noted that the department was a young department with 37 of 96 members having less that 5 years of on the job experience. He said that it was challenging but also good and the turnover in the department had allowed them to hire a lot of paramedics. When the Fire Department upgrades its service level in July of this year to Paramedic Non-Transport they will have 32 paramedics.
He said that they conducted an average of 147 hours of training per person over the year.
In 2024, they signed new mutual automatic aid agreements with the fire departments in surrounding cities so that the entire City of Appleton was covered by automatic aid agreements. If they have a confirmed structure fire, they will get an engine from either Neenah, Menasha, Fox Cross, Grand Chute, Little Chute, or Kimberly. Likewise, Appleton will send an engine to structure fires in those cities. Chief Hansen said that Appleton sent engines to other cities at twice the rate that they had incidents requiring aid from other cities. They sent around 60 engines to other cities and received around 30 engines from other cities. He felt that was reasonable because Appleton was a bigger city and a signal that Appleton was a good neighbor.
Alderperson Denise Fenton (District 6) asked what sort of progress they were making toward increasing their paramedic service level. Chief Hansen said their goal was to be approved by July 1st. They had all their paramedics refresh their training and had purchased all of the equipment that they needed. They had installed narcotics safes on all of the fire trucks and had taken delivery of some narcotics. A vendor was coming to train them all on their new cardiac monitors. They were also putting the final touches on their state operations plan which they hoped to submit later this month. After that it would take up to 60 days for the state to review. Hopefully approval would happen by July 1st.
Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9) asked if the 20% increase in incidences and calls was in line with state and national averages and was it something that they had expected. Chief Hansen said it was a normal increase. He mentioned that several years ago they experienced an increase of 1,000 calls which had been a big leap for them, but a 400-500 call increase was more typical of what they usually experienced.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1281679&GUID=6B9F54CF-8627-4E9A-B66A-B297FC339A99
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