Penn Fire units along with most of the other departments in St. Joseph County have been very busy the past week with grass fires. The photos from this one come from a fire Penn Fire responded to at 58199 Beehler Road on Sunday 3-25-18. Approximately 2 acres of woods was burned due to careless burning of trash. It is way to dry and windy to be burning as well as a violation of the county open burning ordinance.
About 452,000 Kidde dual-sensor (photoelectric and ionization) smoke alarms sold in the U.S. and another 40,000 sold in Canada are being recalled due to a risk of failure to alert consumers to a fire, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said Wednesday.
Models PI2010 and PI9010 are being recalled. The issue is a yellow cap possibly left on the smoke alarm during the manufacturing process that may cover one of two sensors, compromising its ability to detect smoke.
Consumers are advised to remove the alarm from the wall or ceiling, inspect it for the presence of a yellow cap and immediately contact Kidde if one is located. The potentially defective smoke alarm should only be discarded once a replacement is received and installed.
For more information, consumers can call Kidde toll-free at 833-551-7739 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday or 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Those who prefer not to call can go online can visit http://www.kidde.com and click on “Product Safety Recall” for more information.
Several fire departments responded to a residential fire in the 63300 block of Mulberry Road Wednesday night.
The call came in at approximately 9:15 p.m., dispatchers said.
The home, which is in southwest St. Joseph County, showed damage to the exterior, and Mulberry Road between New Road and Madison Road was closed off, as of about 10:30 p.m.
At least 14 tankers were called to the scene, and NewsCenter 16 learned that the fire started in the garage before spreading to the main house.
Officials say everyone was able to get out of the house, but they are not certain that all the animals living in the house were able to escape.
We will update this story with information as it becomes available.
Penn Fire is set to formally take over 911 calls across Osceola.
They’ve already been serving the area under an inter-local agreement since last January.
Penn Township’s board voted to unanimously approve the resolution Wednesday night, just one day after Osceola’s board approved the resolution.
Osceola is set to be part of the Penn Township fire protection territory, but they’ll have to pay for it.
Penn Fire won’t formally be taking on the duties set forth in the resolution until July, so what exactly is going to change between now and then?
“Absolutely nothing,” Penn Township Trustee Doris Portolese said. “Because we’ve been doing it, you know, for the last, like I said, about 18 months.”
Now, as Penn Fire formally takes over, Osceola residents will see their taxes go up about $42 for every $100,000 their home is valued at.
“But people will notice, the taxes will not change until after January of ’19,” Portolese said. “So when they get their assessment and their tax bill March, April, May- for their May installment, it will be listed there.”
Everything Penn Fire has done since last January and leading up to 2019 has been paid for, but once that 2019 tax form comes in, it will look a little different.
“The taxpayers will be paying in a different way,” Portolese said. “Instead of it going to the town, there’s actually a line item on their statement, which will help pay for the fire territory.”
Penn Township won’t gain anything, as the money will just be paying for the fire service, but they say it’s something that needs to be done.
“It’s a good thing to do,” Board President Kent Hizer said. “But it’s the right thing to do. The residents of Osceola are a part of Penn Township and I think it kind of puts into place what should have been in place probably a long time ago.”
In the month of February across their entire territory, Penn Fire has had 8 fires, 90 rescues or emergency medical services, 5 hazardous condition calls, 14 service calls, and 2 severe weather and natural disaster calls. There were also 38 good intent calls and 6 false alarms, totalling 163 calls in the month.
The fire chief does know how many of those were in Osceola, but says he’ll let us know when has those numbers
DOWNLOAD RESCUE TASK FORCE DOCUMENTS HERE: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/nzu0uill48hwdxz/AADp7Lxk00nEGl0e8cdA9Dzya?dl=0
Penn Fire will be hosting additional Active Shooter Rescue Task Force Joint Fire & Law Enforcement Trainings. To be successful Fire & Law Enforcement MUST BE UNIFIED in this mission in both ICS & deployment!
MARCH CLASSROOM MAKE-UP TRAINING DATES:
APRIL MABAS BATTALION CHIEF RESCUE TASK FORCE TRAINING DATES:
APRIL HANDS-ON TRAINING DATES:
MAY HANDS-ON TRAINING DATES:
ACTIVE SHOOTER MASS CASUALTY DRILL – JULY 2nd, 2018 – PENN HIGH SCHOOL – DETAILS TBA
