As I wrote about earlier this week, we had the pleasure of honoring some local heroes at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, a group of police officers, residents and others who risked their lives and safety to keep others safe.
Of course, the South Milwaukee Fire Department has its own share of heroes.
Learn more about some of their great work in the department’s 2010 annual report, which we accepted at Tuesday’s council meeting. Among the highlights summarizing the department’s 117th year of existence:
- The department responded to 2,985 requests for service. Of those calls, 2464 were for emergency medical service, and 521 were for fire/rescue/service. This compares to 3,003 calls for service in 2008 and 2,940 in 2009.
- Dollar loss from fires also spiked to more than $2.9 million thanks to three big blazes: the Appleton Electric foundry fire, the total loss of a multi-family apartment building at 1504 Manitoba Ave. and major damage caused by a fire at 500 Willow Lane.
- The department made one capital equipment purchase in 2010, a 25-foot Steiger Craft rescue boat. The new boat replaces our 1984 Boston Whaler and was purchased primarily with grant funds from the Urban Area Security Initiative Port Security grant program.
According to the report cover note: “We are proud of our member’s efforts and outstanding safety record while performing their duties on these calls and serving with reduced staffing levels since 2007.”
I can’t agree more. Our department does more with less … and we need to make sure we do all we can to preserve this high level of service.
South Milwaukee Blog 