Joining us this morning, we have the new chief for the Ripon area fire district, Rick James.
Thank you for joining us.
Glad to be here.
Thanks for having me.
You're going to have to pull that up just a little bit more.
There we go.
All right.
Now, Rick, you're kind of splitting your time because it's part time job for you and your full time with Appleton still.
I am still with the Appleton fire department and with Ripon, it's a minimum of 20 hours a week, although I seem to be spending more time there.
So it's a
It's good on both sides.
So they've kind of been reorganizing from what I've heard so
We are we're trying to find the best fit for the community that gets the the most Productive fire protection and still balances a budget that doesn't adversely impact the citizens of the towns in the city
But you got a brand new fire engine went through the what down and the whole thing so
we do we do have a new engine it
We had a great wet down ceremony that was organized by John Hollitz, the previous chief and Heather Donovan, the assistant chief.
They got all that put together and did an incredible job.
The group of firefighters that specified the rig and got it built and delivered, did an incredible job.
That's a, it's an incredible piece of equipment.
So the district is lucky to have it.
Um, many heard you already had your first fire with that new
engine.
So we've, we've had several fires.
We've had, uh,
We've had off-fire several car accidents.
So it's it's getting out the door and it's starting to be seen in the community.
It's
Okay
It's a good good thing
You know we wanted to bring you in so we could find out more about you because Everybody's got to know everything nowadays, you know, you know how that is I do but tell us a little bit about your career and where you've been and what you've done
so about me born and raised in Hawaii so that kind of sets this
sets the stage of, it usually results in the question of why are you in Rippon?
And I found Rippon College and actually my mother and a college counselor helped me find Rippon, but we're looking for a small liberal arts school that had something completely different than Hawaii.
So got it here in Rippon and this fell in love with the community.
So I worked here during the summers, stayed and just got to know the community and then felt really comfortable here.
seemed like a good match.
In college, I was afforded the opportunity by the Rip and Fire Department to be a member.
So they advertised, I applied, I really didn't know what I was getting myself into, but I'd always wanted to be a firefighter.
So I thought this would be a great opportunity in Hawaii, at least in Ottawa, who there aren't volunteer firefighters, so that option didn't exist.
And the Rip and Fire Department took a chance on me in 1993.
I got my initial training and I honestly believe that if the Rippin' Fire Department, the Rippin' community hadn't given me the opportunity, I wouldn't be sitting here with you today.
I don't know that the other opportunities I've been afforded in my career would have been present had I not had that entry into the fire service.
So you kind of worked your way up the ladder.
What's your rank with Appleton right now?
So I'm currently a battalion chief shift commander.
Um, I am responsible for the operations of C shift.
Um, so one of three shifts on the apple and fire department, um, and responsible for the responses, fire, medical and otherwise in the city for any given 48 hour period.
So responsible for about 30 people, six stations, seven vehicles.
Wow.
Okay.
And now you're.
Responsible for a district as well here in the ribbon area.
So
yep.
Yeah, that's a it's an incredible opportunity Being able to to lead the district.
It's a It's a great fire department.
It was a great fire department when I joined Every every every entity goes through cycles of you know hitting the way of tops and and then rebuilding so that's kind of just a cycle of teams and so we're
Re rebuilding we're we're always looking for members.
So memberships Wells membership Waynes and that's kind of Where we're at at this point.
We're we're always looking for new members
Okay, so there's your call out.
I guess
right.
Yeah, there's there's a short call to action is you know, it's one of those things where The fire service doesn't necessarily do a great job of articulating, you know, what we do why why the fire service is important and
the things that we need other than budget money.
Most importantly is the people that make up the district and it's literally people helping people.
You do have to donate some of your time and it is to serve but it pays dividends.
It's neighbors helping neighbors.
This week is National Fire Prevention Week.
Did you find out what the theme is this week?
I did.
Thank you very much.
So it's safe charging and it's focusing on the charging of lithium ion batteries.
Lithium ion batteries are now becoming prevalent.
Across all the things that people do whether it's toys whether it's power tools whether it's riding lawnmowers and even the larger vehicles that we drive up to and including You know semi transportation Charging those batteries is where we tend to see the most fires And so during that recharge cycle if a battery is damaged As the battery comes up to power if it has the opportunity to to short out internally
that's when we tend to see the fires.
So buying batteries from reputable manufacturers, ensuring that batteries that have been damaged are taken out of service and just being careful as you're charging batteries is incredibly important.
One of the biggest things is kids toys, e-bikes, scooters, things like that.
A very helpful hint for us is please don't charge those in a hallway.
or an exit pathway.
If they do catch on fire for whatever reason, it blocks one of the ways out of the home.
So finding a spot to charge those toys, those batteries that isn't in a bedroom in a hallway pays dividends when it comes to fire protection and the ability to escape your home.
Should there be a fire?
Is there a safe way to store or dispose of lithium ion batteries?
Safe way to store is
Keep them within the the manufacturers recommend recommended guidelines.
So, you know Don't get them excessively hot They do okay in the cold Discharging them completely sometimes is is not always the best best for the battery But the most important thing that we've seen on the consumer product side is reputable batteries reputable manufacturers sometimes the
the batteries that are on Amazon or somewhere else that have a deal that's just too good to be true.
The deal's too good to be true.
And so the construction and the actual computer chips that monitor the charging and the discharging of the batteries aren't there.
And so it leads to issues.
One of the reasons this National Fire Prevention Week is because of the history of the Peshtigo and Chicago fires and
in the 1870s here at the end of the week.
What's the worst fire you've ever
had?
The worst fire I've ever had.
I don't, I don't know.
Yeah, that's, that's one of those.
I don't track.
I mean, they're, I've had a commercial building fire in Appleton that's the.
The areas of park now, it didn't go incredibly well.
We were behind the eight ball when we started just based on building construction time of day where the fire started.
But, you know, the harder ones are residential fires where people lose the things that they've been working for their entire life.
So it's regardless of insurance, regardless of, you know, the things that they're able to replace.
It's
the photo albums, the memories, all of the things that happen in a particular spot.
Those are the more difficult ones because in addition to putting the fire out, you're working with the community and trying to help them rebuild and get a grip on what just happened and how to proceed from there.
Seconds count when it comes to a fire?
Seconds count.
So fires grow exponentially and they double in size every 30 seconds.
So what can be a small waste basket fire by the time people recognize it, call 911, you know, have the telecommunicators get the dispatch out and the fire department respond can be a much larger fire.
And the biggest thing is prevention.
We can't stress prevention enough.
If the fire doesn't happen and we can help educate people.
it makes things so much easier.
We come out and provide the education piece like this week, help people understand the different things that help them in their daily lives to not have fires.
We can greatly reduce the risk that the community faces.
So, ounce of prevention, pound of cure, that's the best way to go about it.
Dave, thank you very much for joining us this morning.
Thank you for having me.
We've been talking with Rick James, who is the fire chief for the Ripon area fire district.