PLUM LAKE
Oct. 9, 2013
Courtesy of the News-Review and The Three Lakes News
Members of the Plum Lake Fire Department showing off the upgrades to its 2011 brush
truck include, front row from left, Steven Clemens, John Wichner, Lynnette Widner and
Page 45
Michael Errington; back row, Jerry Keller, Jeremy Arnold, Greg Larsen, Chief Kevin Rasmussen, Jim Daniel, Ed Johnston and Richard Lemke.
—NEWS-REVIEW PHOTO
Plum Lake upgrades brush truck
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BY ANTHONY DREW
NEWS-REVIEW ASST. EDITOR
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The Plum Lake Fire Department
put significant upgrades into its 2011
Ford F-350 brush truck this year, according to Fire Chief Kevin Rasmussen.
The department equipped the truck
with a new rack and two Honda pumps
that move water at 600 gallons per
minute.
“We’ve condensed two vehicles into
one,” said Rasmussen. “We’ve got a
water source and a fire unit.”
The vehicle can connect on-site to
fill the department’s tanker, he added.
Through fundraisers like the Fourth of
July chicken barbecue and spaghetti
dinner in August, along with private
donations, the Plum Lake Fire Department funded the $12,000 needed for
the pumps and the $5,000 for the new
rack. This will add to the original
$40,000 spent on the truck.
Rasmussen said the F-350 is a vast
improvement over the old brush truck,
which was wearing down with use and
couldn’t carry the hefty loads the de-
partment needed.
“We replaced something from the
early 1980s with a 2011,” said Rasmussen. “And it’s rated to carry the
weight that we’ve been overloading
when we use the other vehicle.”
The original price tag on the vehicle
was around $40,000, but municipal
discounts brought that number down.
Rasmussen said the crew is still
looking for new members for the Plum
Lake Emergency Medical Services
(EMS) team. Classes take place each
fall.
“It’s an uphill battle,” he said. “Recruitment and retention is difficult, especially in a volunteer service.”
In 2012, the department was awarded a Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) grant in the amount of
$11,000, which it used to fund the purchase of new equipment. That same
year, the EMS team’s Lifepak 12 machine gained transmit capabilities.
The defibrillator and electrocardiographic monitor, which essentially
records information about a patient’s
heart for paramedical personnel, is
now able to relay information to the
hospital ahead of time, according to
Plum Lake Ambulance Service Secretary/Treasurer Peggy Nimz.
“We’re able to push one button to
transmit information from anywhere,
including from a house with a patient,”
said Nimz. “If a patient is having a
massive heart attack, the hospital can
have a critical-care transport team and
a helicopter waiting. It’s much faster
for the patient.”
The upgrade cost the department
approximately $3,000 and was 100%
funded through fundraisers and private donations, according to Nimz.
The fire department’s FEMA grant
also funded an advanced cardiopulmonary resuscitation unit called Annie
for just less than $5,000, along with
four new backboards fully set up with
headblocks and all the straps, a pulse
oximeter and a five-gas detection monitor for combustible gases.
The department added a four-wheel
drive utility vehicle to its rescue fleet
in 2010. The John Deere Gator XUV
620i is used for attacking wildfires in
hard-to-reach locations and assisting
EMS with trail rescues.
The $12,000 vehicle features sideby-side seating for a driver and pas-
senger, a rear dump box, lights, roll
bar, and front and rear hitches.
The department added snow tracks
to the Gator for winter rescues in 2011.
The utility vehicle was paid for with
department money raised through its
annual fundraisers.
The department purchased a
Medtronic Lifepak 12 automated external defibrillator in 2010 for about
$14,000. The portable electronic device
automatically diagnoses potentially
life-threatening cardiac problems in a
patient.
In 2009, Plum Lake EMS purchased
a $140,000 ambulance to replace a
2000 unit that was sold to Howard
Young Medical Center, with proceeds
going toward the down payment on the
new vehicle.
“We try to put as little on the tax
rolls as possible. The town helps with
training and equipment. We financed
the purchase through a loan, call revenues and fundraisers,” said Rasmussen.
As an all-volunteer organization,
the Plum Lake Fire Department relies
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