Fire Prevention Week Open Houses!

Residents can celebrate Fire Prevention Week by visiting six neighborhood fire stations from 1-3 p.m. Saturday, October 9. This year’s theme, “Smoke Alarms: A sound you can live with,” encourages everyone to team up and spread the message that fire safety saves lives!

Equipment will be on display and firefighters will answer questions about escape planning, fire safety and disaster preparedness.

The following six stations will host open houses:

Station 3 -   206 Browns Point Blvd, NE Tacoma
Station 4 -   1453 S. 12th (Earnest S Brazil St), Hilltop
Station 11 - 3802 McKinley Ave., McKinley Hill
Station 13 – 3825 N. 25th, Proctor
Station 16 – 7217 6th Ave., Skyline/West End District
Station 17 – 302 Regents Blvd., Fircrest

For more information on the activities hosted at each station, call the Tacoma Fire Department Fire Prevention Bureau at 591-5740. We look foward to seeing you there!

Free CPR Training - CPR Sunday - October 10th

CPR Sunday is an annual community event offered free-of-charge to anyone interested in learning the basic life-saving skills of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). On the second Sunday in October each year, students are taught the fundamentals of CPR and then given the opportunity to practice with CPR manikins and Automated External Defibrillators (AED). Upon successful completion of the course, students receive a Tacoma Fire Department certified CPR card (good for two years).  Over 6,000 participants have attended this life saving class.

CPR Sunday will be held Oct. 10, at Foss High School, 2112 S. Tyler St. in Tacoma.

In order to secure your preferred class time please pre-register at www.cprsunday.net/registration.html.

What Attendees Can Expect

• More than 50 certified Basic Life Support instructors
• 1 1/2 hours of classroom training
• Four class options: 8 am, 10 am, 12 pm, or 2 pm
• Practical training with CPR manikins and AED's.

What Attendees Will Learn

• What happens when you call 9-1-1
• Patient assessment
• One rescuer adult/child/infant CPR and obstructed airway
• Automated external defibrillator use
• Foreign body airway obstruction management
• Essentials of a home first aid kit
• CPR-related information/reminder list for home and wallet

Boxing Night a Smashing Success

Many thanks to all of you who attended and supported this years Guns and Hoses Charity Boxing event.  It was a fantastic night of hard hitting action. A special thanks to the men and women of the Fire Service and Law Enforcement that spent months training and gave their "all" in the ring - you put on quite a show!

Congratulations to Tacoma firefighter Marlon Ridgeway and Lakewood Police officer John Babcock for their inspiring performance in the "fight of the night."

TFD (red) Marlon Ridgeway and LPD (blue) John Babcock

Guns & Hoses Charity Boxing

Saturday evening, local area firefighters and police officers will square off to display their skills and raise money for local charities at the second annual Guns & Hoses Charity Boxing Event.

Several 3 round matches of hard hitting action are scheduled.  Tacoma firefighters Jeremy Marraoquin, Marlon Ridgeway, Jeff Bambrick, Damon Semingson and Debbie Garrison are currently training and set to fight.

All boxing matches will be fought following USABoxing amateur rules and the fights will be:

(3) 2 minute rounds – under 35 yrs old
(3) 1 ½ minute rounds – 35-49 yrs old
(3) 1 minute rounds 50+ yrs old.

Date: September 18, 2010

Time: 7:00 pm

Location: Emerald Queen Casino

Must be 21 and older. 

Tickets are available the ECQ or Ticketmaster.

Thank You for Attending

Tacoma Fire Department would like thank all of the firefighters, law enforcement, families and citizens who joined us today to honor the memory of the emergency workers and victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Industrial Fire In the Tide Flats

Incident Date: September 9, 2010
Issuing Officer: Joe Meinecke, Dan Crotty
Incident Location:  1902 Marine View Drive
Incident Type: Commercial Structure Fire

Narrative:  At 5:08 p.m. 8 companies of Tacoma Firefighters, 5 engines, 2 ladders, 1 medic unit and command staff responded to a reported fire in a metal shredder building.

First arriving companies found heavy smoke and flames shooting from the shredder equipment at the metal recycling business.  Firefighters battled the stubborn blaze with hand lines and a aerial master stream from a ladder company.  The fire was contained to the shredder area of the facility.

The cause of the fire is undetermined.  The fire appears to have started on an intake belt and rapidly involved the operators station and adjacent belt lines.  Preliminary damage estimates were $500,000 to the destroyed operators station and equipment.  There were no injuries to report.

Tacoma Fire hosts remembrance ceremony on Sept. 11

On Sept. 11, 2010, the Tacoma Fire Department will honor the heroes and victims of 9/11 at a public remembrance ceremony at the Firefighter’s Memorial, 3301 Ruston Way. This year marks the ninth anniversary of this tragic day. The remembrance ceremony starts at 9 a.m. with a prelude at 8:45 a.m.

This event will be part of a nationwide salute to firefighters, police, emergency medical services workers and civilians who lost their lives that day. The program will include speeches by Mayor Marilyn Strickland, Tacoma Fire Chief Ronald W. Stephens and Tom Minor, retired major with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department.

Join us as the nation keeps its solemn vow, “We have not forgotten.”