Our own Chief David Daniels (below center) was one of Renton's seven climbers who joined firefighters from across our state in climbing the 76 story Columbia Tower.

Chief Daniels explained to me that the firefighters had to complete the climb in their fire gear, including their breathing mask and apparatus, which makes a strenuous climb much more challenging. As we talked, I could not help but think about the heroic firefighters who charged up the World Trade Center stairs only to have the towers collapse underneath them as they reached the top.

Chief Daniels is in amazing physical shape, and I'm sure could compete with any younger firefighter in his department. But he explained that the challenge is that after ascending all those stairs in fire gear, it takes the firefighters time to catch their breath before they can do a bunch of physical work at the top. As a leader in the Association of Washington Fire Chiefs, Chief Daniels shared some good ideas that fire professionals are working on to make it more effective to handle fires in tall buildings. For example, keeping fire fighting equipment in closets high up in the building could save lots of work manually hauling the stuff when the elevators are out.

As for me, I just feel safe knowing we have a great emergency team keeping us safe night and day, and working to keep us safer in the future. It's a bonus knowing that the chief himself could carry me out of a burning building if he had to.

Renton Firefighters Climb the Columbia Tower for Charity

RENTON:  Fire Chief/Emergency Services Administrator, I. David Daniels
of the Renton Fire & Emergency Services Department led a group of seven
Renton Firefighters up the Columbia Tower during the annual Scott
Firefighter Stair Climb for Leukemia on March 2, 2008. Over 1,300
firefighters from as far away as New Zealand completed the stair climb
with times ranging from 11 minutes 37 seconds to one hour and 37
minutes, with 97 female firefighters among the finishers. All seven
Renton firefighters completed the climb with one chief officer placing
third in the 50 and over age group.

Renton placed 22 out of 156 teams in the team category. Battalion Chief
Stan Engler, Firefighter Josh Brown and Firefighter Dan Alexander
represented the department in the team category.

The Scott Firefighter Stair Climb was started in 1992 as an effort to
raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. A handful of
firefighters demonstrated a high rise stair climb in full bunker gear
and air packs. This event has grown to be the single largest
firefighting competition in the world.

The Columbia Tower in Seattle is the second tallest building west of
the Mississippi River. Firefighters climb 69 floors to the observation
deck. It is 788 vertical feet and 1,311 steps to the top.

Last year, over 200 departments from around the world participated in
the stair climb.  Collectively they raised $365,000.  

The goal of Renton’s Fire & Emergency Services team is to raise
$25,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Donations may be made by
visiting the website at
http://www.active.com/donate/17thscottstairclimb/Rentonfire or at
www.iaff864.org/. For more information on the Scott Firefighter
Stairclimb, please visit www.FirefighterStairclimb.org 

Fire Chief David Daniels, with the help of the mayor and city council, awarded several promotions and merit recognitions at our council meeting on Monday night.

Promotions, complete with new badges, were awarded to Craig Soucy, Mike Proulx, John LeCoq, and Mark Peterson. Craig Soucy and John LeCoq also received new hats, as the colors needed to be changed to reflect their new positions.

As is the tradition in the department, wives and family members helped pin the badges on.

Recognition awards were given to Greg Hartman, Chuck Hagood, Judy Hayward, Henry Dyke, Chris Sproat, and Ken Peterson. (See the Renton Reporter story below).

Photographer Gary Palmer provided me with these photos of the event.





( See more pictures, and read the story from the Renton Reporter )

For Immediate Release Contact: Deputy Chief Mark Peterson

News Release # 1 Phone Number: 206-534-5070

Date: 01/16/2008 Time: 1:48 PM

Structure Fires are a Result of Improperly Discarded Ashes

Renton firefighters responded to two separate structure fires within 24 hours of each other. Each was the result of improperly discarded fireplace ashes.

The first fire, on January 11, 2008 at 1:50 p.m. in the 2800 block of NE 8th Street, displaced two people and resulted in $125,000 in damages. The fire destroyed one unit of a duplex. The cause was determined to be fireplace ashes in a paper bag left in the living room. Renton firefighters quickly extinguished the fire, limiting heat and smoke damage to the one unit.

The second fire in an apartment in the 2600 block of NE 4th Street was reported January 12, 2008 at 11:09 a.m. The occupant of an apartment had cleaned her fireplace and placed the ashes in a plastic bucket on an outside deck. The fire burned the bucket, siding, storage door, and extended into the soffit and roof area. The fire did approximately $10,000 damage. The occupant was not displaced by the fire.

There were no reported injuries in either fire. These two fires are a good reminder to all that ashes may still be smoldering even if you think they are out. When cleaning out your fireplace ashes place them in a metal container and remove them from the structure. Wet them down prior to disposal. Never place a container of ashes on a combustible surface.

Our esteemed fire chief is quoted in today's Orange County Register because of his vast experience in firefighting and his important position on the International Association of Fire Chiefs. Chief Daniels has very broad management and technical skills obtained in part from working in the Seattle Fire Department, and as a county fire chief in Alabama (including during Katrina's ravages.) In his first year with our city he has proposed many new emergency preparedness programs, and other sound improvements to aid-response/fire-fighting capability and citizen health and safety (such as city-sponsored diabetes and blood pressure checks, for example.) Here's an excerpt from todays OC Register story:

Firefighters do far more than man the bucket brigade outside a burning building, said David Daniels, fire chief of the Renton (Wash.) Fire Department and board member of the International Association of Fire Chiefs. Dealing with shift work, screaming alarms, scared victims and death wreaks havoc on firefighters' hearts and minds.

More people packed into cities means more traffic accidents, medical emergencies and fires – and more stress for firefighters, Daniels said.

A total of 440 firefighters, or 43.7 percent of those who died on the job, had sudden cardiac death, according to a National Fire Protection Association study from 1995 to 2004.

The health and safety section of the fire chiefs association is just 2½ years old and tries to help firefighters survive on and off the job.

"There is a tremendous pressure," Daniels said. "We put a lot of that on ourselves, because as firefighters we think we can do too much. That, along with high expectations by the general public, results in people working too hard and overexertion, which results in cardiac events."

( See the complete story from the Orange County Register by clicking here )