Kudos to Fire Department

Today I received a letter from the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority (MPHA), thanking the Minneapolis Fire Department for some great work on Saturday, February 28.



Sometime that afternoon, a water main broke in the basement of one of the Cedars highrises on the West Bank. Four feet of water flooded the boiler rooms, damaging both of the building's boilers and shutting off heat to the building. MPHA couldn't solve this problem on their own, so they called the Fire Department.



Engine #8, Ladder Truck #3 and Rescue #1 responded, and our firefighters helped to remove the water quickly enough that the boilers could be repaired and restarted by early Sunday morning. Without their work, the building may have sustained serious freeze damage, resulting in serious disruptions to the lives of a large number of low-income residents of the ward.



I wanted to take this opportunity to thank both the Minneapolis Fire Department as a whole and those who responded to this situation individually:



Battalion Chief John Szczech

Captains Jason Ehmek, Pat Swaggert and Melanie Rucker

Fire Motor Operators Elondo Wright, John Levens and Jerry White

Firefighters Ben Biorn, Tom Burnley, Al Daher, John Hupp, Chuck Senko, Trevin Mitchell and James Ujke



Thank you for the good work, on February 28th and every day.