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2024 Annual Conference: Lessons Learned

Friday, October 18th, 8:00 - 11:30 am | Morning Session
Friday, October 18th, 12:30 - 4:00 pm | Afternoon Session

Lessons Learned
Tom Budde, Fire Chief, Melrose; Mike Helle, Fire Chief, Henning; Sarah Booker, Firefighter, Henning; Tony Sikich, Battalion Chief, Hibbing; John Stewart, Fire Chief, Walker & Chris Efta, Captatin, Walker

Session Description
The workshop will be a classroom setting typically addressing special incidents that have happened over the past year in Minnesota and the lessons learned from these events from the responders of these incidents.

  • Chief Budde and others from Melrose will present Lessons Learned about aftermath of Tornado that directly struck their community.  Chief Budde will share how this event affected their community and the personal side of it.
  • Chief Helle and Firefighter Booker will present lessons learned about a lost individual that is still ongoing. An elderly man walked off his farm into a vast densely wooded and swampy area during the summer during days of heavy rain. Chief Helle and FF Booker will detail technology that was brought in to assist in the search. The incident is now in recovery phase and is ongoing. Details will be shared how this affected their staff and community.
  • Battalion Chief Sikich will present on a fire from December 26, 2017 where they responded to a structure fire with 4 people trapped.  Crews were able to rescue them all but sadly all perished on scene or days later.  It was the home of one of their retired captains.  Lessons Learned are: crew dynamics, trust and relationship building, fire dynamics and fighting fire in extreme weather conditions.
  • Chief Stewart and Captain Efta will detail response of large structure fire at a resort that taxed response resources and personnel.  They will share what they did to overcome challenges.  Efta stated this was a large response with 7 mutual aid partners and is a once in a career type of fire.