Mayor Kerry Thomson

Page last updated on February 18, 2020 at 10:15 am

Thank you for the chance publicly to acknowledge my gratitude to all of you, whether you are receiving an award today or not -- all heroes, and we are all grateful to you. Being able to mark the third year with no fire fatalities is a true cause for celebration. I am so proud of each of you individually, for your service to our community, 

And proud of this department’s excellent record of promoting safety and minimizing risk, through your prevention efforts, educating the community, and your commitment to best practices and innovative approaches and tools/equipment.

I want to thank the community for your investment in our public safety, through the PS-LIT that since 2017 has allowed us to replace aging equipment and add four new fire apparatus to the department’s fleet, and equip each of our firefighters -- and not just a select few -- with the gear they need to see and breathe in dark, smoky situations -- improving chances for rescue

And I want to thank IU for their investment in our shared public safety -- this partnership allowed the BFD, for example, to acquire the aerial apparatus, with its 100-foot ladder that we pushed in last June.

Of particular note: 

  • An off-duty firefighter rescued two neighbors from a house fire on Washington street
  • Outreach/diplomacy: ongoing relationship with Sierre Leone -- partnering with this west African country to help them build the capacity to help protect their citizens from a fire--writing the country’s first fire code, for starters 
  • Improvements to response times
    • nearly 4-minute reduction in response time averages since 2015
  • commitment to improved professionalism
    • 46,158 training hours in 2019 (109% of annual goal)
    • 104 new certifications (231% of annual goal)

Effort in the community: 

  • Setting up/tearing down for events at the Boys and Girls Club
  • Serving food for the Boys and Girls Club Auxiliary
  • Shop with a firefighter
  • food drive (140 pounds of food donated)
  • filling water barricades to improve pedestrian safety at large events

Speeches