Sunrise Beach Fire Protection District Fire Chief Dennis Reilly reports that the district permitted 32 docks and performed 17 dock inspections, five dock re-inspections and five dock hazard inspections in August. According to Chief Reilly, in the wake of the recent deaths due to faulty dock electrical wiring, the district had been receiving an increase in calls for dock permits and inspections. “We’re making progress on the work load. If I had more people we would be able to work through it faster,” said Chief Reilly. “We have started a training initiative with our staff so that we will be able to do more inspections than what we have done in the past. Between our part-time fire official and our staff we are doing the best we can. We always would like to do more.”
The SBFPD board of trustees requested Fire Chief Reilly add dock hazard information to the monthly dock report presented to the board. The additional information requested by the board included: the number of “hazardous condition” calls the district receives, how many docks the district inspects, and how many docks fail inspection each month.
Mid County Fire Protection District reports that it too has been working steadily on dock inspections since recent dock electrocutions caused a rise in calls and brought media scrutiny on the issue. “This did drastically increase our dock program and that is a good thing. A lot of people did not give it much of a thought until we had these incidents,” said Mid County Fire Marshal Chris Bachman.
Lake Ozark Fire Protection District Fire Marshal James Doyle said his district also experienced a significant increase in requests for dock inspections after the electrocutions. The number of calls dropped in September. “The biggest thing for us is trying to catch up with the requests,” Doyle said. The district normally receives approximately 250 dock inspection calls per year. In the wake of the electrocutions, it received 200 requests in one month. Doyle is currently the only person performing dock inspections; the other dock inspector retired in the spring. “The sad thing is our dock program is efficient, and we are able to get a lot done, but we’ve been preaching that people should be aware of their dock electricity conditions since 2006, and no one paid attention until these tragedies happened,” Doyle said. “Next year this will only be a memory, except to those who were directly affected.” Doyle warned that electricity and water don’t mix and he urged dock owners to look at their equipment before using it. “I can usually find a deficiency on any dock that was put in before 2006. They will most likely not meet with the 2006 national electrical code standards for dock safety,” he said.
Osage Beach Fire Protection District Fire Marshal Ed Nicholson said his district had less demand for inspections than LOFPD. The Osage Beach district performed 45 complementary (non-required) inspections during July and August and only three in September. The complementary inspections were performed on existing docks at the request of the dock owners. New docks or docks that have been upgraded since July 2006 are required by ordinance to meet current standards.
In other fire news, Sunrise Beach Fire Chief Dennis Reilly has been accepted into the Executive Fire Officer program at the National Fire Academy. His first two-week session is scheduled in June 2013. The program is a four-year, residential program, requiring officers’ attendance for two weeks per year, and is held at the National Fire Academy in Emmittsberg, Md. This highly competitive program only accepts 30 leaders per year from the entire nation, training them for upper level management and leadership in the fire service.
