Access to Democracy
Since 1999, Access to Democracy has been a staple of Minnesota television. The program has featured more than 2,000 half-hour interviews with politicians, legislators, judges, academics, athletes, public figures, and everyday residents. Guests often share their expertise and debate with the host.
Access to Democracy
"The New Eagan Fire Chief" - Eagan Fire Chief Holly Mullholland
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Host Steve Francisco welcomes new Eagan Fire Chief Holly Mullholland and discusses her career, her new role, and Eagan's full-time firefighter program.
Hello, and welcome to Access to Democracy. I'm your host, Steve Francisco. Thank you for taking your part of part of your day to join us. I'd like to thank our sponsors who make this program possible: Recalibra Health, the 45th Parallel Distillery, Sheridan and Dulas Law Firm, and Truestone Financial. Our guest today is making her first appearance on Access to Democracy. She is the new fire chief for the city of Egan, Chief Holly Mulholland. Welcome to Access to Democracy.
SPEAKER_02Thank you. Thank you.
SPEAKER_01So you're not originally from Egan. Tell us where you grew up and where you went to school. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I grew up in Rochester, Minnesota. So I went to school at uh, I'd graduated high school from uh Jamar John Marshall High School. So go go Rockets.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um but I actually grew up just uh north of Rochester, just outside of town a little bit, um, where I lived with my family on a little hobby farm um and met my husband there um at the technical college in Rochester.
SPEAKER_01So very good. And how did you become interested in becoming a firefighter? What was your path to your career?
SPEAKER_02You know, that's a it's an interesting story, and I always I always like to ask firefighters that because it seems everybody everybody's got one. I wasn't one of those kids that knew exactly what I wanted to do, you know, from from the moment um someone asked me. Um I struggled a little bit to identify what I wanted to get my um college degree in. So when I graduated high school, I had been a post-secondary student. So I almost had my two-year degree complete, and I decided to get my bachelor's degree in professional horticulture. So that is it was what my bachelor's in professional horticulture. And I worked in different uh landscape nursery in my teens, um, but I was actually working at a local credit union in Rochester and trying to decide what I was gonna do when I grew up. And um, I was considering pair, you know, being a paramedic or some some form of emergency health, but I was a little bit concerned about burnout and talking with people in the industry.
SPEAKER_01And did you have any uh members of your family who were perhaps firefighters or EMTs?
SPEAKER_02No, the closest I have was uh was a great uncle of mine who was uh Long Beach Fire in California. Oh yes, interesting. No one close. Um, but at the credit union, um one of my coworkers, her husband was a captain at the time on the Rochester Fire Department, and she said, Well, have you ever thought about being a firefighter? And I was like, No, I I have not. And I started to look into it and I thought, well, this does seem interesting. They sure get to do a lot of different things. And as soon as I started taking classes for it, it was all over. You knew this was for you. Yes.
SPEAKER_01Interesting. Yeah, I'm curious, Holly, did you have any hesitation at all? Because you were entering a profession that traditionally had been seen as predominantly men and as a woman coming into the firefighting profession. I know a lot of that has changed in recent years, especially in our bigger cities, but did that give you any reason to pause, or you thought, no, I'm gonna go do this?
SPEAKER_02Um, well, if you know my personality, I'm a relatively uh determined person. So um I would say it it gave me some pause, you know, in terms of just thinking through, you know, what that might look like, or even when I was perhaps being hired, who to ask questions about certain things, right? Because there weren't as many females in the business. But um, no, that didn't bring me pause about not doing, you know, the career. Um, and I would say that yes, still women are uh are a relative minority in the in the fire service profession. I haven't looked at the statistics recently, but I think with last check it was around four and a half percent of uh firefighters in the U.S. are female.
SPEAKER_01So the numbers are going up, I assume, aren't they?
SPEAKER_02In in some places, but I will say one of the things we're very proud of in Egan is Egan is uh 22 or 23 percent female. So we actually are are quite different.
SPEAKER_01That's way above average.
SPEAKER_02It is, it is. And Egan fire is way above average in many ways, but that that way in particular.
SPEAKER_01So you went on and were hired your first job. You worked in the Rochester Fire Department. Tell us what you did there.
SPEAKER_02Yes, uh, I worked at the Rochester Fire Department for 16 years, and so um at that uh organization I held every rank from firefighter to deputy chief. And so what that means is I was a firefighter, and then I was a motor operator, which is what they call their drivers of the apparatus, um, and then a captain, uh battalion chief and fire administration, and then assistant chief, and then deputy chief.
SPEAKER_01What good training to have to come into a job like this as chief now, to have experienced all these different positions within a fire department such as Rochester.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_01And I assume that's considered a good fire department too.
SPEAKER_02Yes, yeah, Rochester is a good fire department and and uh a strong training history. And you know, I when I stepped into my roles and fire administration in particular, it was an interesting blend of my kind of 10 years of the credit union. You know, I'd spend on and off there in private industry, and then I was um riding fire apparatus or on the frontline response for 10 years before I shifted into chief officer role. So I really did feel uniquely equipped for kind of putting those two professional um aspects of my life together.
SPEAKER_01Very good. Egan's fire department has an interesting history. I see on the city webpage, it tells us that we had a volunteer fire department from 1963 until 2021, when as Egan's population grew, the city made the decision to transition to a full-time fire department. Your predecessor, uh former Chief Hugo Searle, had been on this program and we had talked about that. But I assume that transition's fully complete now that we're used to having the full-time fire department. Um tell us about the advantages of having this full-time department here.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think that you know, the some of the obvious advantages is they're they're there, they're at the station. There is there is somebody there 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Um, and it does help response time because when the call comes in, they're leaving right from the station, um, versus you know, in some paid on call or full volunteer models where maybe they have a pager that goes off and then they have to respond to the station and then to the emergency potentially. So it it helps with that. Also, um many, many paid-on-call volunteer departments that you know they train a lot too, but when you have a full-time department where this is this is their job, they're here every day, they do put a lot of hours and a lot of reps into training. And so that is the Egan Fire Department has a very strong foundation of being very professional and technically competent. And so um that investment that the community made in in public safety was a good one. It was a big one, yes.
SPEAKER_01Necessary one too, I think, as the city of Egan's population has grown. We're what over 67,000 people now, I think.
SPEAKER_02Very closer to 69, 69, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we've really grown over the years. Um, how some basics about the Egan Fire Department for our viewers who may not know, how many firefighters do we have in the city of Egan full-time?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, we have 50 people that work for the fire department in the city of Egan. And that that number does include some of us chief officers or our our folks in the fire marshals division. Um, and I always like to give them a shout out because fire prevention is just so very important. Um, they make what we do, if we have to do it, safer. Um, and they're trying to keep everybody in the community safer, you know, just with the way properties are built and and different things like that. So um that does include some of the the fire marshals division people, but typically we've got between, you know, around 11 people on shift, um, so on fire apparatus every day.
SPEAKER_01And how many fire stations in the city of Egan?
SPEAKER_02There are three fire stations. And they are one, um, one, two, and four right now is how they are numbered. So that's kind of a fun fact. Um, two, and four. Yes.
SPEAKER_01It's because I wouldn't have expected that.
SPEAKER_02I didn't either. Um when they um converted to the full-time model, they were actually able to reduce the number of fire stations.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_02Um, because when you do have a paid on call or volunteer model, sometimes you locate stations closer to the people who are volunteering. So when they are responding to the station, it's maybe in closer to their their home neighborhood. And so they were able to reduce the number of stations. I think it was from five to three. And so I think how we got there is we kept one, two, and four. Okay. Yeah. Maybe maybe there will be a numbering project in the future. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01That might be a question on a trivia game someday. So I'm glad you told me about that. Um, how much equipment do we have? Uh, fire trucks, different apparatus, and what is that equipment? If you could briefly describe what we have.
SPEAKER_02We have a lot of equipment. Um, we have three fire engines that we consider to be frontline engines. And so those those apparatus are the ones that carry water and have all the hose lined. Um, those are staffed. And then out of two of the stations, those personnel also cross-staff what we call a ladder truck. So those would be the ones that have the big aerial ladders, and so it kind of depends on the call that comes in which one of those vehicles they take. But in the city, we actually have five fire engines. So three of them is what we use regularly, but we have two more just in case we have one that goes down for repair, because we need to have redundant services. But also, if we are on a large incident and we have to call staff back in, they would then be able to staff those fire engines to cover the city or come and help at the incident.
SPEAKER_01Holly, I'm glad you mentioned uh a major incident. Uh heaven forbid we have one. But if we do, we have mutual agree uh mutual aid agreements with surrounding cities like Mendota Heights or perhaps Burnsville.
SPEAKER_02Yes, yes. And we actually uh there's mutual aid, but we also have automatic aid, meaning that for certain types of incidents, they get dispatched at the same time we do to incidents here. And then um I know uh for some of our other partners that's the same for them. And so, yes, those um we call those uh mutual aid automatic aid agreements, and it really um shows or highlights the need for interoperable training, you know. So we do try to work together with those partners quite a bit.
SPEAKER_01And people hear the term firefighter, and they're picturing, you know, the boots, the heavy coat, and the carrying an axe and a hose, but there's much more to the firefighting job, firefighters' job than that, isn't there? Firefighters are trained and qualified to do a number of other things. Say something, if you would, about what some of those other responsibilities are and the training that firefighters get to do those jobs.
SPEAKER_02Right. It it really is, we like to kind of call it an all-hazards profession, right? So um the other big one is emergency medical services, so EMS response. Um, Egan Fire is the emergency medical response unit for the city of Egan, so we are that first response basic life support provider. So we do spend a lot of time on EMS training. And um, Egan Fire is in particular that we have a number of what you might call variances, so different procedures and things that those uh medically trained professionals can do above and beyond just the basic EMT license, and that it really provides a comprehensive high level of care for the community of vegan. I'm really proud of that. Lots of training goes into that. But then also, you know, some of those all hazards things would be, you know, having an awareness of hazardous materials operations. And um a really common one that a lot of people forget about, but that we go to quite a bit is um, you know, like a natural gas leak or a propane leak. Um, so we have the monitoring or something.
SPEAKER_01Where someone calls in and says, I think I smell gas out in my neighborhood, you're gonna respond to that quickly, right? That's considered an emergency call.
SPEAKER_02Yes, yes, because that is a flammable gas. And um, when they're outside, we we handle them a little bit differently, but if they're inside, because sometimes construction projects or appliances at times can leak. And so we do have the monitoring equipment to detect those um uh flammable gases, but also things like auto extrication, you know, so car accidents and things like that. Um, but also to some extent, you know, even the technical aspects of that, so you know, should they need to brace the car if it's like on its side or its roof, and so um we do uh training on lifting and bracing as well as being able to remove a patient from a vehicle as well, too. So, and that's just uh a few things, you know.
SPEAKER_01We're gonna talk more about this in just a moment, but we are going to pause here for for a moment for a word from our sponsors who make our program possible. We'll be right back.
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SPEAKER_01And we're back with our guest today, Egan Fire Chief Holly Mulholland of the Egan Fire Department, resuming our conversation. Tell us a little bit about training. From when a person first applies and is accepted for training. Where does Egan train as firefighters and how long does it take to become a firefighter?
SPEAKER_02Sure. Egan requires that in order to apply that they come with their firefighter one and two certificate, which is firefighter one and two and hazardous materials operations. Those are all kind of combined together, and those are state certifications, or there is kind of a natural, or excuse me, national board that we would accept, you know, reciprocally. And they need to have their emergency medical technician. And so they come with kind of a base level of certification. But when people start with Egan Fire, we put them through two weeks of an in-house academy. And then they may start to ride with their crew right away, or usually twice a year, we run a joint fire training academy with some of those neighboring response partners that we were talking about earlier with the Mutual Aid Automatic Aid. And so it's a really, really great start to their career. They start in academy for uh 10 weeks, and some of they're working with some of the people that they might see in neighboring departments. But in that academy, they're learning those base, you know, firefighting skills and how Egan, you know, operates. Because even within the certification, there is some you know nuances and equipment at different departments and things like that, or maybe how we deploy our hose lines. And so they learn all of that at academy. And when they finish academy, they they come back and join their crew and uh finish out the rest of their year, they spend one year on probation.
SPEAKER_01So is it the case, if I'm understanding you correct, Holly, that a person before they even apply, they've had considerable education to even be eligible to apply. Correct. Before they go through the Egan training and certification. Very good. I should mention um I noticed a few years back the Eagham Fire Department in Heine Pond, they were practicing scuba diving, and I thought, what's going on here? And someone told me that every year the fire department comes out and they train firefighters in scuba diving techniques because you mentioned car accidents earlier, something that happens obviously on surface roads, but we have lakes and rivers in our community too. And sometimes you may have to respond to a car that's gone into the Minnesota River, heaven forbid, or into one of our surrounding lakes. And our firefighters are trained on rescue techniques to deal with that, aren't they?
SPEAKER_02Right. Yes. Um our firefighters train, they train um on open water, which is probably what you saw on Heine Pond, um, but also they train on ice rescue as well. Um, and and again, it's just another form of water rescue. We don't we don't train in scuba per se. Thank goodness uh Dakota County does have a dive team, you know, should we ever need an actual scuba dive team? But we train uh on the kind of that surface uh water rescue or even deploying, we kind of have a special uh watercraft that we would use on some of the smaller ponds or still water ponds that we might have or smaller lakes here in the city. Um and then we do have a boat um that we would use um on the river as well, because we do have a small stretch of river here that we're responsible for. So yes, um their training schedule is is pretty full all year, and it does change seasonally. So we we use the ice when we can.
SPEAKER_01And I was gonna ask do our firefighters and EMTs they go through um recurrent training too, where they brush up on basic skills or perhaps new information or new techniques?
SPEAKER_02Yes, I our firefighters are training every day of the week, I could say, pretty safely, right?
SPEAKER_01Like and so not even once a year, they're training continuously, basically.
SPEAKER_02And and every um two years they have to recertify their EMT. Um but what we do like with their emergency emergency medical training is we have them training regularly, um, you know, so they'll have a particular EMS topic for that month, maybe, and then they may even cover some more EMS skills at a crew level, you know, just with their captain and the firefighters. And so they they train every day and it's continuous.
SPEAKER_01Chief, I'd like to ask you about um electronic devices and lithium batteries, because we are surrounded by personal electronic devices. We've almost all got at least a cell phone, probably an iPad, a laptop, a PC at home. Many of these portable devices are powered by lithium batteries. Um say a word, if you would, about what are the concerns about lithium batteries, and more importantly, what should someone do if they notice their device is overheating or has caught fire? Right. What how should they respond to that?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, the we we are seeing some issues with those, and I I would say if you notice that, you call 911. Um, and the reason for that is when lithium-ion batteries go into potential, we call it thermal runaway, or the battery, you know, another another term, it just fails and they get very hot very quickly, and um, they do cause fire, and that fire can spread. And so I would say just you know, call 911, um get out and close the door behind you, and just let us take care of that. We do have some special um um equipment now to do that, especially for the smaller battery items. We we can put it in something that's called cell block, and that that kind of stops that that internal reaction in that battery, and it can stay there stable and safe. Um, but we can't take it back out because the the device could go back into that room.
SPEAKER_01Right, but that thermal runaway, that's what causes. You may think, oh, I put the fire out, my cell phone was on fire, but then it reignites.
SPEAKER_02Right. And so if you I would say, yes, if it's smoking or you notice, you know, um any sort of excessive heat or anything like that, but also warning signs are you know, misshapen batteries or discoloration or anything like that. And so you do want to be really careful that you're only using, you know, lithium ion. Correct, the cords, and you're only using the battery that came with the device and um devices that are tested by a reputable laboratory, that sort of thing. But then also don't charge those things under your pillow or on your couch. Um and so that's a you know, uh unfortunately we see some cell phones, you know, set on beds, and it's like, nope, you know, just set it on non-flammable things. And then in particular, too, um, you and I have been talking about the smaller devices, but the other issue is the what they call the micromobility. So all of these scooters and e bikes and things, and those um have slightly larger batteries and they they have the same dangers. And so with those, we also remind people like, don't store those in front of the Exit to your apartment or your home. Because there have been issues in the country where people were unable to exit doodolithium my on fire, and it was actually blocking the primary exit to the apartment or to the home. And so just being mindful where you're charging those devices to.
SPEAKER_01Let's talk about what I'm sure is one of your favorite subjects, fire prevention. Things we can do because obviously it's good to know our EGAN fire department is well equipped to respond to emergencies when they happen, but the best thing that can happen is to prevent a fire from occurring in the first place. So let's talk about a few of those basics and things just to remind folks what they should know. I think most homeowners know you need to have fire extinguishers in your house. You should have fire extinguishers. Where should they be and how often do they need to be changed out? Do we know? Is there a way you can look at how old your fire extinguisher is?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it should have a stamp or a service tag on it. So you're gonna want to make sure that it's been serviced. I think they're usually annually. Um, and so that somebody would look at it and service it, depending on the kind of fire extinguisher. There are some in-home ones that you're gonna want to look at the stamp and the expiration date. I always like to tell people, because you you see them under the kitchen sink a lot, um, but maybe more on your exit pathway, you know. So if you have a closet near your your exit door where you might think on the way out, you might think, oh, maybe I could safely use the fire extinguisher, right? If you feel comfortable doing that. Um and the reason I say not under the kitchen sink is because the leading um one of the leading causes of fire is still cooking, right? And so your kitchen sink is usually very close to your stove.
SPEAKER_01In a sense, you would have a fire extinguisher there, right?
SPEAKER_02But you may not be able to get to it because it's it's gonna be hot in that area if the fire is on your on your stovetop or in your oven. So I would I like to tell people keep it more in that exit pathway. And so it's more of a if you think of it on your way out of the house. Um but the the predominant thing is if one happens, really um call us, call 911, right away, exit the house, close the door behind you.
SPEAKER_01And it strikes me that another place we probably want to make sure we have a fire extinguisher, I know my wife and I do, is in the garage, near the garage, because we have two vehicles in there. We don't store any solvents or chemicals that I'm aware of out there. We have cleaning supplies, maybe those are affected. But just to know that, you know, where you have a higher propensity for fire danger, that's probably where you want to make sure that you have a fire extinguisher.
SPEAKER_02Sure. Or like I said, more so on those exit pathways. Exit pathways. Because if you're thinking about exiting the home because you've had a fire, maybe you'll think about the extinguisher. But uh, I think the most important thing is smoke detectors because those save lives and um early detection means that you can exit early and actually required by law in the city of Egan, right? Um in some of the yes, you should have them in in all of your sleeping areas and then um um outside the sleeping areas every level of the home. Yeah, there are some codes.
SPEAKER_01Um I noticed when the Egan City Inspector came at our house to check something else, not fire related but construction related, while they were there, they also did a check of the carbon monoxide and smoke detectors to make sure we had the requisite number up to code. And it's a really important concern. Say something too about carbon monoxide detectors. How many should people have in their home? Where should those be placed?
SPEAKER_02You should have those outside of every sleeping area and then also on every level of the home. Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless gas that you won't know is there. Um, there really is no other way to detect it without having the detector there. Um, and it it can be deadly. And so carbon monoxide is a byproduct of combustion. So any appliance or any burning process can give off carbon monoxide. So water heaters, furnaces, fireplaces, those sorts of things. And so, um, yes, outside every sleeping area and on every level. Very important.
SPEAKER_01Do you advise that homeowners should work out a plan with family members and children if you have a fire in your home? How do you react? Because I can imagine circumstances where you discover a fire, you're not going to be able to put it out with your home extinguisher. You need to call 911. Right. But what about an evacuation plan? Isn't that a good idea for family members to discuss that?
SPEAKER_02It's a very good idea. Um, and especially family members with children or maybe maybe those with some cognitive impairments, it's really important that everyone knows two ways to get out of each room because there's the way that you might normally do it, but then what would you do if that was blocked? If it wasn't available, and so thinking about those things when it's safe and the lights are on and all those things is a good idea, but then also a meeting place. So if everybody is exiting the house, where are you then going to meet? Because the first question we're going to ask is, is everybody out? And so that way, if you all know where to go, if there's an emergency that you have to exit, you can you can all go to the you know the tree in in your neighbor's front yard or the big oak tree or elm tree across the street.
SPEAKER_01Right. Exactly. Very good. Storage of hazardous materials at home. What are some safe storage considerations for propane tanks, gasoline, or solvents that could be flammable?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean, you really want to be storing those in approved cabinets and and not interior of the home.
SPEAKER_01You know, approved containers in the process.
SPEAKER_02Improved containers, yeah. And we, you know, you you said it, there are times when there are fires in your attached garage, right? Because you have a car in there and different things. And so then having a propane tank in that area well as well, it could be really problematic. So yeah, you want to make sure they're in improved containers and you know and in safe stored places.
SPEAKER_01And we certainly want to make sure that we take care of the people in the home, but we also want to protect our firefighters. So it's real important that people do the right thing here, isn't it? Because we don't want to have firefighters having to go into dangerous situations where they can be injured too. Right. And this helps our firefighters if you do things the right way and don't just randomly store hazardous materials or in containers that are not approved. Correct. We are down to our last minute, and we can't end with um without mentioning an upcoming event, which is one of my favorites every year and my neighbors. National night out is Tuesday, August 4th. Uh, the Egan Fire Department and the Egan Police Department will be out in our community. I know we have a lot of young kids in my neighborhood that get so excited when they hear the air horn, the fire department siren coming into my complex, and all the kids come out. Um, I assume you're going to be out again this year. You'll be out visiting different neighborhoods.
SPEAKER_02We will, we will. Um I myself will be out there as well as Chief Bramwell, and um we'll have the crews out and about and moving around. And yes, we enjoy that too. It's it's a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_01It's really great, and we enjoy offering the firefighters some food to eat and getting to know our community and our neighbors, and we're just really fortunate to have such a great fire department. Uh, Egan Fire Chief Holly Mulholland, who's been on the job since April this year after your appointment by the City Council. Thank you for coming on Access to Democracy. Thank you and the men and women of the Egan Fire Department for protecting our community.
SPEAKER_02Oh, it's our pleasure. Thank you for your support.
SPEAKER_00This program was recorded at Egan High School. The views and opinions expressed on this program are solely those of the producers andor the persons appearing on the program and do not reflect the views and opinions of ETV or those of District 196 school.