Kirk Rosenhan is like a superhero in Oktibbeha County. Wherever there”s trouble, he”ll be there.
That doesn”t necessarily mean he”ll be the man solving the problems, but he coordinates the men who do.
Rosenhan, Oktibbeha County”s fire services coordinator, oversees 14 fire stations from seven fire departments in the county. That means he works with seven fire chiefs to maintain budgets, repairs on equipment and facilities and makes sure regulations are met. The Jefferson City, Mo., native has been in Starkville since attending graduate school at Mississippi State University for engineering in 1963, but lately he”s all over the place.
In late April, when our corner of the world was wrecked by tornadoes, Rosenhan was in Edinburgh, Scotland, for the U.S.-U.K. Institute of Fire Engineers yearly symposium. Over Memorial Day weekend, he took a trip home to Jefferson City, 140 miles from Joplin, Mo., the site of last week”s monster tornado which killed 130 people.
Rosenhan went to Missouri to see family and friends, not to get involved in Joplin. But for a man who can aptly be described as a fire and rescue nerd, the temptation to learn from such an experience must be strong.
And that”s exactly why Rosenhan is a fellow in the Institute of Fire Protection Engineers and a lifetime member of the Society of Fire Protection Association. It”s why he facilitates the exchange of firefighters between the U.S. and U.K. To learn and apply that learning to making life safer for the rest of us in Oktibbeha County.
It”s something he”s been doing ever since his arrival in Starkville. He immediately got involved with volunteer fire services while advancing through his career. He”s a mechanical engineer by trade, but has taught in the mechanical, industrial, aerospace and agriculture engineering colleges at MSU.
When did your knack for engineering veer toward fire engineering?
Probably when I was about a month old because there was a fire in the apartment house we lived in. But engineering is thermodynamics, heat transfer, structures, chemistry, physics, all that mess. So even in high school I was a fire truck chaser. And it kinda runs in the family. My daughter is the assistant fire chief in Maben and an EMT.
Tell me about this trip to the UK.
The U.S.-U.K. Fire Symposium is a loosely knit organization of American and British fire service personnel that alternates between England and America. There”s a lot of turnover but several of us are the Cadbury, I guess, of the organization. I”m one of the founding members and have been to almost every one of them.
We discuss various fire services developments and future type things. I”ve given presentations several times but my bag is interchanges. We”ve had a lot of guys come over here.
The last guy I took to Chicago and put him out with the arson squad for two days, which he just went bonkers over. But then, two weeks after he was there, one of his buddies got shot down on Southside.
Anyway, the symposium is to exchange personnel, policy, facts and figures. Networking is the big thing. We”ve met in Wales, Belfast, Dublin, London in the Houses of Parliament. They told us “Yes, that”s the queen”s chair there. You can”t sit on it. You can”t touch it. You can”t take a picture of it, but that”s the queen”s chair.”
Over here we”ve met as far west as California and as far east as Washington D.C.
What”s the benefit of the exchange program?
Sometimes we learn what to do from each other and sometimes we learn what not to do. We”ve had guys over here for swift water rescue, confined space, fire investigation.
How many times have you been to Europe?
I haven”t gone every year. I”m guessing a dozen times in 40 years and a different city every time. Although, I obviously spend a lot of time in London because I know people there.
I always go to the steam engine museum and run the 150-year-old engines. I see my old buddies and my magazine editor for the Fire Journal is there in Moreton-in-Marsh.
What sort of writing do you do for the Journal?
Various things. Sometimes I write about fire departments. Sometimes about techniques, some specific incident or fire case. The last thing I published dealt with battery explosions of all things. I”m writing something now about meth labs because they”re starting to get them.
Do you see yourself moving to the U.K. when you retire?
No, too expensive. Numerically, their prices aren”t so bad until you realize that”s pounds, not dollars.
I did the trip pretty cheap this time. I paid $70 per night for the hotel and went over there on my frequent flyer miles, so a round-trip ticket was $137.
Was there anything different about this year”s trip or symposium?
Not really. Edinburgh is sort of the Mecca for municipal fire departments — that was the first municipal fire department in England — and their chief, James A. Braidwood, was a pioneer in the business and sort of our patron saint. They have an excellent museum of his stuff that we were all going gaga over.
We had reps from Washington to Texas, Wisconsin, of course Mississippi. People from small departments and large departments. People who are well known in the business and people who are just getting started.
How has that exchange benefited Oktibbeha County?
Ideas. We”ve had a number of visitors here. I do work for some fire equipment people and we”re talking about someone building one of these gadgets I saw on these (British) trucks.
We learn a little bit. Why do you do it that way? Or, this cloth is a little different than ours.
We”ve seen several programs they do for fire prevention and safety analysis. Even though they”re different than us. I mean, they drive on the wrong side of the road, they don”t throw the water we do, they don”t do a lot of interior firefighting like we do. Their construction is different and their management is different. But still, a fire is a fire.
And we have some fun. We had two guys come over one year and they”re not used to seeing guns. We arranged to have them go out with the sheriff”s deputies to the firing range and they”re just “Ahhhhhh…”
actually missed our round of tornadoes?
Yeah, I was gone for the tornado. And of course, the guys really liked me going over there so I wasn”t here to get in their way. They said things worked a lot smoother with me gone.
There”s a lot more damage than I realized. They took me on a tour when I got back. My daughter had the first rescue truck into Cumberland, and that was pretty serious.
That”s the thing we face here all the time is we”re not as prepared as we ought to be. Just like in Webster County, their E-911 didn”t have any backup power. Our guys took one of my generators and fired up Brackley Oil to put fuel in police, fire, ambulance, Highway Patrol, electric department, any vehicle that needed fuel. We had electricity with an army surplus generator and have several in the county. I can make shelters out of my fire stations.
Switching the focus to Joplin, where do you imagine they are in their recovery efforts?
They”re still in rescue mode. They”ve still got a couple hundred people unaccounted for. Whether they”re alive is very slim, but they haven”t given up yet.
There”s starting to be criticism from the public because the city hasn”t accounted for everyone, but in looking at the magnitude of the destruction, this is basically unprecedented. We”ve had larger loss of life, but the magnitude of the debris, at least in America, is unprecedented. They”ve got all the dogs out and the heavy equipment and they”re doing the best they can, but they”re a long way from getting everyone accounted for.
Jason Browne was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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