Aberdeen Rural Fire Dept

Join us tomorrow night, August 6th, from 6pm to 9pm at Melgaard Park for National Night Out. Bring the kids down to see our fire truck and register to win this awesome Lego set! We are excited to see you all there!!

The Aberdeen Rural Fire Department was called to 13 135th Street SW on 7/12/24 at approximately 11:00 AM for a reported structure fire. Warner Volunteer Fire Department and Aberdeen Fire Rescue were called for mutual aid. The fire was mostly contained to the exhaust system for the building. Firefighters worked to extinguish fire and ventilate the building. Firefighters were on scene for approximately 90 minutes. Also assisting with this call were the Brown County Sheriff's Office, Aberdeen Police Department and Brown County 911.

Stronger together! We appreciate Aberdeen Fire Rescue coming out to the county to provide additional support to Aberdeen Rural Fire Dept & Warner Volunteer Fire Department on a call for service today.

This is the second time this week that multiple volunteer fire departments have been called out for a fire. Our county is lucky to have so many volunteer firefighters that will come out at a moments notice to help in an emergency!

The Aberdeen Rural Fire Protection District has listed our 2001 International/Central States engine for sale on an online auction at the link below. Bidding opens Wednesday July 3rd at 5:00 PM and will end on Wednesday July 10th at 10:05 AM.

If you have any questions on the truck you can message this page or email [email protected]

https://www.lutterauctiononline.com/auctions.htm #

The Aberdeen Rural Fire Protection District has declared AR-1 surplus and will be accepting sealed bids to be opened at the beginning of the meeting on 06/04/2024 at 8:30 PM. The board reserves the right to accept or reject any and all bids. The truck is a 2001 International/Central State engine. Questions or to view the truck can be directed to the Fire Chief Mark Stoks at [email protected] or you can message this page.

Last night members got to have some fun with our new engine. We practiced water supply from a static source using portable and floating pumps. In addition we drafted with the new engine and flowed water utilizing the deck gun, which is a new tool for us. All in all a fun evening! Thanks to Dahme Construction for allowing us to train at their gravel pit.

Don’t forget to come on down for pancakes, we are serving until 1:00!

Come on down to the station this Sunday, May 12th for our annual Mother's Day pancake feed! Serving from 8 AM through 1 PM! 1.5 miles South of The White House Inn on South 5th Street. See you there!!

This past Tuesday the Aberdeen Rural Firefighters put into service our newest engine. The Aberdeen Rural Fire Protection District purchased this new apparatus from Heiman Fire Equipment that was manufactured at the Rosenbauer plant in Lyons, SD.
Our firefighters pushed in the new engine Tuesday, a fire service tradition for new apparatus that dates back times when firefighters would have to push in their horse drawn engines into their stations after a call.

URGENT MESSAGE
UPDATED: 11:07pm
Brown County 911 services have been restored.
Please do not call 911 to "Test" to make sure it is working, only utilize 911 services only if an emergency situation exists.

There is a statewide 911 outage. if you need 911 services in Brown County please use 605-626-7911 for emergencies, OR you can still use Text to 911 option.
Please do not call 911 to test, we will post when the system is fixed.

Periodically fire departments do what is called "training burns". In this instance our department was approached and asked to burn off some grassland. This is invaluable training for members. Drip torches were utilized to establish fire lines and to initiate and control the burn.

Red Flag Warning for Brown County and surrounding areas starting late morning today. High winds and low relative humidity will cause fires today to spread very rapidly. Please be careful with outdoor activities and check any controlled burns/burning barrels to make sure they are out or won’t spread.

Red Flag today in our area, please be careful with outdoor activities.

Strong southeast winds gusting in excess of 40 mph will combine with low relative humidity to create elevated fire danger across northeastern South Dakota and west central Minnesota this afternoon. A Red Flag Warning has been issued.

The National Weather Service has put Brown County in the Very High Grassland Danger categorty for today and with tomorrow's expected winds we will be in the Extreme Category. If you have had a controlled burn or buring barrel fire in the past week or so please take time to check and make sure that it is out and you have an adequate fire break, with the expected winds and dry fuel conditions fires could spread very rapidly. Yesterday our department responded to a small grass fire west of Richmond Lake that started from a burning barrel.

Lets hope we get some rain Sunday and things start to green up!

IMMEDIATE NOTICE:

Brown County Commissioners have acted on a request for a county wide open burn ban. This was approved and will be in effect until further notice. Dangerous conditions exist and in order to protect health and public safety it was decided this is best until we get some spring moisture and things start to green up. This ban is in place until further notice and will be reviewed weekly.
Thank you for your cooperation.

Information in regards to yesterdays fire:

In February we held our 2023 awards banquet. Awards for years of service milestones, Firefighter of the Year and Rookie of the Year were awarded. We also added two new Honorary Members and one Lifetime Member. Not pictured - David Meyer with 15 Years of Service.

High winds and dry conditions also puts Brown County in the Very high grassland fire danger for the day. No controlled burns today.

Last night members trained in blacked out conditions, simulating darkened smoke filled interior situations. Members had hoods pulled over their faces so they were unable to see, in addition to being placed in darkened areas. They were made to follow tangled hose lines using only touch. This training is utilized to teach members how to find their way out of a smoke filled building using only hose line couplings in the event of disorientation or emergencies. People don't often realize how easy it is to become disoriented in the dark, and firefighters are no different. These skills must be refreshed every so often so we remain proficient in our duties.

Last night we held the drawing for our gun raffle. Thank you to everyone that purchased tickets. Also, thank you to SoDak Sports for your help. All of the winners have been contacted. Below is a list of the winners:

Our members spent a couple hours tonight ringing bells for the The Salvation Army Aberdeen, SD. Thanks to everyone that stopped by!

Just a little over a week left to get your raffle tickets. Contact a firefighter or send us a message if you would like to get a ticket.

Two of our members were able to go down to Warner last night and take part in this training. Thanks for the invite Warner Volunteer Fire Department!

It sounds like today is going to be another nice day in the Aberdeen area with highs near 60 degrees but with some wind today. We would like to talk about tomorrow, Friday December 8th though. The National Weather Service is predicting mid-40 degree temps along with near 40 mph wind gusts. This will put Brown County in the Very High Fire Danger category (and in a burn ban) for the afternoon. If you have had a controlled burn in the past week or so please go out today and check on it, the high winds tomorrow could cause your fire reignite and spread.

Aberdeen Rural Firefighters are having a gun raffle again this winter. Contact a firefighter or send us a message if you would like a ticket! Tickets are $20 each. The drawing will be held on December 19th.

The Aberdeen Rural Firefighters will be down at Melgaard Park Tuesday night. We will have one of our fire trucks on display and will have some other activities for the kids to do. Make sure to stop down and say hi. If you have ever thought of volunteering you can talk to one of our firefighters about that too.

Don't miss Magic Joe or the chance to meet local emergency services personnel! We'll be at Melgaard Park tomorrow from 6 - 9 pm.

Thank you to Anheuser-Busch and National Volunteer Fire Council for the generous donation of canned drinking water! And thank you to Ellwein Brothers Inc for taking the time to deliver the water to our fire station. The water will help keep our responders safe & hydrated while they battle wildfires and respond to long incidents in extreme heat. The Aberdeen Rural Firefighters will be sharing this pallet of water with the other volunteer fire departments in Brown County.

This water was provided through the Emergency Drinking Water for Wildland Firefighters program. We’re thankful for the program & its mission to provide clean water to first responders during wildfire season. Learn more about the program at www.nvfc.org/water.

Last night members of Aberdeen Rural Fire Department trained on different hose advancement methods using 1.75 and 2.5 inch handlines with both automatic nozzles and smooth bore nozzles. Members also got a refresher on fire hydrant operations and relay pumping. Fire hydrant refreshers are important due to the fact our district has very few hydrants in it and we are not exposed to them on a regular basis.

Thank you Lt. Sturgeon and Lt. Hammrich for assisting!