this slide really depicts the first arriving conditions based on the first do company and why you can see it in the lower right hand corner is where engine three the the the vehicle that's parked up on mansell verse station on arrived in this with the conditions that they found and what's important to know here and it's hard to see it a little bit is the bottom of the screen that is a construction fence that surrounded that entire property and then you'll also notice numerous gini l around that building both of those things people will talk about here in a few minutes that impacted this impact that our operations but if you look to the left of the building you'll see going to see some scaffolding and you're going to see another picture that so they arrive at this fire and and they see they talk to the construction workers and the construction workers tell them the only access to that area that's burning you cannot access it from inside the building you have to go up that scaffolding that's on the left hand side next sli please so this is that left hand side of the building and this is would be the other side of the building where that scaffolding is on the left hand side in this photo there are three firefighters one way to your right and then one with a hose center archway is where the fire started the construction workers were working in that area so and the firefighter to the left is actually in the room tonight he assisted in stretch he was actually a member of the ambulance crew the second to arrive he helped hose that hose up to the up to that location his partner took over the pump panel of engine three because engine three staff the two people they dead man it's called dead man the chief assigned the rescue company the ambulance crew one to go up there and help in the second one to run the pump panel on engine three next slide please so while they're up on the other you would say the left hand side of this building this is about the time that the chief cut and i arrived the fire was was really starting to consume the building materials on this on that facade and what you're seeing here now is active free burning in the decision was quickly made that we need to put a big water on this and this is where we went with what we call master streams very quickly to try to knock down and slow the growth of that fire if i ma this fire it looks dramatic but it really is a surface burn here with a polymer based sealant that they have put on the roof so that's what you're seeing here that's why you're seeing all the black dark dense smoke although the fire had progressed on the inside essentially in the attic of the building at the time so not only do we have a lot of drama and a lot of fire on the outside we had fire in hidden void spaces in concealed spaces inside the building it was you know to the point we have people trying to make their way to the third floor of this building from the inside and in the report that we're getting on the outside doesn't match the conditions the report we're getting about conditions on the inside is way different than the conditions were reporting on the outside and that's starting to confuse us robbing we're having questioning that and you'll see here to us next slide but the construction that building really helped us at the end of the day so this is this just really depicts what we want to talk about here is how this labor intensive this fire was so there's a while there's three aerial units that you can see there and photo mallet's bay aerial truck is actually on the back side of that building and ultimately we would bring it to a new skis to be on the left hand photo so total of five aerial apparatus in operation at one time the deputy just told me in his twenty five year career twenty four year career he's never been in a fire with that many year old devices working at one time next slide please this is a confusing photo but i want you to understand that this was the third this is what we found on the third floor and i was a picture literally immediately after the fire was knocked down so those are the large cabinets that stored the collection and while normally we would have access that void area from the inside we would cut holes and main while to access that void or those cabinets were not moving and ultimately right on the back side of those cabinets was where this void area was that really required us to do open it up from the outside an aerial on ladders we just could never get past those cabinets so while the construction helped us at one point it also made it impossible for us to do work as we often would do it to access the fire acts like this and this is just a list of assisting agencies that helped us out that day i think the one is the one thing the first service does really well and shouldn't county and much of the country city calls that day for us and and i think in addition to staffing metal for medical protection for our members up there and i think they handle three or four other medical transports in the three or four hours before we could start get one of our units freed back up to be in service so the outcome the the building the you know the the dollar loss in terms of the rehab cost or about two point eight million is what risk management told me this week we set the estimate for the fire lost about six hundred thousand obviously you know the because the of the damage they were opted to do some pretty substantial remodel of that building we had to we had two firefighters suffered minor injuries and the cause again was workers work by them soldering copper roofing we did was tough to read and it is tough to read this here you certainly have in your packet this is just some facebook post we had got from people around the country thanking certainly thanking us forces there for saving what would they would say would be irreplaceable collection next slide please and so really this is why we're here today to talk about the challenges are lessons learned and these really come down to just a few things any time there's a building under construction around evasion proposes a tremendous risk to our firefighters and because it's not designed or it's not the fire protection features are in place that they would be otherwise so any building under construction we we take as a as a high risk lack of suppression system this building is probably one of the very very few buildings on campus that does not have a s while the fire was contained a void spaces on the outside and never penetrated into where it would of anytime we have a we feel much better with buildings that have built in sprinkler system access to the building construction fencing all around that building required thank goodness we had construction workers help us tearing down security fencing so that we could get aerial units in place you know one thing about aerial units they have a limited reach and if we can't get the truck in close enough they do us very little of value so there was there was some pretty creative work to get aerial units in close enough that we could get to reach in fact we special called an area unit had a mid mount versus a rear mounted so that we could scaffolding that's crisscrossed back and forth there's numerous pinch points it takes a lot of people to move a hose line up that type of environment that is not something that is a daily occurrence and certainly was a tremendous challenge but the line was deployed very quickly and and we're lucky that we have a very well trained crew access to fire in void spaces so again that was it's called a mansard roof there's really continual void space around that entire building that's what that spaces between the inside of the building and the outside and that's where that fire traveled and then finally if you remember that morning it was extremely humid so it was by midday it was really hot but when when it was hot and humid so when you take a normal out on a firefighter then add on all the gear he or she is wearing it's another hundred pounds the the pretty substantial problem for us and and with that i try to be quick i'll certainly any questions but again this was a very impressive fire from the visuals it was it was something we trained for and i think our members performed very well thank you very much chief and chief current can you speak a little about the dispatch how that because we're talking about moving to a different dispatch system sure so you know again initially this this fire comes in as a radio max master box alarm so over four hundred buildings in our community are protected by a fire alarm system that automatically reports into our dispatch center which if we go to regional dispatch you every intention at that same would ring in the same way so that the box rings and we call it a box earrings in the dispatcher sent transmitters the alarm for that building it was fouled up by a nine hundred one call but the but before that occurred our officer had already reps on the smoker officer sitting on the truck and upgrade the alarm so the dispatcher just knows ok i'm going to do the next call the next resource they pull out we have a matrix  so when a request is made to upgrade the alarm the dispatcher can open up a sheet and say ok this is who i call next thanks to your support the mayor support and about six months or less that all be computer automated and depending on where we are in the city you automatically by computer tell them that so and then beyond that the dispatcher did an excellent job calling resources i think as we talked about during regional dispatch but she was she had to make numerous calls  much interesting was essex came in and provided coverage downtown and i think they had the opportunity to run quite a few calls that day for us and they were they were surprised at the narrow streets and how more urban  president no doubt chief i'm aware that in my experience that there are very specific requirements for hot work from the university of vermont can you tell us whether those were in place on that day and how they affected your response they were they had they actually had or you mentioned that there are fire people here who were involved and could you just ask them to stand up so i can just acknowledge fire  station three so i just want to say thank you so know i i guess when i'm listening to you i wondered in one sense we were lucky that they were able bodied people who could help with lifting that hollows up i can appreciate how you're describing how you had to go up that scaffolding with the hose but if those construction people had been there is there a lesson that is or something is there a takeaway for our community regarding that i mean with just two individuals with that hose and the height of that building it would it have yielded a different outcome i don't think on this particular fire that would a yielded a different outcome it does make a difference though every other day so and i think you know i think ultimately our job is labor intensive and any time we can have an additional person or persons there without a doubt it makes a difference but in terms of the speed to deploy that hose line most likely making a significant change in the outcome probably not but again every other day on almost every other call it makes well you know i i love i mean this is ward one's fire station i love the fire station it's old but i know it it also limits the size of the fire engine that you can have there also and so i but what i was trying to figure out was with a fire engine that size and the structures around it being now of more significant height is that station and a limiting factor is certainly the the size of the doors and any time so i think ultimately all fire stations have their challenges although of if you had any reflective thoughts on the potential for regional dispatch in terms of this what what you experienced here i think you know i'm a huge proponent of regional dispatch i've got that feeling and you know i struggle to see any sense where regional dispatch would not be it's a better thing you know a lot of us to be more efficient and be able to use and move resources around the county as you need them i i struggle to ever see a downside to resolve this patching it's a system i come from i know what it works i cancer jangan i think i have two questions and the first one is if we move to a regional dispatch system do you think it will still be necessary to keep your department budget as well as the number of your employees intact my opinion one has nothing to do with the other series of dispatch moves or units are would say that your fire department and our fire department is needs or resources that they have and and obviously we want to make sure that we have the ability to deliver their right number of firefighters to your home and so i would see no reduction in staffing or the budget as as a result to regionalization for the fire  why because of the additional responses that occurred after all units were committed on the location maybe fasted to receive like oh the fire station number one or number four or number t to get to the web the if you'd been to wait for six to come all the way and she could understand every one of burlington's resources were on scene probably within four or five minutes from the time of call so when we say we're calling in other resources essex back fill what we call back filled our stations and so all twenty of your on duty firefighters plus another forty or thirty or forty off duty firefighters return and some of those off duty firefighters who arrived before even south burlington which is a staff fire station which is obviously our first and mutual aid units so we're see you're seeing twenty five to thirty members on scene before you ever see another resource from another community but ultimately these things are labor intensive and require a lot of people but big firms like that don't occur every day it's the little it's ultimately i think this afternoon between four and five o'clock if they didn't do seven calls in that hour they didn't do one and so it's it's not for us our standpoint it's the every day grind that's that's that wears on our resource cancer more one more question an very impressive response from the department i happen to be just nearby when the fire took place and got to see it in person even more impressive to see some of the detail they showed that t fire officers for being here tonight for you right work to have a good evening at this time i'd like to open the public forum and we can set the clock for three  minutes and we'll start with james lockridge and he will be followed by steve marshall  here to encourage you to support the resolution that will place an advisory question on the march sixth ballot to generate revenue for the housing trust fund it's a simple initiative that will alleviate pressures that are making burlington too expensive to live in and it will contribute to making sure that all the people who call burlington home will have a better chance of continuing to call it home in the future i also want to encourage you to learn more about the hurt and the harm that everybody loves a parade mural has caused our citizens of color and others who are marginalized it was created without a transparent inclusive process that would have helped it be a genuine reflection of our diverse community and its history and it should be removed to help reverse its harm that a new bureau should be created with a process that unites our community behind it rather than divides us painfully next week councillor j will introduce a resolution that compassionately addresses this and i thank you for being prepared to support it thank you the city has a very interesting opportunity to take responsibility for the public health when tonight we consider the proposals from the ordinance committee to modify in fact liberalize our ordinance on public waste elimination the difficulty with that ordinance as i read it is that it doesn't place full responsibility for the public health on the city i've asked council tracy to propose an amendment to that ordinance and while we're still in discussion we discovered that the city council has decided to decide this ordinance tonight which is a really big disappointment to me because i was told that we were going to be able to continue discussing it that's all parent that occurred the important thing is that the ordinance proposal the intention is to hold the city responsible to bring the city into a sense of responsibility to itself and to the community for planning for places facilities in the words of the ordinance where people can eliminate waste the idea that there are places in the city that you can go and you can't find a facility you are forced to eliminate illegally in public is very very problematic everyone who lives here everyone who travels your visits here who's away from home from inside the city and so i would ask you to please support the proposed amendment and give us a chance to go back to the ordinance committee to finish the work of putting the proper nuances into this into this change so that it can be really an effective change the main thing that i want to ask for is that when a police officer gives a ticket the police officer writes down where the infraction occurred and where the nearest bathroom was that's not included in the present proposed amendment and were to be included information would be coming back to the city about where the need is greatest and it can only help the planning process and that's all this is about is  my comment is just in regards to the resolution leading to the process for defining and deciding among the city's carried interest options for going to telecom that in any discussion you have in deliberative session regarding this if president no delling councilor paul could provide additional context around line twenty one where it says the city has potentially one year from the closing of the sale transaction to enter into the membership interest and the residents of burlington the vote against proposition to impose one percent tax on houses over five hundred thousand dollars or seeming noble this is an unnecessary tax or directed at individuals rather than multi unit profit driven landlords his property values have increased even starter homes can be praised close to five hundred thousand dollars meanwhile an individual can be rental income property for several hundred thousand dollars and paid twelve percent even less after deduction in taxes and what is considered investment in one of the main causes for high property values is a r bust rental market this proposition does nothing to address the robust market by driving it down one of the main times an individual has to pay five hundred thousand dollars for a house and then has to account for an additional fee in their monthly budgeting whereas a landlord pays five hundred thousand dollars for a unit and passes it on to his or her tenants therefore increasing rents it would be in my opinion wiser to tax an individual landlord who owns more than five units non owner occupied units and or has no residence in burlington this would incentivize smaller landlords lower rents and to slow down the domino effect of rolling equity of units purchasing a larger and more unit thank you thank you margaret and bozek valid by jimmy lease had a couple of questions i was going to pose about paragraph two in the resolution but counter proof was able to answer this for me today and about how this particular paragraph fit with the work of the alliance i'm so i just want to say thank you to the public safety can for its work and to bring the council up to date about some of the work recent work of the homeless alliance earlier this month we adopted new coordinated entry policies and procedures and what that means is that people who are experiencing homelessness are going to have much more streamlined access to and the community is going to have much better data about who's experiencing home we already had in place a common hipaa compliant release and a data sharing agreement subject of course to the more consent but we will now have an expanded by name list of everyone in the community who's experiencing homelessness agencies across the board have agreed to comment assessments for vulnerability and housing barriers with specialized assessments for single adults families terms of domestic violence and we  service corps that result from those assessments will be used to direct consumers to the most appropriate resources so permanent supportive housing for people who are most vulnerable  y housing for people who only need temporary assistance and for that great bulk of people who fall in the middle more streamlined access to section eight resorts and apartments by name list will be reviewed on a monthly by julie starts with an i'm sorry donald trump says he is the biggest nuclear butt and he's already directed flights of the other thirty five which he describes as his threatening others it's also a weapon of mass destruction threatening three thousand troops into an area according to the air force fire mental impact statement especially the children living in those three thousand people they're learning memory reading and concentration  goes only to certain burlington commercial real estate development developers i e the forty four acres of now vacant land for which the city has repeatedly requested south problem to change  signatures were gathered to meet the requirements to get on the ballot fortunately you recently received credible were from an insider in the air force that you have thirty five can still be cancelled and then alternative equipment is a bit article twenty of them or the constitution gives the basis for town meeting all the people have the right to assemble together to consult for their common good to instruct their representatives to instruct you the city council this is right want to be respected especially now with donald trump in command this is a radically different  him maybe he'll help me thank you and then gloriously good evening my name is julia mr and i am a recent graduate of the university of vermont i helped collect signatures to put the f thirty five issue from a town meeting to a ballot and i am a resident of the old north residence of the greater burlington area are familiar with the sounds of f sixteen but the f thirty five at over four times louder would disrupt our lives already hundreds of people have been bullied out of their affordable housing and those who remain face decrease property values but the value of homes will be the least of residence concerns as noise pollution would threaten people particularly the children and elderly with hearing loss developmental delays partitions and more i am always reading about the aging population of vermont and the fact that young people don't want to stay here a lack of affordable housing and increased military operations certainly don't encourage people like me to stay while i was out working signatures of burlington voters i had to turn away many people from essex trying to herd south for ellington and a new scheme would have to deal with this program like we would the opposition to the f thirty five as progress and our petition to show what was most encouraging to me were voters would listen as i gave facts and figures about the dangers of the f thirty five but then asked for time to do their own research more often than not they would come back to sign my petition to deny the citizen at stake the opportunity to speak their minds about this issue would be unconscionable this is a justice issue and one that demands careful consideration burlington should not give its stamp of approval without a vote by the people it is my hope that the city council will round us the ability to take part in the democratic process before we destroy the destroy the lives of neighbors elders wildlife and children thank you lois len and thank you i want to take the opportunity to comment on the resolution the council voted for one percent sales tax property housing parents my own home is valued just under five hundred thousand dollars i paid thirteen thousand dollars in property taxes under the new tax laws i won't be able to write all that off and now when i go to some my home you want to call the one percent tax on there's no information on here i get this money would go to the salaries of those actual housing and rent subsidies and i just don't see how that the trust was created in the last in this so called tax reform that just passed what happens when you lower the corporate tax rate is that investors and indeed the main vehicle for getting affordable housing creat low income housing tax credit their appetite for making investments in tax credits decreases significantly so we're going to actually see a decrease in the value of a very very dollar of tax credit we used to generate about ninety i'm sorry  about ninety cents of equity in equities used to create affordable housing would be like if that dollar now creates eighty cents in the south will be in the neighborhood of seventy three to seventy five cents they'll have a significant hit on the state's ability to produce affordable housing our trust fund is created from the affordable housing in to answer a question was raised earlier the lion's share of the money does go all but about ten to fifteen percent goes right into bricks and mortar creating affordable housing so it really is not a big supporter of salaries it's a really important piece of the puzzle to bring affordable housing to anything you can do with it was exactly to this question or or some variation on this question increase the resources for affordable housing will make a big difference for those folks who are struggling most let's remember those folks are folks learning below fifty percent of median income which the housing trust fund targets that significant population and over half the first i might mention and concern that we would bring although let me preface to say i think we would all agree that there's an affordability challenge will the ruling to end shit and counting and prosper mine and there's none of us in the real estate business who it's just that we're not concerned about the price of housing about rental prices or about property taxes and i think like many i'm probably more concerned because the federal tax changes haven't just happened and as i've said every old and we need to build more houses around not just affordable housing but also course housing an upper middle class housing as well there's an opportunity and demand for that i think if we could raise increase grant list we would have opportunities to address some of these issues so i would really discourage you from looking at a proposal that looks at such a small segment of people who worked hard to invest in their properties that are paying substantial property taxes it's a take away potentially five thousand six thousand their equity at the time they sell or to charge of you know just seeing an additional five or six or seven thousand dollars at the time they purchase is a way love this town but this is not a tax it's going to benefit anybody in burlington it's certainly not in my opinion affordable housing a few speaking points the i r s just changed taxation so these people are getting hit by not being able to write off more than their ten thousand dollars in property taxes and leave this year we're looking at a double digit increase expected for schools these are the people who have to pay their own way they receive no property tax pre made and it's estimated that seventy percent of residents of vermont receive this is systems and it's not going to be these people this proposal i feel is going to drive anyone with the means to pay taxes however city and possibly our state we all have a choice where to live where to do business for me i choose burlington but this is not making my job in my career to help people sell or purchase property easier i can't imagine another five six seven thousand dollars in closing costs for either side of the table and that's what this means  the proposal is going to discourage these capable taxpayers i think from being here i feel it's unfair to discriminate against this segment we should encourage people to invest in these folks have a purpose and i think this discourages i feel and i think the mine people that the builders cost is nearly forty percent return just  and think about things it's not going to  be a process there should be a vetting process industry professionals should be involved i think that there's probably a way to come up with a much more comprehensive plan to achieve the goal maybe surpass what is being proposed in its current form and i do think it's really i mean obviously there are multiple people from my industry that are here with  vested interest in this and it's important for our industry and for everyone to have housing that is affordable to them and you know it's this is not just because it's going to affect real terse and our pockets you know we have a deep vested interest in the community and housing for everybody and i think you will find more than one participant willing to sit on a committee to help