Newport Masonic Lodge #118 of St. Paul Park has just donated six life saving fire suppression devices to the St. Paul Park Fire Department.
Taking place Monday April 1 at the 6:30 p.m. St. Paul Park regular council meeting, Masonic Lodge #118 presented four devices to the St. Paul Park Police Department and two to the Fire Department.
Paid for with help from grants provided through the Minnesota Masonic Charities and Grand Lodge of Minnesota and priced at approximately $1,000 a piece, the tiny, lightweight, and easy to deploy fire suppression devices or FST from Fire TKO use a condensed aerosol system that extinguishes and suppresses a fire in seconds, being effective with A, B, C and K class fires.
Activated with an Ignitor Pin, the fire suppression device is best deployed in a contained space and fills a 5,300 cubic foot space, suppressing the fire by interrupting the bond between heat and oxygen molecules, but without removing said oxygen. The fire suppression device then lowers the temperature by up to 1,000 degrees within 35 seconds.
The devices come to St. Paul Park following contact of the Masons by St. Paul Park Police Chief Jessica Danberg, impressed by the suppression capabilities of a similar device used by a Washington County deputy to suppress a fire recently in St. Paul Park.
“The timing of all of this was extremely serendipitous,” she said of how she became aware of the fire suppression devices. “That began with the county receiving the device.”
A house fire reported in St. Paul Park the day after the county received the device, a county deputy responded and deployed it for fire suppression, resulting in saved house pets.
Impressed by the device’s capabilities and directed to the Masons as having made the county device possible, Chief Danberg said the turnaround to get them for St. Paul Park was about a month.
“I can’t believe how on the ball you guys were,” she said of Masonic Lodge #118, several members being in attendance. “This has all happened within a month.”
St. Paul Park fire chief Mike Kramer was also grateful for the donations.
“Thank you to the Masons for this—these will definitely, hopefully not go to use , but something we can keep in our bag of tricks.” he said. “The great thing for them is that they can be used in a small space….thank you very much. We appreciate it.”
Chartered in 1876 at Newport and later moving to St. Paul Park in 1914, Masonic Lodge #118 has been a part of the community from early days.
“We are all residents of this and surrounding communities, and we are committed to ensuring that our efforts will make a better and safer place for everybody,” Lodge #118 representative Stephen Ingram said in announcing the donation. “Besides St. Paul Park , our goal is to equip Newport, the Washington County Sheriff’s squads that are assigned to Newport, the squads that are assigned for Grey Cloud and also Denmark Township, and also the squads that service the lower St. Croix area.”
With seconds making the difference in an emergency, the fire suppression devices donated are considered six to 10 times more effective than Halon 1301.
