Flint Hills FD Celebrate 25 Year Mark

The Flint Hills Resources Pine Bend refinery celebrated the silver jubilee of its two-house fire department on Saturday, as the service has evolved from the six member crew in the early 1990s to its 132 firefighters, 87 of them volunteers, that serve today. The highly-trained department works year-round to keep the refinery and its employees safe. Manufacturing Manager Jon Carson reminded those in attendance that not every oil refinery has its own fire department and theirs often collaborates with mutual aid partners to promote public safety in the broader community. Over the last 25 years, the Pine Bend refinery fire department has become a premier training facility. Pine Bend regularly provides mutual aid industrial fire training to firefighters from the Rosemount, Eagan, Inver Grove Heights, and Hastings fire departments, who have been using the refinerys fire training grounds for free since 1991. The refinerys fire training grounds also host departments from across the Midwest for dozens of free trainings every year. Pete Herpst is the fire chief of the Pine Bend department. He also expressed his pride in the world-class operation that he commands.
   
Posted 08/31/16