by Ralph Nichols

King County Fire District 2 Commissioners and Chief Mike Marrs are inviting the public to the groundbreaking for the new Burien/Normandy Park headquarters station on Wednesday, July 27.

The new Station 28 will be built at 900 SW 146th St. The “groundbreaking celebration” will begin at 5 p.m. and continue to 6:30.

Marrs said he expects the construction contact to be signed about Aug. 2, with work beginning just a few days later.

He told The B-Town Blog earlier that the new facility – at the long-time location of Bonney-Watson chapel and mortuary – should be completed and occupied in six to nine months.

Voters in the King County Fire District No. 2 approved in November 2008 a $25 million bond issue for construction of the new headquarters fire station and replacement of the existing station in Normandy Park.

The bond issue included the costs of property acquisition and equipping the new stations.

Burien has long needed a new fire station to replace the outdated and undersized existing facility at the corner of SW 151st St. and 8th Ave. S., Marrs noted. It will include space for the department’s ladder truck, which now must be parked away from downtown.

The Normandy Park fire station at 135 S. Normandy Road will be built at that location. The fire district has acquired an adjacent residential property for the building site and the existing station will remain in operation when construction begins.

Here’s the KCSO’s full release:

A man died in Burien this morning of apparent natural causes.  He was driving a car and was stopped by detectives, but then later collapsed along the side of the roadway.

The incident began at 10:36 AM when two detectives driving an unmarked car stopped a 1995 Toyota Corolla at SW 151st and Ambaum Blvd in Burien.  The wing window of the car was broken out, and the trunk lid was unlatched and bouncing.  Detectives thought the vehicle might be an unreported stolen, as these are both common ways to enter a car to steal it.

Detectives talked with the driver, a 49 year-old man.  He said the car belonged to the passenger, a 46 year-old Seattle man.  After a short investigation they confirmed the car did belong to the passenger.  They warned the driver about driving with no insurance.

The detectives left the scene at 10:46 AM.

At 11:08 AM Burien Police were called back by the fire department, who were performing CPR on the driver.  The man collapsed some time after the detectives left.  The aid crew needed deputies because the passenger was complicating their efforts.

CPR was not effective and the man died at the scene.   According to a relative of the man, he suffered from several health problems and was currently under the care of a physician.

PREVIOUSLY:

An apparent heart attack victim died on a Burien street around Noon on Tuesday, Jan. 25th, after his vehicle was allegedly pulled over by an undercover police minivan.

The incident occurred just before Noon at the corner of Ambaum Blvd. SW and SW 149th, in front of CSL Electronics.

According to eyewitness Juan Barron, Owner of CSL Electronics, the driver was pulled over by an unmarked, gray minivan. After talking with the undercover officer, the driver of a white Toyota got out of his vehicle and collapsed on the street.

At least six police cruisers and four aid cars quickly converged on the scene, and CPR was “frantically” attempted to no avail.

The victim died at the scene. No identity has yet been released, but as we get more info we’ll update this post.

Publisher/Editor Scott Schaefer happened upon the scene shortly after it happened, and shot these photos:

Emergency personnel worked frantically to save the victim, who apparently died on the street.

by Rebecca Dare and Bill Opfermann

When a disaster hits, first responders will not be able to help everyone – you may not even be able to contact 911. You may be at work and not able to get home. In the critical first hour of an emergency, the people you will turn to for help are your neighbors. Have you talked with your neighbors about what you would do during a disaster?

We recently hosted a neighborhood disaster preparedness program called Map Your Neighborhood (MYN). We invited 33 households in our neighborhood. We created a neighborhood map in advance and numbered the houses 1-33. Fifteen neighbors came and we followed a video that led us through the steps. MYN also provides booklets with all the steps that we followed. The host on the video has you pause it at certain points so that the participants can fill out the information to create the neighborhood plan. We put together a contact list that included phone numbers, children’s names and pets. We also put together a Neighborhood Skills and Equipment Inventory. We chose one house to be a gathering spot after a disaster and a house designated as a care center for children and vulnerable adults. Though not part of the MYN program, another house was offered as a place to house pets if necessary.

Those that came really liked the program. We felt more connected as neighbors and had an empowered sense that we could help ourselves and each other in case of a disaster. We hope many neighborhoods, including those living in apartment buildings and condos, will find this interesting and useful enough to do it themselves.

Sustainable Burien’s January 9th meeting will be devoted to neighborhood disaster preparedness. We’ll have 4 or 5 speakers: Karen Ferreira from Regional Emergency Preparedness; Mechee Burnett, from SeaTac Police Department, will talk about CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) training; someone from the Fire Department; a person experienced in cleanup and restoration after a disaster; a neighbor who went through the Northridge, CA. earthquake, and Bill and I will share our hands-on experience helping to create a prepared neighborhood.

Map Your Neighborhood (MYN) is a program designed to start your neighborhood conversation about disaster preparedness. The MYN program was developed by Dr. LuAn Johnson, of the Washington State University Emergency Management program , to help neighborhoods of 15-20 houses quickly and easily create a response plan for emergencies. Click here to view a video of Dr. Johnson that may be helpful.

The Map Your Neighborhood Program will help you:

• Create a neighborhood contact list and identify those in your neighborhood who are elderly or need special assistance.
• Create a neighborhood utilities map that shows the locations of natural gas and propane tanks in your neighborhood.
• Identify the skills and equipment that each neighbor has to contribute during an emergency. Now you’ll know who has plumbing skills, who knows emergency medical care and who has a chainsaw or generator.
• Learn the 9 Steps to Take Immediately After a Disaster. You’ll be able to protect your home and secure your neighborhood with this written checklist.

We hope you can come to the January 9, 2011 (Sunday) Sustainable Burien meeting at Burien Library at 2 p.m. to learn more about Map Your Neighborhood and other disaster preparedness information:

WHAT: Sustainable Burien “Map Your Neighborhood” Meeting.

WHEN: Sunday, Jan. 9, 2011 at 2pm.

WHERE: Burien Library.

INFO: We’d be happy to answer any questions we can about the MYN program and our own experiences. You can contact us at: rdare2@yahoo.com.

On Wednesday, Oct. 6th, the city tested its new “Burien Alert” system by sending out automated, recorded messages to resident homes and cell phones, and yes, they even sent out emails as well.

We got calls on both our cell and home number, and luckily, we were able to record it. Of course, now that we have a recording of this test call, we can’t just sit back.

Nope, we’ve got to review it. Play with it. Have fun. “Cuz that’s how we roll.

First, here’s a recording of the call in its raw form – this is how it sounded when you picked up the phone:

Being that we’ve done our fair share of audio production work in both Seattle and Hollywood, we felt that this effort fell um, a little flat; here are our notes:

• First off, our rule is to always start with a positive note: Hey, good idea cityfolk – this is definitely a worthy investment of money. Unless of course the phone lines all go down, cell towers fail and we’re all without any power. Then, um…oops…
• With that said, we’d like to point out that the audio recording was weak. No authority, and yes, the version they’re using actually includes a mistake – listen to the Announcer stumble on the word “information”:
• Quite frankly, we think the voice talent should be replaced. There are a plethora of local voice actors that would be happy to work on this project, including Burien’s own Henry Dardenne, the snarky voice of those wacky Pemco Insurance ads.
• Also, the production quality sounds like it was recorded on a Windows 95 machine in a city-owned building on SW 152nd. C’mon, we can do better than that B-Town! Here’s a sample remix version that we think would get people’s attention right away in any emergency:

Now, did you notice the scream we used at the start of that? Yes, that’s the infamous Wilhelm Scream,” a stock sound effect first used in 1951 for the film “Distant Drums.” According to Wikipedia, actor-singer Sheb Wooley is considered to be the most likely voice actor for the scream, having appeared on a memo as a voice extra for the film. In “The Charge at Feather River” (1953), the scream is heard when a soldier named Pvt. Wilhelm (played by Ralph Brooke) gets shot in the leg by an arrow. And now, the City of Burien could use it, since it’s considered public domain!

That’s okay cityfolk – you can download this MP3 for free and use it. No charge!

We can’t wait ’til this gets used after a real disaster…

If you live in Burien and your telephone rings on Wednesday, Oct. 6th, don’t be alarmed if you hear a recorded message for a test emergency earthquake drill.

The City of Burien will participate in a countywide earthquake drill on that date, opening its emergency operations center and performing functions as if the emergency were real including communicating with residents and businesses.

In addition to the robo-calls, here’s what else will be going on:

• Residents may also see an alert on the City website.
• Alerts will also be broadcast on the City’s radio station, Radio Free Burien (540 AM) and on Burien Cable Channel 21.
• People with telephone land lines in their homes or businesses will receive an emergency alert through Burien Alert, the City’s new emergency notification system that went into effect Sept. 15. Those who have signed up to receive alerts over their cell phones and other electronic devices will receive a call from Burien Alert.

People can “opt in” their cell phones and other devices to the Burien Alert system by clicking the “Burien Alert” button on the City’s Web home page at www.burienwa.gov. Those without Internet access can come to City Hall for assistance opting in. For more information on Burien Alert, go to www.burienwa.gov/alert.

For more information on Burien’s new “Alert” system, read our previous coverage on this story here.

The City of Burien on Wednesday (Sept. 15) booted up their new “Burien Alert” emergency system, and now residents and businesses have a new way to receive alerts about natural disasters and other emergencies.

“Burien Alert” is a mass notification system that enables emergency officials and other first responders to notify residents via a “reverse 911″ type of phone message, text messages, or even email (read our previous coverage here).

According to the city:

The system, which went into effect today (Sept. 15), is intended to notify residents and businesses about significant risks to health and safety. Public safety officials can send alerts about emergencies such as severe weather, floods, utility disruptions or critical police activity. Emergency alerts may be sent 24 hours a day, based on severity. When a number is called, the person receiving the call will be instructed to press 1 to hear the message. The emergency or community alert will follow.

Households and businesses with a land line will automatically receive the emergency alert. The system allows individuals the opportunity to ‘opt-in’ their alternative electronic devices also, including cell phones, work phones, text messages, e-mails, and more. Those with land lines will continue to receive emergency notifications, regardless of whether they opt in with other devices. Those who opt in will receive an emergency notification on their land line or on devices they chose when they opted in.

Residents and businesses can opt in on the Internet beginning Sept. 15 by accessing the Burien Alert button at the bottom of the City’s Web home page at www.burienwa.gov and following the opt-in instructions. People without access to the Internet can come to City Hall at 300 S.W. 152nd St., Suite 300, for assistance opting in. Free computers with Internet access are also available to the public at the Burien Community Center and Burien Library. All information provided will be kept strictly confidential.

General information and frequently asked questions about Burien Alert can be found at www.burienwa.gov/alert, or you can just sign up for Burien ALERT here. Besides choosing how to receive emergency notifications, users also can choose to receive alerts regarding locations of interest – emergencies that may affect a residence, workplace, child’s school or other areas that are within the Burien city limits.

Businesses benefit when their employees opt in because wherever they are, information can be relayed to their employees about local emergencies.

On a personal note, we went ahead and signed up for it, adding our home phone, cell and office phone numbers, as well as two email addresses. We can’t be sure until an emergency strikes how efficiently it’ll function, but if and when one does we’ll do a full-on review of it from whatever bunker we end up hiding in.

And no, we’re not plotting a fake emergency just to test it out.

Really.

There were no injuries, other than perhaps the ears of the three family members (and neighbors) who got out safely thanks to their pet.

The fire apparently damaged an old car that was being restored in the garage.

Read KIROTV’s full story here.

Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training begins Sept. 16th and continues every Thursday evening from 6pm – 9pm at SeaTac City Hall, which is located at 4800 South 188th Street.

CERT was created by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in 1994. The goal is for emergency personnel to train neighborhood residents, community organization members and employees in basic emergency response skills. CERT members are then integrated into emergency response efforts for their area. Some sessions require physical participation while others are primarily lectures. Instructors emphasize that participants must be physically fit enough to engage in strenuous activities, such as lifting and carrying.

There is a $35 fee for the course and select supplies, and a thorough background check is conducted on applicants.

Various session highlights include:

• Sept. 16: Disaster Preparedness, with Instructor Mike Marrs, Chief of the Burien/Normandy Park Fire Dept.
• Oct. 7: Disaster Psychology & ICS, taught be Sgt. Henry McLauchlan of Burien Police, and Kathleen Gleaves of the Port of Seattle.
• Oct. 28: Terrorism & Review with Doug Reynolds of SeaTac Police.
• Oct. 30: Final Mass Casualty Exercise, which is the big finale with fake “victims” being treated in a mock disaster. Cool.

For more information, contact Community Service Officer Mechee Burnett at (206) 973-4917 or mechee.burnett@kingcounty.gov.

Here’s the full class lineup:

The Grand Opening Celebration for Highline Medical Center’s New ER and Patient Care Unit is coming Saturday, April 10th from 10am – 3pm at the main campus in Burien.

Along with tours of the new facility, there will be a cool “Blood & Guts” exhibit by Pacific Science Center, workshops, a book signing, mini massages (NOT for MINI Coopers), ambulance and fire truck tours, limited free bike helmets for kids and much more.

Here are the details:

WHAT: Grand Opening celebration of Highline Medical Center’s New ER and Patient Care Unit.

WHEN: Saturday, April 10th from 10am – 3pm.

WHERE: Highline Medical Center’s main campus in Burien (Enter from Sylvester Road for Event Parking).

INFO: Here’s a schedule of events:

Limited Seating On First Come, First Serve Availability.

• 10am: Pacific Science Center presents “SENSE-ational” an entertaining exploration of your senses and how we perceive the world around us.
• 11am: “Are You Ready?” Fitness expert Bob Harper, from The Biggest Loser speaks on finding the motivation to get fit.
• 12pm: Bob Harper signs his book, “Are You Ready! Take Charge, Lose Weight and Change Your Life Forever.” Copies available for purchase.
• 1pm: “Use Your Head.” Grant Goodeve from Northwest Backroads shares his story of a parent’s worst nightmare.
• 1:30pm: Pacific Science Center presents “SENSE-ational” again for those who missed it.

Here’s some info from a flier:

TOURS OF OUR NEW ER & PATIENT CARE UNIT ~ FUN & INFORMATIVE ACTIVITIES FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY:

• Blood and Guts, a Pacific Science Center Exhibit
• Acupressure Demonstrations
• Ambulance & Fire Truck Tours
• Wellness & Health
• Risk Assessments
• Mini Massages
• Free Health Screenings
• Bike Helmet Fittings for Kids
• Cupcake Lady
• Health Information Booths
• Senior Health & Wellness
• Safety Booths and Information

SPECIAL GIVEAWAYS:

• 150 free kids’ bike helmets, personally fitted to each child and free Child ID Kits while supplies last. And more.

SPECIAL GUESTS:

Bob Harper

Bob Harper has become one of the nation’s most sought-after motivational experts. Now entering his ninth season as a fitness trainer on NBC’s worldwide hit The Biggest Loser, his optimistic outlook, practical advice and gregarious demeanor have earned him fans all over the country. And his “inside-out” approach to making lasting lifestyle changes has led to countless success stories. Harper is also a regular on The Dr. Oz Show and has appeared on Oprah, Larry King Live, CNN Live and Ellen. He has been featured in magazines, including “Oprah,” “Entertainment Weekly,” “TV Guide” and “People”. His book, “Are You Ready! Take Charge, Lose Weight, Get in Shape, and Change Your Life Forever?” was published in 2008. A limited number of copies will be available for purchase and signing at the event, with proceeds to benefit the Highline Medical Center Foundation.

Grant Goodeve

Grant Goodeve, host of KING TV’s Northwest Backroads, has been a star of television and film for more than 35 years, with leading roles on Eight is Enough, Northern Exposure and One Life to Live, plus dozens of guest roles including Murder She Wrote, Dynasty and 7th Heaven. After moving to the Northwest with his family, Goodeve became a local favorite as a contributor to KING TV’s Evening Magazine and host of the popular series Northwest Backroads. As a father, he experienced a parent’s worst nightmare, when his son Mac had a serious accident while mountain biking. He’ll tell their story and share what every parent should know about bicycle safety.

More info available at Highline Medical Center’s website.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE:

• Temporary Occupancy Approved For Highline Medical Center’s New E.R.
• Highline Medical Center’s New Emergency Dept. Set To Open April 9-10

At 2am this Sunday, Nov. 1st, bar owners and patrons throughout the area will rejoice as they’ll be the first to take advantage of the extra hour that’s given back by the ending of Daylight Savings Time, as all clocks are to be set back one hour at that time (which equals an extra hour of drinking as well as sleeping off the hangover the next morning).

This weekend is also an excellent time to replace your smoke detector batteries, as well as do something new that could save your life, or the life of a loved one – get “The Vial of L.I.F.E.” – here’s some info:

The Vial of L.I.F.E…

End of Daylight Savings Time-update your personal medical information for emergency first-responders.

When you’re changing your smoke detector batteries, take a few extra minutes that could save your life–or the life of a loved one.

WHO/WHAT: The Medic One Foundation provides a simple tool designed to help save lives in an emergency situation:

The Vial of L.I.F.E. (Lifesaving Information For Emergencies). First responders are trained to look for the containers in refrigerators upon arrival at a home.

The “Vial” of consists of a 5-inch “prescription” plastic vial containing medical forms with key information about an individual’s medical history. Over 30,000 have been distributed locally.

WHERE: New to the Vial of L.I.F.E program? To get started, pick up a new “Vial” at any Bartells for just $1 (with net proceeds benefiting the Medic One Foundation).

HOW: Update forms are available online at: www.mediconefoundation.org or www.bartelldrugs.com.

Complete the form with all current vital medical information; put the completed form (s) in the vial and place it on the top shelf inside the refrigerator door.

Follow directions for placement of refrigerator magnet and front door sticker.