The Roseville Fire Department got two calls the day after Christmas, one right after the other. It was a scenario Chief Tim O’Neill had been dreading since the department started winnowing its larger part-time staff in favor of fewer full-timers.Technically, he was on vacation, as was one of his full-timers, leaving him with four firefighters on duty to cover two possible structure fires. Which fire should he send them to?
He chose the townhouses at 514 Lovell Ave. because the caller could confirm there were flames.
As for the Rose Mall apartments at 2221 Albert St., he called Falcon Heights for backup. That caller had described smoke filling the apartment. He knew Falcon Heights would do a good job, but he also knew its response time would be longer than Roseville’s usual 3.5 minutes.