Eden Prairie Fire Department, 1986 - 2018. Fire Chief/Director of Emergency Preparedness (ret) NREMT, U of M MHA Candidate, 2026 Lifelong learner
Eden Prairie, Minnesota
Joined December 2010
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George Esbensen retweeted
October 27, 1974
First Quarterback Ejected From an NFL Game
Vikings field general Fran Tarkenton scores a touchdown and is then tripped by Patriots cornerback Ron Bolton.
Fran fires the ball at Bolton's head, a fight ensues, and both players are ejected.
George Esbensen retweeted
Right around this time on this morning in 1987, #MNTwins first baseman Kent Hrbek was hunting bluebills in Litchfield, an hour and a half west of the Dome.
What did he have going on later that day? Oh, just Game 7 of the #WorldSeries.
Hrbek was one of a kind. #Legend
Spent most parts of 3 days at EPFD Fire Station #3 responding to calls including on snowmobiles brought to the station by fellow firefighters.
The Halloween Blizzard of 1991 is the storm that gave Minnesota its favorite bragging rights. It arrived just days after the Twins won the World Series, as if the state had not been given enough joy for one week. The forecast called for flurries, and what showed up was three days of snow that people still describe in the same voice they use for family legends.
It began like a trick. On Thursday, October 31, freezing rain and wet flakes rolled in around trick or treat time, and kids headed out in costumes anyway. Plenty of them wore snowmobile suits over their capes and cardboard masks. Some trick or treaters reportedly showed up at doors on snowmobiles. By midnight, the Twin Cities airport had measured about eight inches, more than any October on record at that point, and the sky was just getting started.
The next day buried everything. Another 18.5 inches fell on November 1, and the Twin Cities finished with 28.4 inches, the largest single storm in its history, a record that still stands. Farther north, Duluth got 36.9 inches, with 24.1 of them in a single day, and the winds blew the snow sideways for what felt like forever. Snowblowers sold out in a flash. A neighbor who owned a working one became the most popular person on the block, and a bag of jelly beans might have bought a driveway.
The storm had a way of bringing people together. Cars disappeared under drifts, schools closed, and roads turned into white tunnels. The snow was wet and heavy, strong enough to damage a number of roofs, so folks climbed up with shovels to clear them before the weight became a problem. Strangers pushed stuck cars, shared extension cords, and handed out coffee. When the clouds finally broke, the temperature dropped to three below zero on November 4, the earliest subzero reading the Twin Cities had ever recorded.
Then came the candy. Parents everywhere discovered that a bowl of Halloween treats makes a spectacular emergency supply. Kids ate fun size Snickers for breakfast, built snow forts that stayed all winter, and returned to school with stories that grew taller than the drifts. A pumpkin sat on a porch with a snow hat for days, glowing faintly under a white blanket.
That is why Minnesotans still say the date out loud with a little twinkle. They remember the frozen costumes, the shoveling, the neighbors, and the quiet after the storm, when every street was soft and silent. If anyone from out of state asks whether it ever really snows in October, the answer is simple. In 1991, we had a Halloween you could not walk out of.
Source: MN Field Guide | FB
George Esbensen retweeted
#RichlandWA: A dryer #fire at Shoreline Village Apartments trapped a woman and two children on a balcony. All three were rescued, while the building’s #firesprinkler system helped control the #fire. #Firesprinklers are more than a building requirement, they’re a critical layer of life safety.
#SprinklersSaveLives
nbcrightnow.com/news/richlan…
Beautiful!
‘That place saved my life’: Fire fighters return to the IAFF Center of Excellence to give back
IAFF Center of Excellence graduates bring barbecue and hope to members receiving treatment.
iaff.org/news/that-place-sav…
This training is invaluable! There’s no advance warning if you’re going to need it and the outcome can be forever lasting! I had the training and a moment came my way. The training kicked in and thankfully we had a successful outcome for all involved. #training #firefighter #life
🔥 MAYDAY! IS YOUR COMMAND TEAM READY?
When a firefighter transmits a Mayday, the incident commander must manage two critical priorities: rescuing the firefighter in trouble AND maintaining the fire control operations necessary to stabilize the incident.
But successful Mayday management starts long before the Mayday is transmitted.
🚒 BLUE CARD MAYDAY MANAGEMENT WORKSHOP — TWO UPCOMING OPPORTUNITIES!
📍 Winston-Salem, North Carolina
📅 December 10–11, 2026
📍 Worcester, Massachusetts
📅 January 25–26, 2027
📅 January 27–28, 2027
This two-day workshop examines real-world Mayday events, lessons learned from firefighter line-of-duty deaths, Mayday research, and the practical application of the Blue Card Incident Command System.
We'll focus on both preventing Maydays through effective command and strategic decision-making and managing the incident when something goes wrong.
As Alan Brunacini reminded us, "You must be doing everything right before something goes wrong."
Don't wait for a Mayday to find out if your command system is ready.
👉 Register today at BlueCardTraining.com!
#BlueCard #MaydayManagement #IncidentCommand #FirefighterSafety #FireCommand #FireServiceTraining
George Esbensen retweeted
The documentary about the Metro surge last winter is out and streaming today until the 24th, in MN only. I just watched it and it is amazing and very moving. $10.00 to stream and learn so much about your neighbors. 
Please repost and share widely.
twincitiesfilmfest.org/film-…
George Esbensen retweeted
Dan Campbell gave a game ball to Dan Miller after the Lions beat the Cardinals.
Miller, the voice of the Lions, lost his wife to cancer this week.
George Esbensen retweeted
In 1940, British fighter pilots began noticing something deeply frightening about their aircraft.
Push a Spitfire or Hurricane into a sharp dive, and the engine could suddenly splutter, lose its strength, or stop altogether.
German pilots already understood the advantage. Their fuel-injected Messerschmitt Bf 109s could dive aggressively without suffering the same problem. British Merlin engines relied on carburetors, and when the aircraft experienced negative G forces, fuel rushed through the carburetor in the wrong way, leaving the engine without the mixture it needed.
In a fight for your life, even a few seconds could mean everything.
Then Beatrice Shilling stepped in.
Shilling was an aeronautical engineer at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, but she was far from the quiet, conventional engineer people might have expected. Before the war, she raced motorcycles at Brooklands, one of Britain’s most dangerous racing circuits. She became one of the few women to earn its prestigious Gold Star after completing a lap at more than 100 mph.
She knew machines.
Rather than attempting to rebuild the entire carburetor, Shilling found a remarkably simple answer: a tiny metal restrictor placed in the fuel system to control the sudden rush of fuel during negative-G maneuvers.
From 1941 onward, Shilling and a small team traveled from RAF station to RAF station, fitting the modification directly onto fighter aircraft.
The pilots soon gave the little device a nickname that would follow it into history.
“Miss Shilling’s orifice.”
It was not a perfect solution. Later carburetor technology eventually dealt with the problem more completely.
But that little piece of metal gave RAF pilots something precious when they needed it most: an engine that was far less likely to betray them during combat, without having to wait for an entirely new engine design.
And perhaps the best part of the story is the woman behind it.
Before Beatrice Shilling helped keep British fighters alive in the sky, she had already been spending her weekends pushing motorcycle engines beyond 100 miles per hour on a dangerous racing circuit.
When war placed a dangerous engine problem in front of her, she did what she knew best.
She understood the machine.
George Esbensen retweeted
Every rule in the fire service was written in someone's loss.
I spent 31 years finding that out. Now I'm going back through the fires that rewrote the job and telling them properly.
New documentary every four weeks.
youtube.com/@TheLastAlarmDoc…
George Esbensen retweeted
The Super Bowl? Well at 4-0 and team can dream. We are sharing 3 rare clips of SB IV - The first Super Bowl for Minnesota in 1970. One B&W version of the game existed from Canadian Armed Forces TV, until we found this GEM & brought it to 4k color. Bud Grant Pregame Interview.
George Esbensen retweeted
The @WhiteSox lost 121 games two years ago. Then a Sox fan from Chicago named Bob was elected Pope.
Now they're one game away from the AL championship series.
Coincidence? You decide.
George Esbensen retweeted
We spoke and tabled at the Greater NW EMS Conference last week Thursday and Friday. #thankyou for inviting us to speak!
ALT A Minnesota Regional Poison Center exhibitor table is displayed at a professional conference. A person stands behind the table, which is covered with a red Poison Help tablecloth featuring the Poison Help logo and the national poison assistance number, 1-800-222-1222. Educational handouts, pens, giveaway items, and informational materials are arranged across the table for attendees. The person is holding a conference event program while staffing the outreach booth. Conference seating and meeting room walls are visible behind the display, highlighting poison prevention education and community engagement efforts.
George Esbensen retweeted
This is not a joke.
The Russian biological war research should have us all concerned and stopping ALL flight from Russia, and all Russians from entry.
The longer this goes on the more countries we will have to stop flight from.
FYI: the Russians were working on a plague that is resistant to antibiotics
Russia's plague outbreak is getting worse, now with 5 hospitals in Irkutsk quarantined, universities canceling classes and accusations from healthcare workers that the government is attempting a media cover-up.
Nearly 200 contacts of a 28-year-old anti-plague laboratory worker who died last week are reportedly under isolation or medical observation.
Irkutsk universities are canceling classes citing a “case of pneumonic plague,” while an aluminum plant introduced mandatory masks. A local government warning advising residents not to travel to Shelekhov was published and later deleted.
Healthcare workers claim doctors are discussing plague internally while avoiding the diagnosis in official documents.
Russian health authorities continue to deny any plague outbreak, attributing the woman's death to “pneumonia of unknown origin.”
Pneumonic plague is far worse that it's Bubonic cousin as its transmitted directly between humans.
George Esbensen retweeted
Alan Alda, now 90, is one of the country's most-beloved actors, best-known for his role as "Hawkeye" Pierce on the classic TV series "M*A*S*H."
Alda talks with CBS News chief medical correspondent @DrLaPook about his challenging childhood, dealing with polio and his mother's schizophrenia; his decades of work to help scientists and health care professionals communicate more clearly; and about living with Parkinson's disease, which he refuses to let define him.
George Esbensen retweeted
Hitler could not defeat Great Britain, so they bombed the residential areas of its cities.
Stalin could not defeat Finland, so they bombed the residential areas of its cities.
Putin cannot defeat Ukraine, so they bomb the residential areas of its cities.
All fascists are alike…