I can think of no more stirring symbol
of man's humanity to man
than a fire engine.
– Kurt Vonnegut
Hopkins is a fine city in every regard except one: it makes a poor location for a fire station meant to serve Eden Prairie.
Yet this was the burning reality until rather recently. A town that doesn’t so much as border our own, dispatching its finest, only for said finest to find nothing to save on arrival.
Ray Mitchell believed a far more sensible solution to be at hand. The young man helped Mayor David Osterholt realize the same in 1967. The Eden Prairie Fire Department was established that very same year, with Ray as its chief.
Twenty men. Breathing equipment for one-fifth as many. A single truck, which could empty its 1,000-gallon tank at a rate of about 300 gallons per minute. No pay. Humble beginnings – but the start of something big.
“I’m not special,” said Chief Scott Gerber. “Every member of this fire department is here for the same reasons as I am. We want to do good. We want to help people. We place service above self. And when we see danger, we run the opposite direction as everyone else.
“Twenty-three full-time and around 80 part-time firefighters currently comprise our department. The former have all trained to the same standard for excellence, and work in 24-hour shifts. The latter, called ‘duty crew,’ come from all walks of life. Blue collar. White collar. Folks who work as engineers, insurance agents, IT professionals, business professionals, or full-time firefighters or paramedics in other communities, and spend what little remaining free time they have with us. It seems every new firefighter we add brings a wealth of new experience that only makes our department stronger.
“And we need all the strength we can get, because we do a lot. This department responded to 4,082 calls in 2025; up 22 percent from the year before!
“Around 70 percent of that call volume is medical emergencies, to which our firefighters are highly trained and typically first responders. The rest are fire emergencies, or special operations having to do with ice, water, aircraft, or railroads. We’re grateful to be part of the tiered approach to medical emergency response that enables the Eden Prairie Police Department, Hennepin Healthcare Emergency Medical Services, and the fire department to best serve Eden Prairie.
While emergency response may garner the most attention out of this department’s many services, prevention is another of our key focus areas. Our four full-time fire inspectors, whose dedication to fire and life safety code compliance prevents emergencies and disasters, deserve no less acclaim. They routinely examine our city’s businesses, hazardous materials locations, as well as multi- and single-family properties totaling around 14,500 occupancies.The nine full-time staff of our city’s Building Inspections Division have done even more to fortify our community, having conducted 13,988 inspections in 2025 alone.
“Preparation constitutes another large part of our efforts. That means serious training. All together, our firefighters trained for a total of 21,412 hours last year. Extrication. Fire suppression. Car crashes. Medical events. Lake incidents. If there is a way to become of greater help when our neighbors’ lives are in jeopardy, then I believe we’re training on it.
“The best emergency is one avoided. That’s why we also focus so heavily on prevention, which largely takes the form of public education. It is an honor to teach schoolchildren skills that might someday save their lives. It’s an equal pleasure to speak with our neighbors at community events. Many people see us around town and want to walk up to say hello. If that’s you, please do! And if you’d really like to see our equipment up close, then I encourage you to attend the Citywide Open House held at Eden Prairie City Center on the first Saturday of every October.
“That equipment is something else to be grateful for, and a testament to a city that stands behind its firefighters. Last year was a big change for the department, as it marked the arrival of our new Pierce Velocity engines. They are state of the art, with 30-gallon foam cells, 750-gallon water tanks, and 2,000-gallons-per-minute pumps. Every last detail down to the design of their cabinets has been fine-tuned to help our firefighters do their jobs safer, faster, and more effectively. We also received two other new pieces of high technology in 2025: Rescue One and Rescue Two, by Skeeter, which greatly enhance our ability to contend with hazards such as grass fires, brush fires, and possible airport incidents.
“At present, our next big challenge is hiring more full-time staff. We added three in 2025 and eight more this year, but we still have a ways to go until we achieve our most pressing goal: keeping all four of our fire stations staffed 24/7 with both full-time and duty crew staff. I expect it will be eight to ten years before we reach that milestone, but I’m confident we’ll get there with support from a great mayor, city council, and city manager – and, above all else, the community we’re so proud to serve.” EdenPrairieMN.gov