Article: Woodbury police officers jump into firefighter role; The east-metro suburb now has 10 officers who double as firefighters, keeping their fire gear in the back of their squad cars.(NEWS)

Byline: Kevin Giles; Staff Writer

When Woodbury police officer Jeff St. Martin arrives at a fire, he slips out of his shoes and bulletproof vest and pulls on his firefighting pants and boots while standing outside his squad car. "It's an odd feeling taking my gun off in the middle of a public location," St. Martin said. "I'm kind of doing my chicken dance out there."

What started as an experiment in Woodbury to improve response times at big fires has grown into a full-scale effort to break with tradition. Washington County's largest city is Minnesota's only public-safety department where on-duty police officers double as firefighters, changing into ...

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