Thursday, September 20, 2007 - Members drilled over boat training for the evening. Crews loaded up in the MSU and Utility and went down to the boat on Solomons Island. Captain 3 Thomas went over firefighting operations with the boat. Members used the boat standpipe pack and deck gun and practiced flowing water. Captain Thomas when over many key points to keep in mind when using the equipment. After the evening was over member learned how to properly re-rack the standpipe pack and stow the equipment on the boat.
Saturday, August 11, 2007 - Several of our members ventured to the Joseph Sacco School of Firefighting in Valley Lee, MD for training. The purpose was to provide initial firefighting skills to our probationary members as well as a refresher for our experienced firefighters. Topics included; the importance of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), the proper use of the Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA), fire behavior and hose handling. The tasks that the members were faced with were search and rescue (maze), helicopter firefighting, and attacking a fire after descending a flight of stairs (simulated basement fire). The probationary members that attended were: Chris Roper, Stacy Farrell, Ryan Taylor, Belinda Taylor, and Kirsten Shea. The active members included: Assistant Engineer Tim LaFaive, Jake Hollinger, John Carlson, and Robbie Lee. We would like to thank the lead instructor Deputy Fire Chief 3B Rich Wilson for setting up this training for us.
Also a special thank you to Joseph Sacco School of Firefighting Fire Instructors Mr. Robbie Springer and Stanley Boothe for giving up their Saturday morning to assist with the training.
Sunday April 29, 2007 - While crews worked so hard during the day cleaning apparatus for the Southern Maryland parade it was decided among the officers that it was a great day to give people some truck experience and the new pump operators a chance to pump the pipe. Crews prepared Truck 3 in the back parking lot and fully extended the ladder. While the pump operators prepared Engine 31 to supply the ladder with water new firefighters were given the chance to climb the ladder. To quote one member "It is absolutely amazing up here I can see the power plant." After all the members had their chance to climb operators practiced the evolutions involved in supplying the truck with water. It was great drill time for all and a great break from cleaning the pieces.
Units: Engine 31, Truck 3, Chief 3C, Captain Rusch
Thursday March 15, 2007 - This evening during drill crews review procedures and techniques used during vehicle extrication. We began by Sergeant Richman discussion the proper technique for removing the doors. After removal Chief 3C (Bladen) went over items to watch for while using the tools such as wires and placed a big emphasize about staying clear of the tools while be used. Later Chief 3 (Moore) demonstrated a technique to pop doors by placing the spreaders in the window area and spreading. Unfortunately crews could not get the chance to remove the roof because increasing rain conditions. A drill will be held in the future where this will be gone over.
Units: Rescue 3, Chief 3, Chief 3C, Sergeant Richman
Saturday December 10, 2006 - There is nothing like waking up at seven in the morning with the fresh December dew blanketing the ground and emptying the house to go to a training burn on Coster Road. The house was donated by a family who plans to build another structure on the land. The portable pond was set up for Engine 31 to draft from, being supplied by Carl Pitcher with a semi truck filled with 8000 gallons of water. This was a very appreciated donation because it prevented us from have to use Tanker 3 to shuttle water back and forth. The first challenge of the day was to remove a boat the had been skillfully placed on the rear porch. The call for Brush 3 Chief (Franklin) to come to the burn with the winch to move the boat was put in. After dragging the boat from the house, to prevent it from catching on fire and putting harmful chemicals into the air, Fire Captain (Bladen) organized the membership into teams of 3. These teams advanced hose lines into the house from the rear and upstairs via the side entrance. With the supervision of Fire Chief (Leannarda), Chief 3A (Nava), Deputy Chief 3B (Wilson) and Deputy Chief 3C (Moore) fires were lit in several of the rooms and extinguishing evolutions were performed. After several evolutions were performed the house was burned to the ground while practicing suppression activities and containment. Afterwards the owners of the residence provided us with a cookout of hamburgers and hot dogs which was most appreciative. We would like to thank everyone for their help with this event from the donations to the photos provided to us by Debbie Soltow. Also thanks is given to Deputy Chief 3C (Moore) for organizing this burn.
Units: Engine 31, Engine 33/Tanker 3, Engine 34, Truck 3, Utility 3, Car 3, Brush 3, Command 3, Ambulance 37, Ambulance 39
Mutual Aide: Carl Pitcher's Semi
Saturday November 18, 2006 - Several members decided to take Boat 3 on a run in the Patuxent River for a photo shoot for the webpage. While out on this run we decided some necessary training could also be accomplished. Lieutenant 3 went over the various pieces of equipment, docking procedures, and fire pump procedures and operations. Over the next year we hope to train more firefighter as both operators and trained personnel on the boat.
Units: Boat 3, MSU 3, Lieutenant 3
Saturday, October 21, 2006 - The Saturday duty crew decided there was need for some more training especially in the area of following attack lines and search/rescue. To make it more realistic firefighters had their Nomex hoods on backwards, hoses were bunched up in tangled messes, Sirens from the Utility were utilized for noise and confusion and obstacles such as tables, chairs, doors and a RIT team making entry were used to attempt to hinder progress. Both teams that participated in this training preform exceptionally well. A comment was made that this is was alot more difficult than the training firefighters are put through during MFRI evolutions. This training was meant to help train our firefighters to stay calm, communicate better, and build up more confidence in both themselves and their team.
Units: Utility 3, Sergent 3, In-house Sergent 3
"Pictures courtesy of Debbie Soltow"
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