February 2021 Wexford VFC Recap

Incidents

We finished February with 31 calls.  Three fire-related incidents included assisted with a commercial structure fire in Richland Township, a confined cooking fire in McCandless, and a chimney fire on Pinkerton Road in Pine. Here is a breakdown of incident totals by major incident type category:

False Alarm & False Call- 8
Fire- 3
Good Intent Call- 9
Hazardous Condition (No Fire)- 3
Rescue- 7
Service Call- 1
Total-31

1ooth Anniversary

The Wexford Volunteer Fire Company began as an idea for better fire protection for the farming community of Wexford in 1921. Members of the community gathered and decided to organize a fire company. By 1922, the Wexford Volunteer Fire Company had taken delivery of their first motorized apparatus, a 1922 Ford Model T fire truck. From those humble beginnings, we have grown into a fire protection service of over 50 members, operating 10 vehicles out of three locations. Learn more about our history by clicking here.

We are proud to celebrate our 100th year of service to the community. With the uncertainty of COVID, we’re unsure if we’ll be able to celebrate this anniversary in person with the public. If things improve, we certainly hope to hold some type of public event to commemorate this milestone.

 

 

Training Activities

The weather may have been snowy and frigid, but members made good use of weekly training time in February. Training topics included firefighter rescue procedures, ladders, hose bundles, and a review of new dispatch protocols. In the picture to the left, members are working to paint the tips of our ground ladder stock fluorescent green. This helps the ladders be more visible to firefighters in a building or on a roof. Members replaced halyard ropes on extension ladders (the rope used to raise the extension) to set up the ladders to be raised faster in rescue situations.

Crews also experimented with new hose bundles that will be carried on our primary fire engines. These hose bundles are carried into a building and used to connect to the building’s fire standpipe system. This is so firefighters do not have to deploy hose from the street in larger buildings. We don’t have too many buildings that require true standpipe operations. The AHN Wexford Hospital Tower and campus parking garages will change this, and create the need for a different hose bundle system. The new hose bundle arrangement will be carried on the outside trays of our fire engines. They will also provide additional hose options for situations such as homes that are set back far from the road.