March 2021 Wexford VFC Recap

Incidents

We finished March with 32 calls.  Five fire-related responses included a residential structure fire on Old State Road in Pine and four brush fires in Pine and Marshall townships. The residential fire on Old State Road occurred in an unoccupied home. Fire hydrants were not close to the property so fire crews had to set up portable water tanks on the street and shuttle in water with tanker trucks. The house was well involved in fire upon arrival and experienced extensive damage. Crews also responded to two motor vehicle crashes where patients had to be extricated from vehicles.

Here is a breakdown of incident totals by major incident type category:

False Alarm & False Call- 6
Fire- 5
Good Intent Call- 15
Rescue- 4
Service Call- 2
Total-32

 

1ooth Anniversary

As part of observing our 100th Anniversary, it’s hard to believe that it has been 10 years since we moved into our North Chapel fire station. This picture from the dedication ceremony after we moved into the station is certainly a classic. It represents multiple generations of firefighters and family members. There are members in the picture that built our previous station on Route 91o with their bare hands, as well as young members that would go on to be current leaders of our organization. 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.

Community Outreach

COVID-19 caused us to cancel our annual Santa Express last December. In addition to the disappointment of our members and community, we were left with a lot of chocolate bars. As COVID restrictions started to lift this spring, we decided to hold our first ever Easter Bunny Express. We drove the Easter Bunny around in our fire trucks on March 27 and distributed the chocolate bars. It was a beautiful day to be out and we received a lot of positive reactions from the community.

We hope things will continue to improve with COVID so that we’re able to do the Santa Express again this December. Our members are considering the idea of making the Easter Bunny Express an annual event. Stay tuned for details.

 

 

Training

Our members were busy with training in March. We hosted a two-night PA State Fire Academy class through Butler County Community College on Fire Attack at Sprinklered Buildings. There are many fire sprinkler systems in Pine, and more complex systems are being added with the AHN Hospital project.

For weekly drills, we continued to work on setting up hose packs that will be used for the Allegheny Health Network garages and hospital tower as well as other areas. Crews also practiced supply hose layout from our pumper trucks as part of a project to understand how we can better improve water supply in areas that are underserved with fire hydrants.

Four members completed the written and practical skills test for the Firefighter II certification through Butler County Community College. All went well with the practical skills portion, and the members are waiting for the results of the written portion of the test.