September Wexford VFC Recap

Incidents

We finished September with 76 total calls, giving us 444 total responses for the year. There were 41 fire and rescue-related responses and 36 quick response service medical calls for the month. Most fire-related incidents were fortunately minor in nature. Crews responded to the classic “cat in a tree” on September 9. In case you were wondering, yes we do respond to animal-related incidents each year. While the cat in the tree call does occasionally occur, we have responded to more incidents involving various animals from ducks to dogs in storm drains.

Heating season is just around the corner as we head into fall. We typically see carbon monoxide alarm responses increase in the fall and winter months. If your CO alarms are over 7 years old, they should be replaced. Now is a good time to replace. For more information on carbon monoxide visit https://www.cpsc.gov/Safety-Education/Safety-Education-Centers/Carbon-Monoxide-Information-Center

Here is a breakdown of incident types for September by major category:

False Alarm and False Call- 12
Fire- 2
Good Intent Call- 14
Hazardous Condition- 3
Rescue & EMS Incident- 39
Service Call- 6
Total- 76

Community Outreach

Our members are always eager to interact with members of the community at various events. We participated in several events in September. Touch-A-Truck returned to the Pine Community Center on September 18. We had our Tower Ladder on hand with other vehicles at the event. It was great to see the kids explore and learn about our equipment and what we do for the community. We also had crews on hand for Goldfish Swim School’s Safety Day event after Touch-A-Truck.

We were honored to participate in a September 11 commemoration event at the AHN Wexford Hospital on September 11. We set up and Tower Ladder with the American flag for the event. Afterward, our members and their families were invited to tour the beautiful new hospital facility. We also had crews on hand at the hospital on September 20 to welcome AHN to the community as the hospital officially started seeing patients.

Training

We placed our new radios in service in September. Portable radios were distributed to the trucks and certain members. Crews spent two training nights going over the operation of the radios. A key feature is the interface of the portable radios with our self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA). When firefighters have to breathe air from an SCBA, it can be difficult to understand their radio transmissions. The new radios feature Bluetooth connectivity to our SCBA, which is a great improvement on the clarity of radio transmissions. After receiving training on how to operate the portable radios, members spent a training night testing the Bluetooth feature in a simulated fire ground situation to learn the ins and outs of the system.