Wolfskin Volunteer Fire Department
Oglethorpe County, Northeast Georgia
Peace in Wolfskin

wolfskinvfd@yahoo.com


Mark Your Wolfskin VFD Calendar!
Send additions, corrections, etc. to wayne@sparkleberrysprings.com.
Please note that as of the beginning of 2015, Wayne's descriptions of training are accurate, but not official. For the official reports along with attendance please contact the new
Assistant Chief and Training Officer, Charleen Foott (foott@att.net).


May 2015

May 5: (Tue 7:00pm): First Tuesday Oglethorpe Firefighters Association meeting (Farm Bureau Office in Crawford).

May 7: (Thu 6:30pm): First Thursday Business Meeting.

May 14: (Thu 6:30pm): Second Thursday Training Meeting. Discussed response responsibilities and tactics, esp in terms of going directly to scene or station, eventually decided should go to station first except: two others have indicated they're headed there; and take a look at scene but only if on way or out of way by less than 1 minutes round trip. No more than 1 minute to check out scene. Also exemption for repeated false alarms from same residence over short period of time. Strongly suggested using number of fire depts called as indicator of potential seriousness.

May 16-17: (Sat/Sun): Firefighter Weekend. Charleen and Glenn left 5:30am on Saturday and returned 6:03pm on Sunday evening. Each took a 16-hour course. CF: Training Operations in Small Departments: This course is designed to provide students with some basic tools and skills to coordinate training in a small fire/EMS organization. A training function in a smaller department typically may include conducting training drills and coordinating training with a nearby larger city or state training function. Exam: Passed. GG: Principles and Practice of Command: This course will present principles and foundations for maintaining a command presence during emergency incidents. In addition, sie ujp, tactics, strategies, and effective communications will be discussed. No exam.

May 21: (Thu 6:30pm): Third Thursday Training Meeting. Thermal Imager was charged while pumper was run for 1 hour. Practiced using booster hose, PTO, and pump.

May 28: (Thu 6:30pm): Fourth Thursday Training Meeting. Chainsaw training: TM and MP went over prepping chainsaw with gas mix and oil, chain blade tightness, starting and safety measures, and fundamentals of cutting up medium diameter trees. (Phyllis arrived and took photos for newsletter, 30 minutes.)


June 2015

Jun 2: (Tue 7:00pm): First Tuesday Oglethorpe Firefighters Association meeting (Farm Bureau Office in Crawford).

NOTE: Jun 3: (Wed 6:30pm): Business Meeting. Changed to Wed night Jun 3 because of unexpected difficulties with attendance on Thu Jun 4 by several members. Sorry! This happens very infrequently.

Jun 6: (Sat 9:00am): County wide training - Search and Rescue. 1096 Elberton Road. See OCFFA Description for details and contact info.

NOTE: Jun 11: (Thu 6:30pm): NOTE: Postponed to 6:30pm Friday Jun 12. Second Thursday Training Meeting. We'll be looking over SalemVFD's brush truck. Sorry about the late notification.

Jun 18: (Thu 6:30pm): Third Thursday Training Meeting.

Jun 25: (Thu 6:30pm): Fourth Thursday Training Meeting.


July 2015

Jul 2: (Thu 6:30pm): First Thursday Business Meeting.


Thursday, May 18, 2006

Training Update - May 18

Just to remind you - the Woodland Fire Training that WolfskinVFD will be hosting is 8 hours a day on the weekends of June 3-4 and Jun 10-11. The controlled burn will be either Sunday the 4th or Saturday the 10th, as I understand it (depending on which day the GA Forestry Commission decides is the best).

Our area is heavily forested, and we have periods of considerable drought in the summer and autumn, so this is an important training event for all firefighters who can make it.

For that training event, you will need to register and you will need your own equipment, including boots - contact us for more information.

So the first part of our training session was to be sized for bootware. Then a few of us had had recent CPR training but for the rest of us it had been awhile so we decamped to Mary's house where, as a professional, she had set up to do a CPR training session.

Mary did a great job. There were seven of us to be refreshed and recertified, and that's a pretty sizeable group to go through all the exercises individually. Mary handled it perfectly. I had had my training quite a few years ago and was no longer confident in the procedures, which have been considerably updated. That earlier training was fine, but Mary's was full of a lot of situational scenarios and clues and hints that the earlier training hadn't covered.

The poor mannikans had their chests pumped and their plastic lungs filled over and over, and by the end of it they were probably more tired than we were, and all they got for their trouble was a clorox wash. On the other hand - they didn't have to take the "short test". (Which we all passed!)

-Wayne

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Training Session Thursday May18 7pm

This is an important training session - please be there! I should also remind you of the woodland fire training on June 3-4 and June 10-11. We are not only hosting, but have to have the right equipment, and that will be measured at this training session. If you can't make it, be sure to get in touch with WVFD by Wed May 17 9pm.

The woodland fire training should be a lot of fun.

From our training officer Ed,
Hello everyone-
Training this Thursday will be an important mix of
items, depending on what you need. Primarily, it will
cover CPR recertification. Boot measurements (for the
wildland fire class) will also be taken as well as the
actual registration for those planning to attend the
class June 3-4 & 10-11. We are the host for this class
so let's have a good turnout! Back to the boots - if
you will be in the class, but can't make training on
Thursday, PLEASE call or email me by Wed., 5/17 at 9pm
with your boot size. We have to place the order on
Friday in order to get the boots by class time. For
those not needing CPR training, there will be truck &
station maintenance. Thanks.
Ed


-Wayne

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Business Meeting May 4

Two things:

First and foremost, we have a business meeting 7pm on Thursday May 4. Please do attend, and we always love to see our civilians there too, and thank you John Fuller - your presence and input is always valuable to us.

Second - Ed and I arranged to meet last night to practice on driving the truck, in this case the yellow Margarita one, the more difficult one to drive. Ed's good at this, and was great at helping me along. I have to tell you that I've no experience whatsoever at driving heavy, manual, lugging trucks and this was a great informal practice. We drove twice up to Corinth Church, practiced backing up and turning around and all that stuff. We did the battery and the air brakes and everything. If you think all the firefighters know just what to do and how to do it, all you have to do is look at me.

So if anyone is anxious about your lack of prowess as a fantastic firefighter, don't be. There's plenty of us who are willing to arrange special times for shy people (like me) who get intimidated and want to practice in a more informal environment. Just let any of us know, and emailing wolfskinvfd@yahoo.com is a good way to start.

Ed and I had a great conversation about photographing plants, as we were making our two round trips to Corinth Church and delaying all those nice people driving behind us. Ed asked if I could identify a wildflower if he brought it in, and I said, maybe, but we can sure find out. Turns out one of our new firefighters, Pat, is pretty darn good at plant identifications too. So if you thought firefighters were limited to fighting fires and trying to drive trucks, there's quite a bit of talent here you didn't know about!

See you at the Thursday meeting.

-Wayne