Crawling Through Small Spaces

A nourishing meal was served up by our training officers last night at WVFD training. The wall of torture, constructed by our resident carpentry genius, was brought out and cobbled back together, and we were all forced to crawl through tiny holes with full PPE and breathing apparatus.

I'm afraid I didn't bring my camera, and I'm really sorry about that because we put on quite a show. But I do have these photos stored away from the end of March 2007, when WVFD put on a damn-good two-month Mod 1 training course for a dozen new firefighters in Oglethorpe County. That's when this construction first made its appearance. As you can see, the openings are pretty small, and it looks like this firefighter might have a wee bit of trouble fitting that BA through:



But that's what you have to do, and probably you aren't going to be doing it in a bright sunny day with plenty of fresh air. You might even be following, with gloved hands, a hose that points the way to safety, with oven-cleaning heat just a few feet above your head:



Our newest firefighters, Gabe and Brian, floored me with how quickly they picked up on familiarity with the SCBAs, the straps, the alarms, putting the BAs on and taking them off, and doing it all with fogged masks and gloves. They got through every tiny hole, and then demanded to do it a last time before the evening was over. Very impressive.

--Wayne

Fire Weather

Thursday night, less than an hour after returning home from the business meeting, we got paged for a car fire. Things went smoothly, with six WVFD firefighters responding and Arnoldsville VFD backing us up. The car was not under a carport or garage, but out in the open, and that was a relief! Ed and I filled the pumper afterward and were back by 11pm.

It brings up a point, though, this Saturday, and all WVFD firefighters should be prepared for the possibility. Today it just felt like fire weather. Low humidity, a significant breeze, and quite warm temperatures for the beginning of November. Indeed we are at a Level Five fire weather alert, the highest. This includes all of Oglethorpe County and points east toward South Carolina.



Sunday's situtation looks perhaps worse - the humidity will be lower with winds up to 9 mph in the afternoon, and even higher temperatures. Monday may be similar.

A very slight chance of rain on Tuesday, but otherwise continued dry through at least Friday, though daytime temperatures should fall after Tuesday and humidity should increase.

So be very careful!

Annual Business Meeting Set For Dec 6 2007

This post, and the Calendar entry above, marks Wolfskin Volunteer Fire Department's formal announcement of the Annual Business Meeting on Thursday, December 6, at 7:00pm. It is extremely important that all firefighters and board members attend, as a quorum is necessary to conduct essential annual business.

Last night we held our pre-annual preparations, and the Nominating Committee presented this slate of candidates for the 2008 officers and board members. You can direct any questions, suggestions, additional nomination input to me (Wayne) or to Fire Chief Mike Geraci:


Officers (and Board Members):

Chief:	Mike Geraci
Assistant Chief:	Ed Frey
Treasurer:	Cary Fordyce
Secretary:	Lisa Vaughan

Community Board Member:
Bill Cosgrove

Firefighter Board Members:
Jim Kitchens
Glenn Galau

Firefighter of the Year - Please nominate!

-- Wayne