Flourtown Fire Company

Volunteers Serving Springfield Township

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Flourtown Receives New SCBA and Training

On Monday, May 23, 2016 Flourtown Fire began training with its 20+ new SCBA (self-contained breathing apparatus) from manufacturer MSA. Company representative and The Fire Store dealer, John Major, was on hand to help familiarize the firefighters with the new MSA G1 SCBA units. Each unit consists of a harness, back plate, a 30-minute air bottle and face mask, along with NFPA-required heads up air-monitoring indicators, voice amplifiers, electronic and manual air supply warnings and the ability to connect them to radio and other information sources via bluetooth. But the new safety equipment doesn’t come cheap, to outfit all our apparatus and replace the 15-year old SCBA currently being used cost approximately $100,000. A grant from DHS/FEMA and one from the State are helping cover the costs but the fire company will still need to spend close to $5,000, not easy for a 100% volunteer organization.

Photos by Robert Wilmot, Jr.

Firefighter II Class Attends PECO Energy Training Facility

As part of the Firefighter II National Certification class, that members from Flourtown, Oreland, Barren Hill and Centre Square Fire companies have been attending over the past several weeks, one of the requirements is to attend the PECO training facility and work on extinguishing gas/propane fires. On Monday 6/22/15 they fulfilled this requirement.

Station 88 Barrel Fights

For the second year in a row, the crew from Flourtown Fire Co. took first place in the annual barrel fights hosted by Fort Washington Fire Company.

Teams from local companies gathered at the Fort Washington Fire Co.’s training grounds on Monday, August 18th to compete against each other in a “barrel fight”.

A “barrel fight” consists of a steel barrel hung on a zip line between two poles, and it is sprayed with water from a fire hose on opposite ends by each team.  The team that was able to push the barrel to the other side is the winner.  Essentially, it is a fire hose tug-of-war, but with pushing rather than pulling.

Way to go Station 6!

88 Barrel Fights CrewPictured left to right: Firefighters Sal Santangelo, Tyler Buckley, Ross Pike, Andrew Johnson & Ryan Johnson

 

Swift Water Rescue Training

The frequency of water related rescues and flash flooding has been steadily increasing over the past several years.

Flourtown Fire Company firefighters honed their swift water resuce skills during a training exercise on the evening of Monday, August 4th that simulated the swift-water rescue of two victims who were overcome by such flooding.

As a reminder, Flourtown Fire Company reminds you to “Turn Around Don’t Drown (TADD)“, and to take a moment to review the following statement from the National Weather Service:

“Each year, more deaths occur due to flooding than from any other severe weather related hazard. The Centers for Disease Control report that over half of all flood-related drownings occur when a vehicle is driven into hazardous flood water. The next highest percentage of flood-related deaths is due to walking into or near flood waters.Why? The main reason is people underestimate the force and power of water. Many of the deaths occur in automobiles as they are swept downstream. Of these drownings, many are preventable, but too many people continue to drive around the barriers that warn you the road is flooded”

Photos are courtesy of, R. Wilmot Jr.