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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCHFD04102013.pdf April 5, 2013 Honorable Kate Supron Board of Trustees Village of Cayuga Heights Monthly Report – March, 2013 We continued to be slow through March with another 36 call month. There were 22 calls in the Village of Cayuga Heights, 11 calls in the Town of Ithaca and 3 mutual aid requests. We had 22 EMS runs and 14 fire calls. It was a fairly routine month for the fire department. We did follow up with the Sigma Chi Fraternity with an inspection of their building and a conversation with the fraternity president and the house manager. We are hoping that this will remedy the situation. March training focused on the annual SCBA (self contained breathing apparatus) recertifications and the “weekend warrior” training sessions. We held several of the recertification sessions to get all of our members through the program and meet the county requirement for annual recert. Our first weekend class was on ropes, rigging systems and low angle rope rescue. We focused on the ropes and equipment that we carry on E202 and how to set up rescue systems to extricate victims from low angle situations. Low angle rescues are classified as a rescue where the victim is unable to self extricate but the rescuers are able, with minimal danger to themselves, to get to the victim. We trained with low angle rappelling and stokes basket operations. The stokes basket is a rigid basket that is designed to fit a backboard with a victim secured in it. We trained on the hillside behind the DPW on Sheldon Road. It was an amazing day for training and everybody involved came away with the confidence that we could carry out this task well. Any high angle rescue situations are handled by the Ithaca Fire Department ropes teams. We have the second and third weekend sessions set for April. All of our apparatus are in service at this time. We did order 10 sets of turnout gear that we will fit into this fiscal year with the intention of purchasing 15 more sets in FY 13/14. The new gear has the built in self rescue harness system that is being recommended by the NFPA and the NYS Department of Labor. We will take delivery of the new gear and the bailout systems and then train on them over the summer. We also ordered 2 more Scott SCBA units this fiscal year and will order 2 more in June. NFPA changed the alarm pressures on the SCBA systems and that will take effect in August. They have set the new standard to the SCBA low air alarm goes of at 1200 lbs of air instead of 1000 lbs. This change will mean that, if we don’t get the packs with the same alarm system, our firefighters will be wearing pack that alarm at different pressures and this becomes confusing in stressful situations. After this purchase we will have a total of 22 of the new packs all with the same parameters. It allows us to have a pack for every seat on the heavy trucks and then 7 packs for training and to use as spares if we have to take packs out of service for repair. Elections were held in March for fire department officers positions. The slate was approved by the board at its March meeting and the officers will be sworn in by the Mayor at the Installation Dinner on April 13 th . We look forward to an evening celebrating the past year. All the bunker rooms are currently filled. We have one bunker graduating and leaving this year and have selected his replacement. We have a waiting list of two members who would like to bunk if a room were to come available. We have had several members ask to bunk over the summer and fire council has approved this. This will fill the slots left by bunkers who go home through the summer during break. Sincerely, George Tamborelle Fire Chief/Fire Superintendent