HomeMy WebLinkAboutReport of the Fire Chief.pdf
May 12, 2016
Honorable Kate Supron
Board of Trustees
Village of Cayuga Heights
Monthly Report April 2016
We finally slowed down a little in April with a total of 40 runs. There were 19 calls in
the Village of Cayuga Heights, 16 calls in the Town of Ithaca and 5 mutual aid requests.
We had 21 EMS responses and 19 fire calls. On April 13th we were requested to Salem
Drive in the Town of Ithaca for a report of construction workers who hit a gas pipe. On
our arrival at the scene we found that a road crew from the Town of Ithaca had struck a
gas line while doing road work. E202 and a full crew arrived on scene and quickly
established a water curtain over the leak to minimize static discharge and to keep the gas
low in the ho ld until NYSEG could shut down the service. Quick action from the crew
kept the danger to a minimum and the situation was resolved within and hour.
We did a fair amount of training through the month of April. We held our annual SCBA
recertification trainings on two nights to cover all our members. Every member of the
department is required to do an annual recertification on SCBA. This recertification
requires each member to at least don their gear and pack and be breathing air within two
minutes. All interior members of the department are then required to perform a set of
skills that include searching a large area in the dark, moving through a wall with standard
studs that requires that the airpack be taken off and then put back on once through the
wall and then a refresher on window bailout using the gear mounted bailout system.
Over the two nights we were able to get everyone through the training. We continued to
work with the new probationary members on their checklists so that they will meet the
requirement to have at least all of their first sign offs done by June 1st. Assistant Rescue
Director Irwin Tendler has been teaching a series of EMS trainings focused basic EMS
skills and equipment. This is a good refresher for our EMTs and a good introduction to
the equipment for non EMTs so they are able to assist on EMS calls. I and three other
officers traveled to Indianapolis for the Fire Department Instructors Conference at the end
of the month. This is a full week of training classes both inside a classroom as well as
hands on training offered at various locations in and around Indianapolis. The four of us
attended over 100 combined hours of training over the 5 days. It was an amazing
conference and all of the training was done by leaders in their field of expertise. One of
the man focuses of all the training sessions was team building within department and
focusing on all members and not just those that show exceptional motivation. We had
many discussions amongst the crew through the week on how we can improve our
training to bring everybody to the same high standard. We are very excited about this
and we all had some ideas on how to make it work. The show floor of the conference
was huge and offered an opportunity for us to see what is new in our industry and look
ahead to equipment that we would like to put in service in our department.
In April we held our Annual Installation Dinner at the County Club. The event was very
well attended and all who were there seemed to enjoy the evening. The officers of the
department were sworn in by Mayor Supron and have assumed their positions in the
department. We look forward to a productive year and are setting goals for the
department that include more live fire training and increasing the number of interior
firefighters.
The front pad project is ongoing and we look forward to completion in early May. The
guys from the DPW are doing a fantastic job on this project and we appreciate it very
much. It will be nice to have a solid pad out front with good drainage.
As we move into May we are getting ready for Cornell, Ithaca College and Ithaca High
School graduations. Every year on Cornell’s graduation weekend we hold our Graduates
Dinner for all of our members who are moving on. We host a dinner at the station on
Friday evening for members and their families. We start in the late afternoon and cook
all evening to accommodate people coming into town at different times. This allows us
to meet all the families and it lets family members see how important their student
volunteers have been to the success of our department. It is a great night with lots of
laughs and stories from the years of volunteering. It is always a hard time of the year
when we say goodbye to those who have spent their college careers with us.
Sincerely,
George Tamborelle
Fire Chief/Fire Superintendent