HomeMy WebLinkAboutrepsep15.pdfApril 21, 2016
Honorable Kate Supron
Board of Trustees
Village of Cayuga Heights
Fire Superintendent Monthly Report for September 2015
September was a busy month with 46 runs. There were 24 calls in the Village of Cayuga Heights, 17
calls in the Town of Ithaca and 5 mutual aid requests. We had 26 EMS responses and 20 fire calls. For
as busy as the month was, it was filled with routine calls. We did see a jump in our fire alarm activations
when the students returned.
Training is back in full swing now our student members are back in town. September saw us out with
the trucks making supply and moving charged hand lines to get everybody re-acclimated with the
equipment. Our members jumped right in and trained hard. We are gearing up for a busy October with
the three recruit classes on the last three Saturdays of the month. This is an extremely busy time o f the
year for the senior members of the department. We need to get everything in place for the recruits.
Lieutenants Berger and Gladstone put together a great recruiting drive through August and early
September. We had 42 people attend the recruit dinner on September 24th. At the dinner we made it
very clear what we expect from our members in terms of training and membership requirements. After
the dinner we received 25 applications for membership. We formed an interview panel and over the
course of two nights we interviewed all 25 applicants. We had decided before the interviews to take a
recruit class between 15 and 20 because of the amount of equipment we have to issue at this time. After
the interviews we offered spots in the fall class to 16 of the interviewees. We did have several strong
prospects in those not chosen but the people we did not take either lived to o far from the station or were
unsure of their time commitment to the Ithaca area. We did let those not chosen for this class that we
will be running a spring class and if their long term plans change that they should reapply. The 16 that
we accepted will start training on October 17th. We have a great group with several EMT’s and at least
one person with prior firefighting experience. They will all need to complete the three recruit classes as
well as an additional evening of CPR training. After the classes are complete they will have 90 days to
complete their probationary checklists. With the new recruits we stand at sixty members of the
department.
Several of our members participated in the Tunnel to the Towers memorial run again this year. The run
is from Red Hook in Brooklyn through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel to the World Trader Center. This
run is to memorialize the run of Stephen Siller an FDNY firefighter last seen running through the tunnel
with his gear heading for Ground Zero on September 11th. The Cayuga Heights Fire Department has
participated in this run every year since it started in 2003. This year my 4 ye ar old son Jacob made the
run with us.
We were able to resolve the problem with the hydraulic generator on E202. We found that the generator
was leaking hydraulic fluid. It was taken to the service facility in Elmira for evaluation and it was found
to be leaking from a heat exchanger. Initial contact with the manufacturer led us to believe that the two
year warranty had run out and that we would have to cover the cost of repair at close to $4,000. After
several conversations with the manufacturer we determined that they had a five year warranty on the
specific part. They wanted us to take the truck from Elmira to Syracuse to simply have the part installed.
I argued that this did not make sense and they finally decided to cover the cost of the repair and allow
Tyler Fire to complete the repair. We seem to be in good shape with our equipment at this time.
While the fall is a busy time for us we love the challenge of moving our new members through the
training process. It is very satisfying to see everybody geared up in the afternoon of the first day of
training.
Sincerely,
George Tamborelle
Fire Chief/Fire Superintendent