Apalachin Fire Department

by Anthony R. Quaranta
Chief, Apalachin Fire Department

 Happy Saint Patrick's Day to all. It should be a day of fun and celebration where we can all be Irish for a little while. 
 February has proven to be just as busy as January for us. Currently we are up to 112 calls for the year. We were host to the New York State course Hazardous Materials: First Responder Operations, which several of our members have completed. 

 We continue to have some exciting things happening. We will be hosting another New York State class, Emergency Vehicle Operations Course, in March. This class will train our drivers to operate our vehicles under various road conditions.

  Our Thermal Imager is in and we are training with it. This tool will allow our firefighters to see through the smoke and detect heat in buildings as we are doing our search and extinguishment. This will prove to be a valuable asset to our department and we hope to have it in service by the end of March. 

 New things are coming. Our new brush truck is due to be delivered at the beginning of March and we will be conducting training right away. With determination and hard work, we hope to have it in service by the end of the month. We will also be checking everyone's gear to make sure everyone is properly outfitted for all training and calls.

 Our stations are in good shape and hopefully our staff will be staying fit as well. Our new exercise equipment at station #2 has come in handy this winter, as the outside temperature has been unbearable. Never fear though, spring is just around the corner.