Big thank you Fire Safety Officers Telless and Lauzon for putting on a well-attended and informative Fire Apparatus Driving Drill both this past Saturday and Sunday. About 60 Firefighters attend the two-day driving exercise. Firefighters started with a classroom presentation, which included a driving video and PowerPoint training lecture designed according to DOT standards and then they hit the five-station driving course, set up to simulate various fire apparatus driving scenarios. Firefighters practiced circle checks, serpentine driving, multipoint turns, parrel parking, and backing up trailers. This was Captain Telless's final driver training drill, as he will be retiring at the end of December. Safety officer Lauzon did a great job assisting with the class! (Photo's by Retired Firefighter, Steve Blanchard)

CFD Fire Company’s 1, 2, and 3 participated in the Deputy’s Structure Fire Drill this past Saturday and Sunday morning. This year, Deputy Germaine designed a live-fire training exercise geared to simulating a realistic Structure Fire Response.    Fire crews responded from our old Fire Headquarters, located at 112A Main Street, with three Engine Company’s, a Heavy Rescue, our new Tanker and a Ladder Truck from Onset Fire, to a reported smoke in the building at our training facility, located at 99 Main Street. First in fire crews encountered heavy smoke from the first and second floors our three story training building. Orders to the first arriving Engine Company were given to lay a 4” line supplying the building standpipe system. The second due Engine Company was ordered to make entry on side A, through our forcible entry door prop, conduct a quick primary search of the first floor and move towards fire extinguishment. The Onset Ladder Company was order to ladder the third-story window, where firefighters from the first due Engine Company would ascend the ladder, attach a supply hose to the standpipe system, charge it and descend to the second floor, extinguishing a fire in our bedroom fire room. A third Engine Company was assigned to Water Supply, drafting out of the Carver Elementary School’s underground 30,000 gallon water tank, about ¼ mile away. The Tanker would then shuttle water from the water supply Engine to the attack Engine feeding the standpipe system. The Rescue Company was assigned to ventilation and ordered to ventilate the lower training building roof prop. With the cooperation of Carver EMS, an EMS/Rehab Sector was established, with all CFD personnel transitioning through the Rehab Sector at least once during the exercise. A complete structure fire scenario was run three times, with six live burns completed throughout the morning allowing firefighters to practice in different positions on the apparatus.    This is the fifth year we have been able to conduct the live structure fire training at our facility. Every time a CFD firefighter can hone their live fire skills working under real fire conditions raises our firefighter’s confidence when they are working the real thing! This labor-intensive training exercise would not be possible if it was not for such a dedicated CFD Officer core to help Deputy Germaine facilitate all the scripted evolutions throughout the two days.  Special thanks to the Onset Fire Department for allowing CFD to train with their 75-foot ladder truck. Working off a ladder truck is not the norm for our fire crews, and with Onset Fire stepping up and assisting added valuable experience for our fire crews! (Photo’s by Assistant Deputy Chief, Jesse Boyle)