2022 Annual Brush Fire Drill – Myles Standish State Forest (Photo’s by Firefighter, Steve Falconer) - May 1, 2022

This year’s Annual Deputy’s Drill focused on a large-scale Wildfire in the Myles Standish State Forest.  Over 175 Officers and Firefighters from 17 Towns and State agencies, utilizing 14 Brush Breakers, 7 Forestry Trucks, 3 Tankers, 1 Engine, a State Incident Support Unit, numerous Command Vehicles, and Chief Officers participated in the morning exercise.  The drill tested Plymouth County’s Myles Standish Response Plan used for any wildfire that might strike the State Forest.  Multiple mutual aid radio frequencies and an 800 patch were utilized to help organize the different sectors of Command, Operations, Right and Left Flanks, Water Supply, and Staging for three separate fire incidents within the State Forest.  Brush Breakers were assigned to simulated flanks of the fire, driving through a wood road course utilizing all the water each carried.  A second wildfire scenario was initiated utilizing Forestry Apparatus off of Halfway Pond Road in the State Forest.  In this simulation, Forestry Apparatus drove a wooded course, stopping to extinguish simulated wildfires along the way.  An Engine company established a water supply for both wildfire fire scenarios, with Tankers shuttling over 20,000 gallon of water to areas close to each flank for breakers and forestry trucks to quickly fill up and get back to work.  During the exercise, Breakers were also dispatched to a third simulated wildfire involving a spot fire on the fringe of the forest.  Overall, the exercise was a big success, with our pre-plan tested and everyone learning something, especially how to use winches….  Hats off to Deputy Germaine for organizing the drill and all our CFD Chief Officers and Officers and Officers from surrounding communities for giving up their Sunday to help! Big props to the Chief and Deputy’s wives and our chefs back at Station 1 that served almost 175 hamburgers and hot dogs to the hungry troops at the conclusion of the drill.