Annual Hose and Hydrant Testing Underway

About this time each year WPFD crews head out into our fire district to ensure our equipment meets standard operating requirements. We test all of our hoses at high pressure and ensure hydrants operate properly.

Hydrants need to be accessible with no obstructions and overgrowth removed. Caps must be removable from fittings and valves need to be operable, and with reasonable force.

Hoses get a treatment of high pressure for a timed duration.  We pump 200 psi of water to each line and ensure it can hold that pressure for 10 minutes or more.  These hoses come from the factory able to hold 800 psi but regular wear and tear can take a toll.

We make sure everything works as expected and remove/replace anything that doesn’t make the cut.

 

Newest Emergency Medical Responders – EMR Class of 2017

 

Congratulations are in order!

The following WPFD members recently completed training for Emergency Medical Responder!

Congrats to:
Henry Kessler (Station #1)
Mike Wilson (Station #2)
Virginia Austin (Station #4)
Brian Woepple (Station #2)
Mary Quaid (Station #4)
Steve Quaid (Station #4)
Blake Gilliam (Station #1) – not pictured
Cliff Spann (Station #3)
Joel DeWitt (Station #3) – not pictured
Ron Bruchwalski (Station #5)

EMR’s (formally called First Responders) are specially trained to provide pre-hospital care in medical emergencies or trauma situations, typically provide basic life support, and give vital assistance to Paramedics and EMTs.

These folks invested quite a bit of time over several weeks and completed 40 hours of classroom/lecture and practical (hands-on) learning. Adding the time for private study, class prep, and exam readiness can double the time commitment.

What will they think of next?

What an idea! I understand many vehicles on the road already have this not-so-new safety feature called a turn signal. What will they think up next, self -driving cars?

Watch the funny video if you have a few seconds.

<iframe width=”854″ height=”480″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/pMO4nyZ9xG8″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>

Seriously, last night at a minor wreck at an intersection we had one of four lanes of travel partially blocked. Directing safe travel around the wreck was hard because drivers could not communicating to our traffic personnel what direction they wanted to go.

Help us out, please. A quick signal of your intended direction can help us guide you through traffic obstacles and detours more efficiently.

Thanks and stay safe!

Additional WPFD Repeater Tower Planned

Hard at work. WPFD had a crew mixing it up on a mountain top with about 100 bags of concrete today. We set the foundation and base section of a new radio repeater that will serve our western part of our fire district. In the future we expect better communications for our crews working south of Lake Maumelle to the north side of Lake Norrell and toward the central part of our district near downtown Ferndale. We are glad it was a safe day and no one got hurt or slid down the steep mountain, luckily. Thank you to all of our guys that made it out to get this long needed project coming out of the ground and going skyward.