~ Serving Downingtown and East Caln Since 1887 ~

The DFD hosted the 16 hour "Officer Development School", that was presented by Operations Chief Ricky Riley - Clearwater, FL; Captain Dan Shaw - Fairfax County, VA; Sergeant Nick Martin - Washington DC and Doug Mitchell, FDNY, all of Traditions Training (www.traditionstraining.com)  this weekend.  The students learned new and practiced skills in leadership and rapid decision making during practical and multimedia  enhanced simulations.

A few other topics that were discussed were The Combat Ready Fire Officer, Command Presence, Incident Size-Up, Situational Awareness, On-Scene Reports, Strategic and Tactical Considerations, Managing Accountability, Documentation and Mayday Situations.

There were a total of 48 students in the class with 12 volunteers representing the DFD.  The students came from throughout Chester, Delaware, Berks and Lehigh Counties.

The DFD would like to thank the Chester County Intermediate Unit for providing the Conference Center in addition to Belfor and The FireStore for providing the food service.

At approximately 5:15 PM the DFD was dispatched as part of the first alarm assignment to assist Station 38 (Thorndale FC) with a building fire with smoke showing, at the Jackson Hewitt Tax Service in the Wedgewood Shopping Center, Caln Twp. 

Tower 45 (Capt. Moore), as the first-due truck company, was ordered by Chief 38 (Taylor) to set-up in the rear of the strip shopping center and ventilate the roof.  Engine 38, the first-due engine company, deployed a hand line into the front of the building for the fire attack with Ladder 41 (Coatesville FD), the second-due truck, setting-up in the font of the building and assisted with roof ventilation.

Engine 46-2 (Capt. Swisher - Minquas Fire Co. No. 2) was the second-due engine, who laid a 5" supply line from a hydrant and deployed a back-up hand line into the fire building.  The crew from Rescue 45 (Engineer Panetti) laddered the building and assisted with horizontal ventilation.  Engine 45 (Chief Nelms), the third-due engine, stood-by, ready to lay a reverse lay supply line, if it was needed.

Other companies that were also on the first alarm assignment were Rescue 38, Engine 39-1 (West Bradford FC), Air/Light 46 and Ambulance 46, Rescue 47 - RIT (Lionville FC), Tanker and Engine 49 (East Brandywine FC).

The Top Ten Active Force Responders for the year 2011 were as follows:

1)  Tom Lee  -  240

2)  Jeff Stevens  -  205

3)  Vince Panetti  -  185

4)  Chris Keen  -  179

5)  Tony Bensinger  -  170

6)  Joe Marks  -  160

7)  Dave Ashbee and Brett Wesson  -  158

8)  Josh Tatham  -  156

9)  Karl Stevens  -  150

10)  Shane Colburn  -  139

Engine 45 was dispatched as the RIT (Rapid Intervention Team) at 12:40 PM to assist Station 39 (West Bradford Fire Co.) for a working mobile home fire on Jonathan Rd., in West Bradford Twp.

After the fire was brought under control, the team team assisted Station 39, Engine 46-2, Air-Light 46 (Minquas Fire Co. No. 2 and Engine 51-1 (First West Chester Fire Co.) with salvage and overhaul.

Congratulations and good luck to the following newly elected Corporate and Active Force Line Officers for 2012:

President:                 Pat Butler
Vice President:         Vince Panetti
Secretary:                Christine Lam
Treasurer:                Donna Abel
Financial Secretary:  Susan Schoellkopf
Trustee (3 Years):     Blake Quinn


 
Assistant Chief:        Chris Keen
Captain:                   Phil Moore
In Alphabetical Order
Lieutenant:              Dave Ashbee
Lieutenant:              Joe Marks
Lieutenant:              Brett Wesson

The Alerts were honored to host Santa Claus on his annual tour through the streets of Downingtown Borough, East Caln and portions of East Bradford Townships on Saturday.

Santa was driven around the area on Tower 45 and all of the good boys and girls, young and old, received a candy cane from the "Alert Elves".  Santa would like to thank the following "Alert Elves" for volunteering eight hours of their Saturday to the community:  Kevin Johnson, George Monoghan,  Jeff Stevens, Karl Stevens and Brett Wesson.

The Alert Fire Co. No. 1 would like to thank those residents who gave the volunteers cookies a donation, as well.

     -Merry Christmas

 

For the second year in a row over 15 volunteers from Alert participated in the "Steamer Pull", this day in the Annual Downingtown Good Neighbor Christmas Parade. 

Twenty members of the DFD formed the "Steamer Pull Team" and hand-pulled the 1892 Silsby Steam Fire Engine over the two mile parade route on West and East Lancaster Ave, with two term past DFD Thomas E. Lee, Jr. in the drivers seat.  The volunteers were lead in march by the DFD Chief Gregg Nelms and Battalion Chief Joel Swisher.  The annual event ushers-in the Christmas Season and features Santa Claus at the end of the parade.

The Alert volunteers helped the City of Coatesville usher-in the Christmas Season by participating in the annual parade.  The photos are courtesy of the Westwood Fire Co. and the Modena Fire Co.

Just before 8:30 PM, the West Bradford Fire Co. (Station 39) and Engines 46-1 and 46-2 (Minquas Fire Co. No. 2) were dispatched to a house fire on Creagh Knoll Lane in West Bradford Twp.  Deputy 39 (Law) arrived at the scene with fire showing and requested the Working Fire Dispatch which added Station 45, Air-Light 46, 46 EMS, Engine 38 (Thorndale Fire Co.), Rescue 47 (Lionville Fire Co.) for the Rapid Intervention Team and Tanker 49 (East Brandywine Fire Co.).  For additional manpower, Command (Chief Allison) requested a Second Alarm.

Tower 45 (Capt. Stevens) was directed to park in front of the house and to put its ladder tower master stream in service.  The crew from Engine 45 (Chief Nelms) boosted a fire hydrant which supplied Engine 39-3 and Tower 45.  Rescue 45 (Asst. Chief Keen) assumed the Command Post duties during the incident.  All of the Alert volunteers worked with fire attack, water supply plus salvage and overhaul.

Photos are courtesy of Tom Kelly, IV (Daily Local News) and Dannon Voight (Philly Fire News).

The Alert Fire Prevention Committee hosted the Johnsontown Community Group this evening.  Several families visited with the volunteers and had the opportunity to hear the 2011 Fire Prevention Message from the committee. 

In addition to the message, the group got to see a short fire prevention video, a brief history of the fire company and the DFD, plus a tour of the apparatus.

The Alert volunteers were happy to host the group and look forward to them visiting again, next year.

The week of October 9 - 15 is Fire Prevention Week.  The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), along with the Downingtown Fire Dept. and other safety advocates nationwide are urging people to check the batteries in your smoke detector, review your emergency escape plan with your family and stay fire smart. 

The Downingtown Fire Dept. hosted the Annual DFD Open House on Wednesday, October 5, 2011, from 6:30 to 9:00 PM with a great showing of community support.

All who attended received tours the stations, saw all of our equipment that is used, saw some cool video's and had an opportunity to speak directly to volunteer firefighters with their questions about fire safety and fire department operations.

The Alert Fire Prevention Committee, who took vacation days from their jobs, visited with 518 kindergarten or preschool children within a two day period, to speak about fire safety.  The volunteers either visited to the schools or the classes made-it a field trip to the station. 

The Alerts would like to thank the following schools for allowing the children to participate in our Fire Prevention Week activities:

• Beaver Creek Elementary
• Lori Petrie's Preschool
• Messiah Lutheran Church Preschool
• Regina Luminis Academy
• St. Joseph's Elementary
• Step By Step Preschool
• Teach & Learn Day School

The Alert volunteers participated with the full company at the Delaware County Firemen's Assoc. Convention Parade today in Tinicum Twp.  The parade was hosted by the Tinicum Twp. Fire Co. that serves the towns of Essington and Lester, PA.

All of the hard work in preparation for the parade paid-off again, as the Alerts were honored with the following awards:

• First Place - Best Appearing and Most Functional Engine, 1990-2000
• First Place - Best Appearing and Most Functional Heavy Rescue
• First Place - Best Appearing Fire Company, Outside of Delaware County

Congratulations to all who volunteered and helped with the event.

All of the preparation and hard work during the week paid-off as the crew and Brush 45 was awarded First Place honors for the Best Appearing and Equipped Brush Truck at the 132nd Annual - 2011 Pennsylvania State Firemen's Convention Parade in Lake Harmony, PA.

As a result of the first place honors today, we can now boast in saying that all of our front-line apparatus, Tower, Rescue, Engine and Bush trucks, have now won first place awards at one or more State Conventions!

And, all three Chester County fire companies attending the 2011 parade came home with awards, as follows:

• Alert No. 1 - First Place, Brush Truck
• Malvern Fire Co. - Second Place, Non Motorized Antique
• Washington Hose Co., Coatesville - Third Place, Engine 2006 - 2011

Congratulations to all of the winners.

The Downingtown Fire Dept. and the Chester County Dept. of Emergency Services are hosting ICS-300 and ICS-400 Training in October and November.  To register for the class, go to  www.cra.traincaster.com.

The location for the training will be at the Chester County Intermediate Unit Conference Center, 455 Boot Rd., Downingtown, PA 19335.

The dates and times are as follows:

• ICS - 300:  October 19, 2011,  6:00 - 10:00 PM and October 22 - 23, 2011,  8:00 AM - 6:00 PM.

• ICS - 400:  November 19 - 20, 2011,  8:00 AM - 5:00 PM.

Please see our Training Links section for the on-line prerequisites required for this training.

The Downingtown Fire Dept. was very busy again on Patriot's Day.  The day started with Tower 45 relocating to the Coatesville Fire Dept. to stand-by during the Coateville 9/11 ceremony.
 
The DFD Honor Guard then participated in the Malvern Fire Co. ceremony with six volunteers.
 
The day ended with the Brandywine Area Community Choir preforming a remembrance concert of the events of September 11, 2001 at 7:00 PM.  The group will performed “America: A Pilgrim’s Prayer, A Patriot’s Dream” at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Manor Avenue, Downingtown.
 
This cantata, was first performed in the spring of 2001, paying special tribute to our service veterans and community volunteers. It was again offered after the events of 9/11 as a benefit for the rescue personnel who responded on that tragic day.  The concert held today once again was a benefit concert, this time for fire and emergency personnel in the greater Downingtown area.
 
The Brandywine Area Community Choir, comprised of members of various church choirs in the area as well as those who just have a love of singing, is directed by Steve McFalls, choir director at the Forks of the Brandywine Presbyterian Church, who has led the group for over 35 years.  The accompanist for this performance is Linda Hartshorne, who is the pianist for the well-known Greenwood Singers who offer concerts in the local area.
 
Those in attendance were not disappointed by this choral presentation, a powerful cantata of religious and patriotic music had a profound impact on all who attended. The substance of this concert reflects the substance of this great country we call America!