Drills At Sandy Hook Main Station Prepare Firefighters For The Unexpected

By Shannon Hicks

Firefighters from all five of Newtown’s fire departments participated in a drill last Sunday morning under blue skies and in unseasonably warm temperatures. Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire & Rescue hosted a series of drills on January 13 in the parking lot behind its main station on Riverside Road, and nearly 80 firefighters participated. Officers and crews from Sandy Hook, Dodgingtown Volunteer Fire Company, Hawleyville Volunteer Fire Company, Newtown Hook & Ladder Volunteer Fire Company, and United Fire Company of Botsford all took part in Sunday’s drills. The day was organized by Sandy Hook Chief Bill Halstead and First Assistant Chief Jeff Steinebrey.

Chief Halstead, who is also the fire marshal for the Town of Newtown, admitted having all five fire companies participate in a drill together was an unusual event.

“We have drills throughout the year with one, two, sometimes even three companies participating,” he said this week. “But we had an opportunity to burn a trailer and it turned into something beneficial for everyone.

“With three mobile home parks in town, and the way they’re situated, all companies could be called on, depending on which one has a fire,” he explained. There are mobile homes in the Newtown, Hawleyville, and Botsford districts. A fire within any one of those parks could quickly become a multialarm incident.

“We thought it would be a good opportunity to put a drill together,” he said. Once Chief Halstead got the ball rolling, other chiefs took turns setting up the different drills firefighters had the opportunity to participate in on Sunday.

The morning began with breakfast inside the station, and then moved outside where different activities had been set up. Drivers took turns taking an engine to a wet hydrant on Dickinson Drive and hooking it up, where rotating teams of firefighters then practiced unhooking the equipment from the hydrant.

The next stop for the drivers was a dry hydrant further down Dickinson, where they again practiced setting up and breaking down hoses to pumps. This time the hoses went into Sandy Hook’s portable pool, which is a unit capable of holding 3,000 gallons of water.

At the same station, firefighters also practiced getting water into a dry hydrant, discharging the water into a nearby pond.

In a wooded area behind the firehouse, another drill allowed firefighters to try their skills with GPS equipment. A cone with a beacon was set up in the woods, and firefighters used GPS units to try to locate the beacon.

“Using GPS is not something we have to do a lot of, so it was good to know that we could do this if we needed to,” said Hawleyville Chief Joe Farrell.

Back in the fire department’s parking lot, a retired mobile home had been set up for a few drills. For the first, firefighters practiced using a K12 saw to cut into the side of the former dwelling. Such action would be done to provide ventilation in the event of a real emergency.

The trailer was also used for search and rescue drills. Firefighters entered the structure when it was filled with smoke and attempted to find a “person” (a mannequin) who had been felled by the smoky conditions.

The final use of the mobile home was a controlled burn at the end of the day. Flares were set off inside the structure and a pair of Botsford firefighters stood by with charged hoses. The mobile home was allowed to burn down, and was later disposed of.

Each company drove one or two of their engines to Sandy Hook for Sunday’s gathering, which allowed the companies to show off some of their equipment when they weren’t being driven for the hydrant drills.

Certified instructors were on scene, as was a safety officer, said Chief Halstead. “We did everything safely.”

A short critique session followed once all of the drills were completed, and then firefighters had lunch before calling it a day.

Newtown Hook & Ladder Chief Dave Ober, who had ten members of his fire department with him, said the morning offered “a good opportunity to work with other departments.”

“This is a good drill,” said Shawn Mathews, a member of Hook & Ladder. “There is a lot going on here, and to be able to do all of these things almost in the middle of winter… this is fantastic.”

Pete Blomberg, second assistant chief for Botsford, echoed Mr Mathews’s thoughts.

“This,” he said, “is like a carnival for firemen.”