Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Firefighters from across Pa. come to county for training
WEST FALLOWFIELD >> After almost a year of planning, firefighters, officers, and chiefs representing 28 different departments from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New Jersey converged on Octorara Junior/Senior High School’s Multi-Purpose Room for a day of command-level training.
In 2019, the host companies: Christiana Fire Company, Cochranville Fire Company, Gap Fire Company, Keystone Valley
Fire Department, and the Union Fire Company No 1 of Oxford formed a committee from their leadership to look for ways to increase the level of training we provide locally to our command level officers. The group worked with Combat Ready’s Nick Martin, a national level educator, to find the right program to offer.
Martin had recently completed developing a new training program that focused on aggressive command of fire incidents. His program covered many of the topics the committee was interested in. It demonstrated great value to educate not only our current chiefs and officers but also the newer firefighters - our future leaders.
Martin provided us with not only the one-day seminar that we were able to open up to the 163 first responders who attended but also gave the host companies the ability to have a second-day session with 15 participants being able to apply the skills learned during a full day of simulations.
The committee and host departments would like to thank Nick Martin and Floyd Wise for two great days of education. Also, the Octorara Area School District and Superintendent Dr. Michele Orner for the use of the facility. Without a large space, there is no way we could have made this training such a success.
The primary sponsor for the weekend was Belfor Property Restorations with the following businesses supporting roles: Sullivan’s Heritage BBQ – Cochranville, PA, Saw Mill Restaurant – Oxford, and Dutchway Market – Gap.