Especially in rural areas, fire crews often assist neighboring communities in times of emergency. This kind of mutual aid can require careful coordination and training -- like the kind WAMC's North Country Bureau Chief Pat Bradley got to experience in Clinton County earlier this week.
Banging can be heard on a metal door as training begins.
“What they simulated here: they tried to do a door breach. It was set up such that they would never be able to get it open.”
Chuck Kostyk is Assistant Chief for the Cadyville Fire Department.
“What we’re trying to teach them is if option one doesn’t work you’d better start looking for options two and three. So that’s what they did. Unable to breach the door, so they repositioned the hose line and went in a back door.”
At the back of the building firefighters kneel as they gain entry and are fed a hose by a group of other trainees.
“They’re working their way up so they have to actually pull that hose up the stairway. Which if you pull on that hose, it’s charged. It’s really heavy. So they’re pulling that hose up the stairway, working their way up the stairs. They’re checking the doors, looking for victims. So they would open doors, work their way in. But you’ve got to remember, basically take a garbage bag and put it over your face and that’s what they’re seeing right now. So you’re really are just feeling your way around in there to try to get to any victims and find the fire. The fire is usually pretty easy to find because it’s bright.”
It is pitch black inside the building as firefighters enter and work to find a staircase amid materials strewn about to further impede progress. Morrisonville Fire Department Captain Dave Wood takes us inside.
“All of the cluttering you see down at the bottom of the stairs is there on purpose. Right before they go, they’re going to rearrange that to make it seem more like a hoarder’s house. So they get through the door, conditions are terrible, what are you going to do about it? Generally speaking, if we are going in an active structure fire you cannot see anything. It is pitch black. So we’d rather train in the worst conditions and hope for the best.”
Upstairs safety officers, including District 3 Fire Chief Greg Burnell, are outside a room intended to replicate a stove fire.
“This is natural gas so there is very limited smoke. You get the flame effect and the heat effect but you really don’t get the actual smoke happening.”
“There’s always something to learn,” says Town of Plattsburgh District 3 firefighter Charles VanAuken who has volunteered for nearly 26 years and was operating the ladder truck. He emphasized the importance of the joint training with other departments.
“If we do training in my fire department and we all know what we’re doing, that’s great. But we do a lot of mutual aid in the county. So when we bring other departments into our area which is very commercial with all the hotels, all the stores, the malls. So having other departments train with us and us train with them gives us that interoperability so that we can be more effective no matter where we’re responding, our district or somebody else’s district.”
Firefighters agree that the mutual aid training is critical as they face a dearth of people willing to join departments. Most at the training are middle-aged to older men, reflecting the difficulty in recruiting new and younger members. Crystal Potts has volunteered for District 3 for 12 years.
“It’s definitely a challenge, definitely a challenge and getting people to respond to calls is a challenge.”
VanAuken lists a number of things that could help.
“What I think we need right now more than anything is an understanding in government at all levels that what we do actually saves money. I think proper funding for trainings like this, grants to provide equipment, that’s really what we need right now from the government to help other departments, and maybe even our own, to be ready for the next generation of firefighting.”
All of the fire districts in Clinton County are volunteer, except for the city of Plattsburgh.
The structure on the former air force base was purposely built for different firefighting scenarios and training is conducted monthly.
