Middlebury Volunteer Fire Department
65 Tucker Hill Road Middlebury, CT 06762 (203) 577-4036
Fire Chief James Grohs
News
News & Information
2017 Call Volume
MVFD was busy in 2017 answering 1278 emergency calls in the calendar year. There were 422 times fire department responses including 303 fire responses, 102 motor vehicle accidents, 12 EMS assistance calls, and 5 responses with the Region 5 Dive Team.
There were 970 Ambulance calls including 761 medical emergencies in town, 102 motor vehicle accidents and 107 calls for mutual aid.
On average that is 3 to 4 incidents per day.
During the December meeting of the MVFD Fire Marshal Jack Proulx and Deputy Fire Marshal Brian Proulx announced the winners of the annual Fire Prevention Poster Contest. The contest intends to reinforce fire safety messages by challenging 4th and 5th grade students to prepare a poster. Posters were submitted to the MVFD where a committee chose the winners. Winning posters are submitted to a regional competition and ultimately to a state level competition.
The 2017 winners are:
Sarah Gilchrist, 4th Grade 1st Place
Claudia Burrus, 4th Grade 2nd Place
Alison Salemi, 4th Grade 1st Place
Stevie Gilchrist, 4th Grade 2nd Place
Congratulations to the winners and best of luck in the regional competition.
Congratulations to our Contest Winners
What Happened to Rick?
On December 6 members trained with Rescue Rick. Rick had fallen down a flight of stairs while carrying a heavy beam and was trapped. This very real but unusual scenario challenged members to apply skills in a unique way in order to bring Rick to safety. Space was a significant challenge to members as they worked.
In addition to rescue skills, tools and tactics the fire fighters learned the importance of effective communication, incident management and creative problem solving. The exercise repeated several times with members rotating through various roles.
We are happy to report that Rick made it through the drill un-harmed.
Rick loves this stuff.
Rescue and Escape Drills
The week of December 13 our fire fighter training focused on fire rescue and escape drills. In full protective clothing and SCBA fire fighters conducted a search of rooms in the fire house with the goal of finding and rescuing Rick (our CTD). Juniors conducted an escape drill known as “Bumps to the Pumps”. It is a technique that disoriented fire fighters use to find their way out of a burning building. Both drills were conducted in “black out” conditions to simulate real fire conditions. The fire fighters masks were covered so that they were effectively working blind.
Pictured here is the Captain of our Juniors conducting a Bumps to the Pumps evolution.
Equipment Upgrades
Over the course of 2017 the MVFD working in conjunction with the Board of Selectmen have implemented a number of long overdue equipment upgrades. Some of the bigger upgrades include:
New Self Contained Breathing apparatus was placed in service to replace out dated non-compliant units and improve fire fighter safety.
The supply hose was upgraded to new 5 inch hose increasing water flows to fires and allowing interconnection with neighboring departments.
The departments first “Blitz Fire” nozzle was placed into service. See picture. With this technology fire fighters can deploy large hose streams faster and with less manpower.
