The Fallston Volunteer Fire and Ambulance Co. hosted an acquired structure training event on Saturday March 19, 2022 along Harford Road near the Baltimore County line. Personnel in attendance at this training event practiced various aspects of structural fire fighting, incident command, water supply, as well as learning and reinforcing previously gained knowledge of fire behavior, building construction, firefighter survival, and other skills.
An extensive amount of planning and support from outside agencies is required for these type of training events. At the risk of omitting any of our partners involved in Saturday’s training the FVFAC would like to say THANK YOU !!! to the following local businesses:
911 Restoration
Without the gracious and ongoing support of these local businesses the FVFAC could not provide the level of service to our community that is needed. Please consider these vendors when shopping for their services!
In addition, anytime that the FVFAC plans an event that will require multiple units and personnel to be unavailable for emergency responses we arrange to have other volunteer fire companies or career fire departments provide “cover” or relocate units and personnel to our district. For this training event the Hereford Volunteer Fire Company (Baltimore County Station 44, Engine 441) and the White Marsh Volunteer Fire Company (Baltimore County Station 20, Engine 202) provided stand by crews at the Carrs Mill RD station until our units and personnel returned and became available. The WMVFC Engine 202 did respond to a working structure fire incident in the Kingsville VFC district Saturday afternoon while re-located to Fallston.
Prior to the day of the acquired structure training event our personnel must complete hours of site preparation, coordinate and obtain permit approvals from Harford County Agencies, arrange for approved support instructors to be present, and insure that all operations related to the training event comply with the National Fire Protection Association Standard On Live Fire Training Evolutions (NFPA 1403).
Once everything is in place the day of training begins at 0800 hours with a Safety Briefing and review of the Incident Action Plan prepared by FVFAC personnel. Several hours of training evolutions are then conducted rotating crews through the building while performing various operations related to firefighting activities and firefighter rescue (Rapid Intervention Team) operations prior to beginning the live fire training. The live fire training is conducted as crews are again rotated through, this time with the advantage of observing and mitigating fire development and potential fire spread as well as ventilation pathways and smoke spread factors.
After personnel have completed the live fire training portion of the day, the structure is allowed to continue into “free burn” stage while crews at the drill site protect exposures from fire spread and begin cleanup operations. Once the drill site is deemed safe to do so, the property is turned over to the owners for further demolition and debris removal as required by Harford County.
In addition to the approximately 30 plus FVFAC members in attendance including EMS providers who handled medical support on site, other participating volunteer fire companies included:
- Abingdon Fire Co. (engine & personnel)
- Bel Air VFC (engine & personnel)
- Norrisville VFC (utility & personnel)
- Level VFC (engine/supply unit & personnel)
- Jarrettsville VFC (supply unit & personnel)
- Ten NFPA 1403 qualified instructors from several volunteer / career departments
Lastly, the FVFAC would like to extend an immense THANK YOU!! to the owners of this property for allowing us and the above named volunteer fire company’s personnel the opportunity to train under actual emergency scene conditions. This type of training is invaluable to our members, their safety, and their ability to serve the citizens of our communities!
photo credit FVFAC
