The Engine and Ambulance was requested to Standby at the Lower Chichester Fire Works. This event takes place every year around this time. The Ambulance crew had one call along m100-7. We would like to thank Lower Chichester for the invite and to say that everyone had a good time and cant wait till next year.

On the forth of July Engine 68-1 along with Tower 61 covered Sta. 63 as they had their yearly fireworks display. While covering the tones dropped for the building fire at Dutton Mill and Rosaile Ln. Truck 69, Engine 50, Tower 61 and Engine 68 went responding. Pd went on location and said the side of the building was on fire, crews arrived to have nothing showing. 639b took command and later recalled it after crews from 68 and 61 checked the roof. Good time was had by all, thank you to 63 for the invite.

Engine 68 along with Rescue 39 and Tower 61 were dispatched to cover station 81 while they were operating on a two alarm fire on the west end. Engine 68 covered for about 5 1/2 hours recieving 1 call. The city box assignment was dispatched to 548 Dorian Ct for a building fire with possible entrapment. Pd arrived with light smoke showing and advised everyone was out of the house. Chester 11B(Capasso) arrived and determined it to be unattended cooking and held the assignment to 82’s covers.

Thursday the 3rd 68 crew did their version of the playground drill at the Anderson park in Trainer. Just as we finished setting up the tones got dropped for the AFA at 121 N Commerce Dr.@ Alloy Surfaces, 526a arrvied to find light smoke showing. Crews later found it to be a generator and was later held to Company 47 and 526a. On the dispatch was 47, 68, 52, 57, 63, and m837.

39, 68, RIT 45, and 100-7 were dispatched to 1588 Summitt Ave for a building fire. Rescue 39 arrived to find unattended cooking with a heavy smoke condition. 39-9b held the assignment to the rescue for ventilation.

Around 11:30am, the MHTFD Box assignment was struck to 10th St/Plaza St for the Building Fire. On the ticket were Company 68, Rescue 39, Company 40 & Tower 61, & Canteen 47. 68-9C (Clausen) went on location advising he had heavy fire with exposure to MHTFD'S Firehouse. Ladder and Engine 68 went responding just after the dispatch. Ladder 68 dropped the 5" and put the stick in service, & Rescue 39 also dropped the 5" and supplied Tower 61. Ladder 68, Rescue 39 & Tower 61 had the front of the building. 681 went to the rear, then 682 went responding and supplied 681 in the rear. Rescue 40 also dropped 5" and was in the rear with Engine 40 and 681. 68-9C(Clausen) took 10th St Command, 39-9A(Durbano) Operations, and 40-9(Montello) had the Sector "C" Division. Numerous Master streams were placed in service by Engine 40, Tower 61, & Ladder 68. Portable Deck Guns and hand lines were also placed in service. Good Job to all units that operated on this very hot day. A thank you goes out to Engine 12(Eddystone), Telesquirt 50 (MiddleTown)& Engine 57 (Upland) for providing coverage while we operated on scene. Just after everyone went off radio the 68 crew was still hitting some hot spots tones were hit out for 100 McDonald Blvd for the Water Flow alarm. 681 went responding then later recalled by 47 command. Later that night tones got hit out again for the Water Flow alarm at 100 McDonald Blvd, 681 went responding then 47-9 put units at reduce speed then later recalled. Also today we had 5 ambulance calls.

Around noon tones were hit out for the fire alarm at 105 S Commerce Drive in Chester Twp. Ladder 68 under the command of 689c (J. Clausen) went responding, ladder was later recalled by 47 command while responding. Later that afternoon 68 was hit out to cover sta. 63 with Ladder 68 along with Engine 61 (Reliance), while 63 had a working building fire. While at the 63 house tones were dropped for the AFA at the Assisi House. Ladder 68 and Engine 61 went responding. It turned out to be a small brush fire in the rear and was held to 66-3.

The night started with a company meeting. During the company meeting the tones were dropped for a bush fire. 689c (J. Clausen) and an Engine crew went responding. 689c arrived to fine a small bush fire, the engine crew arrived to put the fire out with a PW. After the company meeting a crew got together to do some training scenarios for about 3 hours.

just before 0300 the tones were hit out for a cover to sta. 81, while the city units were on a 2nd alarm building fire on the west side. 68-1 made the response along with Rescue 39. While the crews were out at 81 they ran zero (0) calls. Units went available around 0500.

Attention All Members: Below is a list of upcoming Con-Ed Classes that will be held between Station 40 & Station 68. July 23rd, 7pm Fractures & Splinting at Station 68 August 20th, 7pm Child Birth at Station 40 September 17th, 7pm Respiratory at Station 68 October TBD, 7pm Burns at Station 40 Stay tuned to the EMS board for any changes

Congratulations to Destinee Akley, Frank Ford, and all of the Class of 2008 on a job well done. Destinee and Frank good luck in the future with all that you do!!

Ladder 68 traveled to Sta. 14 (Swarthmore) to cover while they prepared for the funeral services for Chief Hansen who had just passed away. Ladder 68 covered along with Rescue 39 (Lower Chichester) from 0100-1900 while receiving no calls and then being relieved. The officers & members would like to extend our condolences to the family of Chris Hansen & the Swarthmore fire company.

Around Lunch time on the hottest day of the year, the box assignment was struck for Felton Ave in Chester Twp. for the Building fire with a possible explosion. 29 cars arrived on scene to report a working basement fire. Ladder & Engine 68 made the response. Command was established by 68-9c John Clausen who did a great job keeping all crews out of the building and going into an exterior attack due to a natural gas fed fire in the basement with a partial building collapse from the explosion. PECO was able to secure the gas to the home. Companies operating on the fire scene 47, 68, 61, 52, 57, 63, 39, RIT 72, Medics 81, 83, M100 & 100-7, Canteens 47 & 67. Units operated under the initial commander of 68-9c John Clausen who later on passed down to 47-12A Allen Sadler, 63-9B K. Dawson had Operations and 68-9A Jay Smith had manpower & Medic 100 Jeff Winters had EMS command. Thank you to Telesquirt 50(Middletown) & Engine 12(Eddystone) for providing coverage while we were on the scene.

The Swarthmore Fire and Protective Association regrets to announce the passing of Chief Cris Hansen on June 5th, 2008. Viewing will be held at the Swarthmore Presbyterian Church, 727 Harvard Ave, Swarthmore, Pa. from 14:00 to 20:00 on Friday, June 13th . Another brief viewing will be held from 08:00 to 09:00 on Saturday, June 14th . Funeral services will follow at 9, with the funeral service immediately following. Arrangements are being made to accommodate all companies wishing to send personnel and apparatus to the St. Peter & Paul Cemetery. Regrettably, due to the limited space available at the Swarthmore Presbyterian Church, the invitation to the funeral service will be limited to Sixth District Companies. Parking, logistics, and other details will be released as soon as they become available. On behalf of all the members of MHTFD we send our deepest sympathy to Chief Hansen and his family

This article was written by Chief William Kelly 80-9 and Past Chief NCC 13-8. Chief Kelly lives by this standard and always tries to portray it to everyone that will listen to him. Please take a moment to read it and spread the word. These are the changes we need to make to make sure we all come home alive. That building can be and will be rebuilt, is it really worth it? Random Thoughts – Saving Private Ryan In 1998 Steven Spielburg directed the film “Saving Private Ryan” staring some tremendous actors including Tom Hanks as Captain John H. Miller. Before I get very far into this I need to pause and reflect on those individuals who fought in World War II for their sacrifice and courage in saving our world from some very evil folks. I thank them and every other member of our great country’s armed forces past and present for the liberty they guard and protect for the rest of us. The film starts with an elderly veteran (James Ryan played by Harrison Young) and his family visiting the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Normandy, France where he collapses to his knees overcome with emotion in front of a gravestone. The scene is extremely moving and at one point with a camera close up of his eyes, the moment transforms back in time to June 6, 1944. It is the beginning of the invasion of Normandy at the Omaha beachhead. The next 24 minutes features an intense depiction of the carnage in human life as the allies struggle to advance on the dug-in German Army. Almost every scene shows another soldier being struck down by bullets or explosion. Everywhere you view, individuals or groups were slaughtered while their comrades continued to advance. I can’t imagine what was going through the mind of each of these brave soldiers on June 6th as they continued to do what they were trained for in spite of the loss of their comrades all around them. The film seemed to indicate that these folks although concerned, recognized that some of their unit would not last the day and continued, not with indifference or apathy, but more of acceptance of expected consequences. I imagine that close friends were extremely moved when this significant individual died but again others without personal involvement accepted them as a numbered casualty. It’s not until after the original invasion that the movie shows General George Marshall discovering that three of four soldier brothers of the Ryan family have all died within days of each other and that letters to their mother will all be received in the same day to inform her of such. At this moment, the human involvement of names versus statistics strikes the General with the tremendous loss this will be to that family and determines to have the fourth son removed from harms way. The reporting of the dead becomes more than a number and develops into a real person with a name. The soldier, a private with the paratroopers named James Francis Ryan becomes the focus of a patrol deployed to locate and retrieve. The same folks who were just involved in the invasion and watched with acceptance the destruction of others are on a mission to save one with a name. OK, so where am I going with this? Although there are differences with the mission of our armed forces and the mission of the American fire service, I would like to look at a similarity that could be made in the film and our chosen vocation or avocation. This similarity would be the treatment of reporting numbers or statistics without recognizing that each number has a name, family and individual dreams. Each year we see the gathering of statistics as it relates to the line of duty deaths in the fire service. It’s absolutely distressing to see the numbers especially where there is no marginal down turn despite the decreased working alarms. It’s equally disturbing when you hear people in our service suggesting that they would be satisfied if we lowered our annual casualty rate by 25%. My response to folks that believe this is to ask them to write down the names of their department members that they are willing to include on the annual statistic list so we can develop a final count. We need to set and meet a target of zero line of duty deaths. Although a significant undertaking, this goal is achievable. We need to look at each of these as an individual and not a culmination of numbers. Each of our members needs a Captain Miller to lead with removing them from harms way. I challenge you to become this leader. What do we do? As a fire service collectively we need to believe that zero line of duty deaths are an achievable goal. Our mind set of accepting casualties as part of our job needs to be eliminated. No longer can we accept statements that the firefighters were doing their job or this was a text book fire that resulted with a responder death. I have not found anything in any training text manual that indicates an appropriate day, time or circumstance where it is acceptable to kill a responder. As a fire service leader or fire ground officer you have an ability to make a significant impact with the behavior or well being of those under your charge. First, examine the historical information as it relates to what leading causes of our line of duty deaths. This examination will include the need to: · Develop and encourage wellness programs for physical and mental health of all our responders to better prepare them for the rigors of emergency response. · Train the apparatus operators and members that may need to respond in their personal vehicles the proper and safe way to do so. This has to include the mental aspect of resisting the unsafe operations sometimes exhibited when our adrenalin starts flowing. · Stop occupying un-occupied buildings. Absent any life hazard these buildings are just a pile of sticks. What else can you do as an officer? · Train and learn like the lives of others are your responsibility. They are. · Follow the basics. This includes: Command and organization is required. Engines need a water supply. Hand lines require a back up line. Ladders need to be placed for emergency egress. Ventilate. Open up the building with organization and coordination. Have a plan and the resources available to intervene if your crew needs assistance. Know where your folks are. Don’t commit your crew to harms way without a plan and justified cause. Life preservation is absolutely important but question the value of the potential sacrifice for a pile of sticks. · Encourage and influence property owners, legislators, realtors and others on the importance of automatic detection and suppression systems. The fire service has many traditions. One of these has been the sacrifice of our lives to help others. We need to convey a message to all of our customers that we are still entrenched with great traditions but we can’t accept responder death to be a fore front anymore. Although we accept a measured response to rescue our customers, they need to take more responsibility with suppression. The technology exists and we need to insist on the implementation. As a member of the fire service you have an ability to impact your future. Assist your leaders with the implementation or adoptions of their initiatives. Don’t work outside the command structure at emergencies. Train your entire career like your life depends on it. It may. Take the lead and organize your rescue party today. Statistics alone are not acceptable. Each of our fallen have names, family and personal aspirations. Our goal is zero and achievable. Work every day to “Save Fireman Ryan”. Bill Kelly