On Monday night, Instructor John DeMarco and John Poole of Chester County DES and the State Fire Academy presented on basement fire tactics at our Monday night training. The classroom portion of the training occurred last night with a brief demonstration of various tools that may provide a tactical advantage and alternative to firefighters entering the basement to extinguish the fire.

Basement firefighting brings additional hazards as we saw unfortunately in the recent deaths of two Wilmington, De. firefighters, and four firefighters who sustained injuries, two of those are still recovering from serious injuries.

Please pray for them, their families and friends.

Our command staff and training coordinator saw a need and were able to get two highly qualified instructors to provide the training. The practical portion will occur next Monday at the Chester County Public Safety Training Campus as firefighters will battle basement fires in a live fire training environment.

Chief Gathercole states "Interior personnel being able to adapt and be proactive in interior fire situations allows for firefighters to make split second decisions in the heat of the moment. Basement fires are serious fires which have serious potential and can be deadly. This training being offered to our personnel is training that can save their lives. It's thinking outside the box and taking skills nessecary to perform interior firefighting in the most extreme conditions".

Also last night KVFD provided a tour of the station and a demonstration of turn-out gear to a group of Girl Scouts. Thanks to Jr. Firefighters Briaire Taylor and Michael Lavender for conducting the tour and demonstration!

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