Tonight under the direction of Capt. Gathercole and with Chief Cazillo, Deputy Chief Schreiber and Assistant Chief Klingler, all active firefighters conducted an inspection of their PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) documenting their findings on an inventory form, and any discrepancies were reported and documented for correction. Lt. Delestienne also conducted an inventory of all issued County pagers.

A PPE issue consists of a turn-out coat and pants, a Nomex hood, boots, helmet, protective glasses, firefighting gloves, rescue gloves and a reflective traffic vest*. Some interior firefighters are also issued a personal Scott SCBA mask.

The initial issue of PPE gear is well over $4500 per firefighter. NFPA requires that the turn-out gear be retired after 10 years of service, or sooner if torn or damaged.

*also sometimes available on the apparatus

Those firefighters not available tonight will be doing the inspection over the next few weeks, as will our career staff.

January is a busy training month with firefighters completing CPR/AED and bloodborne pathogen training in-house. All those certifications are required to maintain active status, and are of no cost to our members.

The uniform committee also met to discuss updating and standardization of the KVFD emblem.

Captain Gathercole also reported that the 2016 YTD totals indicate that KVFD had the busiest year in our history with over 1,187 EMS calls. In 2016, we also responded to 313 fire/rescue calls.

Over 30 members were in attendance tonight. #kvfd84U