First responders welcome residents
Almost a dozen fire fighting companies and a few more police departments and ambulance services brought their vehicles to Pullman Park on Sunday, to give a closer look at their equipment and also to mingle with the people the departments serve.
But when call tones buzzed over their radios alerting first responder departments to an emergency, everyone stopped to listen to the dispatcher on the other end.
Luckily, the trucks at the event didn't have to make a speedy departure.
“This event is to allow the community to interact with us in a non-emergency situation,” said Dean Selfridge, a firefighter with Butler Bureau of Fire who helped organize the event.
Sunday was the first community day organized by first responders at Michelle Krill Field, and in addition to offering an opportunity to meet local first responders, the event was also a chance for the city fire department to show off its new tower truck.The city has been without a ladder truck for almost five years, since the bureau decommissioned its old one and sold it. Chief Chris Switala said the new tower truck, which cost about $1.3 million, is a huge upgrade from the last one.The truck is from a series less than three years old, has a middle-mounted tower with a height of 100 feet, can hold four people in the cabin and is also equipped with new technologies in fire fighting that will be an asset to the department. The ground pads, which keep the truck locked in place, are computer automated, which is one of the best upgrades.“It's one of the quickest setups; we can get this ready at a scene in about a minute,” Switala said. “It makes it very easy for placement in the tight streets within the city.”Switala said the truck is designed to have a 25-year service life, and the tower rounds out the fleet for the bureau. Switala said its ladder's utility will be one of the best assets to the department, for use in rescue operations and more vertically-oriented structural emergencies.“If we have a large fire at a storefront on Main Street or something like that,” Switala said, “we can swing the ladder around, get it at ground level and aim it right in the main doorway and hit it with 2,000 gallons a minute of water.”Members of the fire department have to complete some training with the new truck, but Switala said it should be ready for action in mid-November.Switala also swore in a number of firefighters who had not yet been recognized with a ceremony at the community day.Other fire departments lined up their trucks so the public could get a closer look. Butler Township Volunteer Fire District 3 recently got a new ladder truck as well, which the department had on display at the event.Joe LaDue, assistant chief of Butler Township Volunteer Fire District 3, said the community day was fun for first responders as well, who got to compare specifications of their trucks and equipment.“The camaraderie is good right now,” LaDue said. “We have mutual aid agreements with other departments so we all know each other somewhat.”Selfridge agreed that the event was a good opportunity to casually meet with other departments and the public, who could one day be involved in a fire and see a familiar face from one of the departments in attendance.“It's not a training, it's not a meeting, it's just a place we can shoot the breeze,” Selfridge said.
