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To the Citizens of North Tongass
by David Hull

 

April 5, 2005
Tuesday


The drill on Saturday, April 2nd was very successful. Not only were we able to meet our goal of 250 gallons per minute water flow, we were able to up that to 500 gallons per minute and still kept up. The pictures show some of the drill site, including the equipment and personnel involved. Everyone worked hard to make the drill a success.

I would like to thank everyone who participated and a special thanks to Mr. Greg Boles who graciously allow us to use his property for the drill, to Lt. Greg Brown and Assistant Chief Dennis Spurgen from South Tongass Volunteer Fire Department and to Ketchikan Fire Department volunteers Brian Short and Jason Spear for giving up a Saturday to come out and learn with us. The automatic aid agreements in place help everyone.

North Tongass residents can be proud of their fire department. The dedication and effort put forth by all of the volunteer members, the Board of Directors and the paid staff is above and beyond the call of duty. There are many changes on the horizon. We are in the process of building two fire stations, planning for more extensive firefighting training, and applying for grants to achieve the goal of providing the best possible emergency response in the most cost efficient manner. Watch out for updates as things progress. Above all, please feel free to attend the Board of Directors meetings at noon at Station 6 (7332 NTH) on the first and third Thursdays of each month to voice your concerns or to just keep up on what is going on with your fire department. Your comments are welcome.

I have seen how the other half operates and I will stack this department up against any department of comparable size and experience anywhere and win. The most exciting thing perhaps is that they are getting better and better with each and every outing, Fire or EMS.

David Hull, Chief
North Tongass Volunteer Fire Department
Ketchikan, AK - USA

 


jpg tankers

From left to right, NTVFD Tanker 8, KFD Tanker 3, STVFD Tanker 5 and NTVFD Engine 6. In the background, again from left to right, are NTVFD volunteers Jack Rodgers on Engine 6, Gretchen Skillings and Paul Hook are standing by the drop tankes observing the operation. Lt. Greg Brown and Assistant Chief Dennis Spurgeon are seen sitting in the cab of Tanker 5.

 

jpg firefighters

From left to right, Dan Bauer and Fred Monrean are awaiting their turn to fill up the drop tanks with water before proceeding in Tanker 7 to the water fill station. The two current water fill stations available are the old pulp mill site and Pt. Higgins School. More fill locations are in the planning stages.

 

jpg drop tanks

In this picture Fred Monrean is seen filling one of two drop tanks from Tanker 7. From left to right, Engine 6 drafts out of the nearest tank while STVFD's Assistant Chief Dennis Spurgeon (white hat) confers with KFD's Brian Short on went Tanker 3 should begin filling up the outer tank. Also see in the picture are NTVFD personnel Scott Hildebrandt, Lt. Jerry Kiffer (red hat) and Andy Tighe (back to camera). The large black hose seen connecting the two tanks is transferring water from the outer tank into the inner tank for use by Engine 6. At any one time there was in excess of 10,000 gallons of water available on scene. The drill was very successful.

jpg firefighters

NTVFD Paul Hook ( face to camera) is seen discussing the next move with
Lt. Kiffer (red hat) and Incident Commander Dave Hull (white hat).
Firefighter Hook was in charge of Operations and oversaw the actions on
the drill site. Firefighter Steve Phillips (not pictured) was in charge
of water operations and coordinated the tankers as they unloaded water
and directed their response to the refill stations available.

 

Note: Comments published on Viewpoints are the opinions of the writer
and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Sitnews.

 

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