Congratulations to Fire Chief, Jay Vander Plaat, and Barbara Semcken who both passed the Practical Skills Test and then the New York State Written Test on a course that started at the end of August 2014. Both Jay and Barbara attended class two nights a week at the Hartford Fire House between August and November and then one night a week, December through March.
On Saturday, April 11th, they both received passing test scores and officially became Certified Emergency Responders for our fire department. The cost to the fire department was $1,000 and was made possible because of community support. The Huletts fire department now has 4 AED’s, 22 American Heart Association Certified CPR AED’s and 3 BLS (Basic Life Support) card holders.
Also in October 2014, the Huletts fire department was asked to participate in a Mutual Aid Drill with Putnam, Dresden and Whitehall. For almost 3 hours, Hulett volunteers filled tankers at Chubb’s Dock on Lake Champlain in support of a tanker shuttle relay drill. There were 5 tankers running and our volunteers refilled one every 3 minutes for 3 hours using the newly acquired Turbo Draft, a device that allows our volunteers to draft from 150 feet away instead of the normal 20. Again because of Community support, though the fund drive, the Huletts fire department was were able to acquire this $5,000 piece of equipment.
Thankfully, the department did not need to use its ice rescue equipment this past winter.
Weekly drills will begin again be on Monday nights at 5:00 pm. Many people say they’ll come and help if there’s a fire. The real question question is what will they be able to do if they haven’t trained. For those who volunteer, please come to the weekly drill. That is the time to learn what to do. Drills start at 5:00 pm and end at 6:00 pm. Please consider coming out for an hour of important community service.
One final bit of good news to end on. Because of Fire Chief, Jay Vander Plaat, and Barbara Semcken going to the CFR class, they made multiple contacts with other local fire departments. They received 6 Scott air packs and 9 air bottles, donated by the Cossayuna fire department, along with turnout gear donated by West Fort Ann and Queensbury departments. Way to go, to the best students in the course!