Viewpoints
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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