Whole county to benefit from fire training

Photo by Holly Pelczynski/North Adams Transcript

Jason Mendonca of the Cheshire Volunteer Fire Department was among more than 30 Firefighters getting training on ladders Sunday at Hoosac Valley High School

By Meghan Foley, North Adams Transcript
Article Launched: 11/10/2008 11:19:10 AM EST



Monday, November 10
CHESHIRE -- Firefighters from seven Berkshire County communities responded to Hoosac Valley High School this weekend, not because of a fire but to learn national standards and protocol for dealing with one.
"We're really going to make proficient and efficient firefighters out of them," Joe Nedder of Cross Street Associates of Uxbridge, a consulting company that provides firefighter training, said Sunday.

Thirty-three volunteers from Cheshire, Savoy, Adams, Richmond, Lee, Windsor and Lenox are participating in Firefighter I and II training. The 10-month course has been made possible by the $665,962 SAFER (Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response) grant Cheshire and Savoy received last year from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is overseen by the Department of Homeland Security.

The grant, received in April 2007 was for recruiting and retaining volunteer firefighters. However, Jim Pasquini, grant coordinator, said he was able to convince Homeland Security officials to allow some of the grant money to be used toward the training program, after which all participants will have an opportunity to take the Firefighter I and II certification exam.

"There is always a call for training in Northern Berkshire," Pasquini said.

Many volunteer firefighters don't have the opportunity to get training outside of their own departments, according to Nedder.

Pasquini and Nedder agreed that



offering the national training program locally is important for retaining volunteer firefighters.
"Being an on-call firefighter is a job. If you don't know what you're doing, you're not going to stay on the Fire Department," Nedder said.

Mark Therrien Jr., an apprentice with the Adams Volunteer Fire Department, said the skills and training he is learning from the program will help him get more involved with the Fire Department.

"It basically makes it a lot better now, because I understand everything," he said. "You fit in with everybody else better on calls."

Therrien, whose father has been a firefighter with the Alert Hose Co. in Adams for 22 years, said the town does offer firefighter training for two hours at night, once a week, and weekend classes once or twice a year, but it's a slow process.

"It takes a longer period of time to achieve the amount of training you get here (at the 10-month program)," Therrien said. "It just gives you a better opportunity to learn a lot of the equipment faster," he said.

The opportunity to learn also helps with retaining firefighters, Nedder and Pasquini said.

"These kids are excited and enthused because they are being properly trained to do their job," Nedder said. "This is a job where you have to keep learning and stay up to date."

He said prior to Sunday's class, which was about how to raise, climb and use ladders, most of the firefighters had never climbed a ladder, let alone the Adams' aerial ladder.

Because of the mutual aid system, the course will benefit all of Berkshire County, he said.

"It's not only helping us, but other communities," said Peter "P.J." Miner, assistant fire chief for Savoy and a participant in the course.

Cheshire Fire Chief Tom Francesconi, who was also participating, said every town in Berkshire County has mutual aid with other towns, and because of the training, he knows Miner will know how to "throw a 40-foot ladder," if the situation ever arises.

"We're all on the same page," Francesconi said.

By being trained to national standards, Miner said, the Savoy Volunteer Fire Department should technically be able to go anywhere in any state to assist another department.

The training program, which began on Sept. 12, will end in June with live fire training planned in Springfield. In addition to hands-on weekend courses once a month on topics such as motor vehicle extraction, the use of hose, water and foam to knock down a fire, ventilation and safety and survival during a fire, there are also lectures one to two nights per month, Nedder said.

In addition to Nedder, instructors from Northboro, Northbridge, Uxbridge and Douglas were assisting with the ladder training on Sunday. Nedder said other instructors, who include retired firefighters from cities such as Lawrence, Marlboro and Revere, will come out to teach or lecture throughout the 10-month program, which will cost roughly $80,000.

The remainder of the SAFER grant will be put toward buying new uniforms for the Cheshire and Savoy fire departments and scholarships for high school students from Adams and Cheshire interested in pursuing studies in emergency services, Pasquini said.

In addition, he said, grant money has already been used toward an evaluation of the Cheshire Volunteer Fire Department, recruiting volunteers for Cheshire and Savoy and offering CPR, first-responder and first aid courses to students at Hoosac Valley High School.