Croton Aerial Ops Training

[Remember585 815]

FYI - I have no idea how to downsize the photos to make them fit here better.

(Story from our website www.crotonfd.com)

Starting on Thursday evening, November 6th, 20 members of the Croton’s Volunteer Fire Department completed over 12 hours of training over two nights and all day Sunday with our 2002 Pierce Tower Ladder No. 44. Teaching this course was an old friend of the Department, Lt. Mike Wilbur, a 27 ½ year veteran of the City of New York Fire Department, Nationally recognized Instructor and founder of Emergency Vehicle Response.

The class began with two evenings and the first half of Sunday in the class room, reviewing the reasons why aerial apparatus fail, safe operations of aerials, advantages and disadvantages of our apparatus, “scrub areas,” master stream operations and rig placement.

The afternoon was spent working with our Tower Ladder 44 setting it up and getting a feel for its controls, outriggers and capabilities. We began at the Metro-North Harmon Yards, where we tied a bucket of foam under the bucket of TL44. The objective is to place this bucket inside of garbage cans stratigically placed on the roofs of two buildings and another atop a trailer at a lower elevation.

We then moved on to our Harmon Firehouse where we simulated operations at a "taxpayer" building fire. We concluded at the Bari Manor Apartments complex where we learned better ways to position the apparatus for incidents involving a garden apartment complex.

Lt. Wilbur gave us a whole new respect for our rig, which we hope to train with and become even better with to help those in need.

The Croton Fire Department extends its sincerest appreciation to Lt. Wilbur for his guidance, experience and of course, his friendship.

We strongly recommend this course to all departments that have Aerial Apparatus, visit Lt. Wilbur’s website at www.emergencyvehicleresponse.com.

Edited November 10, 2008 by Remember585

[TR54 239]

Resized for Remember585.

[Remember585 815]

Thanks Tim!

[x635 4,066]

That's AWESOME! Great photos and summary. Sounds like it was a great course!

Croton has some diverse hazards, and it's refreshing to see a department actually train on the capabilties of their apparatus, instead of maintaining the "status quo". I really like the bag into the buck drill.

[Guest]

Nice idea great working with your rig to get use to it and know its capabillity nice job

[Remember585 815]

In plain English, Mike Wilbur really knows his stuff when it comes to Trucks and Truck work.

We used to run a 100' mid-mount aerial which retired shortly before we purchased the current rig. It's an entirely new ball game for us using a 100' rear-mount tower. The overall size of this rig is very intimidating and on some of our tighter streets it's nerve-racking to operate. A lot of us were not aware of how well this rig can work for us and how manuverable it actually is. Lt. Wilbur showed us so much that we never really knew and because of this class I am confident our Truck Chauffers, our Officers and even the firefighters are better because of it.

If you have the means to host / attend this class - DO IT.

[Guest SQUADco119]

Remember 585 Is right. That was by far one of the best classes I have ever taken. LT Wilbur knows his truck ops. Highly reccomended for anyone in the fire service.