The members of the Potsdam Fire Department, along with West Stockholm Fire Department, held a joint training this month to work on hydrant operations, different hose adapters, nozzles, and Tower 5 bucket operations. The training evolution was broken down into three stations, with members rotating between the three.

Station one consisted joining four, 50 ft lengths of all different size hose together to make one working hose length. The hose had to be coupled to the coupling adjacent to it using adapters stored on the engine. When the team was done they had to return the hose adapters to their original positions on the engine so that the next team did not see what adapters they needed to use. Each team was timed to see how fast they could improvise a solution.

The purpose of this station was for members to learn where equipment is on the engine while having to think on their toes on how to make a working hose line out of different sizes of hose. Members also got some knowledge on nozzles that we do not use every day such as the piercing and water curtain nozzles.

Station two consisted of breaking into three groups and knocking over several traffic cones with a hose stream after completing several tasks. The hydrant team grabbed a piece of 5 inch Large diameter hose to attach to the engine to supply the engine. The hydrant team appropriately demonstrated their skills on flushing the hydrant to show no debris was in the hydrant prior to dressing it, dressing the hydrant properly, running a 2 ½ line from one side of the hydrant with a 2 ½ - 1 ¾ gated wye attached. The hydrant team FULLY opened the hydrant once these tasks have been finished.

The second and third team grabbed a length of 1 ¾ and proceed to the end of the 2 ½. They connected their length of hose, along with a nozzle of their choice, and proceeded to knock the first cone over. Once that cone was knocked over they notice that they did not have enough hose to knock the second cone over so they had to go back to the truck and grab a second length of hose. After temporarily turning the water off with a hose clamp, they connected the second piece of hose and attached their nozzle of choice to the end. The firefighters then crawled to their second target simulating that they were crawling through a structure.

Station three consisted of West Stockholm members being able to climb Potsdam's ladder truck, Tower 5, and get hands on training with operating the bucket of the truck while spraying water.

The members of the Potsdam Fire Department would like to thank West Stockholm Fire Department for all the help they provide to us throughout the year on fire scenes!