The First Chicken BBQ is coming up in less than a week. This Saturday, April 10th with sales starting at 11:00am. We will have meals which includes Half a Chicken, a Baked Potato, a Roll & Butter, Slaw, a Dessert, and a Drink. If you are not interested in getting an entire meal, we will also be selling just the Half Chickens too.Thank You for your continued support, every dollar makes a difference, we look forward to seeing you there.
The members of West Hempfield Fire & Rescue would like to give a heart felt Thank You to Chief David Ney for his many years of service and dedication to the department. Chief Ney was the Chief of Ironville Fire Company from 1993 till the merger in 2000, and has been the Chief of West Hempfield Fire & Rescue through its first decade in service. Although Chief Ney is retiring at the end of 2009, through all the hard work and service he has put in, Chief Ney will have a profound impact on West Hempfield Fire & Rescue well into the future. Thank You again Chief Ney!
On Thursday December 17th FF's Charles and Lebzelter conducted fire extinguisher trainging for the teachers and aides at Little Peoples Daycare. Everyone who went through the class learned alot and despite the cold weather enjoyed the practical evolutions outside.
After a few years of planning and many hours of hard work, the new rescue went into service on April 9th. The new rescue is a SVI box built on a Spartan chassis. Rescue 7-6 will provide better fire and rescue services to the residents of West Hempfield and surrounding areas.
On Saturday March 14th Silver Spring Family Restaurant will be having a benefit breakfast for WHFR. The Breakfast will be held from 6-11am. We really appreciate Silver Spring Restaurant for doing this for us and we also appreciate everyone who comes out to support us. Thank You! To see their menu or to find out any other info their website is http://www.silverspringfamrest.com/index.html.
On Saturday March 7th WHFR had a Celebration for the 2008 year and the Housing for the New Rescue. During the Celebration awards were given out for:
Member of the Year Firefighter of the Year Fire Police of the Year
QRS Responder of the Year Support Group Member President & Chief's Award
of the Year
In addition to the awards given out several members attained life membership during 2008:
After the Celebration the New Rescue had it's official Housing as it was pushed into the station by the members of the department:
The Members of West Hempfield Fire & Rescue Company welcomed the arrival of the new Rescue 76 on Thursday, January 15th. The Spartan/SVI Rescue will serve the residents of West Hempfield Township and the surrounding communities for many many years. The Rescue has seven seats, and in addition to the extra seat, there is also a large amount of new compartment space which will quickly become filled with extra equipment and supplied allowing us to increase our capabilities as a rescue company. Although it will take a while for the New Rescue to be lettered and striped, have tool mounting done, and get the drivers trained on it, we're looking forward to the Rescue going into service as soon as it can. Thanks to the Apparatus Committee along with everyone else that helped for doing everything they have over the past couple of years to research, plan out, and design the best possible rescue they could for West Hempfield Fire and Rescue.
Recently the committee for our new rescue traveled out to SVI in Colorado on the final inspection trip. Everything went fairly well with only a few changes needing to be taken care of before the New Rescue 7-6 is on its way home to Pennsylvania. Hopefully if everything goes well it should be in PA within the next couple weeks. For now take a look at these new pictures the committee took while they were out for inspection.
The Past week many members of WHFR participated in a Truck I class at the station. We had over 20 firefighters enrolled in the class and we all learned a great deal of useful knowledge from the class. Thanks to our instructors for running an excellent class.
The last Chicken BBQ of 2008 is fast approaching. The BBQ will be Saturday, October 11th starting at 11:00am. This will be your last chance for the year to get those great tasting Chicken BBQ meals. Make sure you get enough to last you until we have the first one of 2009 in the spring.
Meals will be $7.00 and include: Half a Chicken, Baked Potato, Drink, Roll and Butter, and a Dessert
You will also be able to purchase just the Chicken halves if you wish for $4.00.
We hope to see you there and appreciate all of your support!
At this point in the construction, it seems that every update brings amazing progress with the new Rescue. This week's update brought some of the most noticeable progress yet as the box was finally mounted on the chassis. In addition to the box being mounted, there has also been much more accomplished over the past couple weeks. The roll-up doors have been installed, as well as the compartment in the front bumper where two of the pre-connected Hurst tools will reside. Most, if not all of the warning and scene lights are now on the Rescue, along with most of the trays, shelves, reels, and other compartmental components. If all goes well we wont have to wait too much longer to see the New Rescue 76 in the township.
Recently WHFR aquired some new equipment to help advance our capability and rescue efforts. Most of this new equipment is intended for service in the new Rescue 76 upon its arrival, however some has been put into service on the current Rescue. As you can see we're making some additions and upgrades to our Hurst Equipment. Pictured below are our new Transformer Spreader, LKE-55 battery operated combi-tool, two new power units, and several new hoses. In addition to all of the hurst equipment, we have also purchased new rescue struts, plastic step chocks, and even an additional stokes basket. Hopefully everything will serve us well and help us to better protect and save the residents of West Hempfield and its surrounding communities.
The Members of WHFR welcomed the arrival of our 2008 Polaris Ranger ATV prior to our open house recently. The Ranger will be used as a support piece for Environmental Rescues, Brush Fires, Water Rescues, and where ever else we might see a need for it. The unit has seating for six personnel, or 5 peronel with one patient in a stokes basket. The Ranger is currently back at the shop where they will finish the installation of accessories including a winch, brush guard, hard roof, and more. The Ranger will then be modified to allow for safer and easier transport and treatment of patients in stokes baskets. When its all finished the Ranger will be kept in a trailer with related Brush and Rescue equipment. Keep checking back for future updates as this project progresses.
It's amazing to see the progress being made on the box with each update from SVI. The Rescue is now entering its final stages. In this update you can see the progress made from last week: the black and white chevron striping on the back, installation of lights, compartment shelving, water tank, hydraulic reels for the Hurst tools, air and electric reels, and the cascade cylinders. Keep checking back often as we get more updates over the next few weeks. There are some big steps coming up including putting the box on the chassis, adding the roll-up doors, and several other finishing touches.
Recently the box for the New Rescue 76 went through the paint booth at SVI in Colorado. The box came out of the booth as a brilliant white with the insides of the compartment covered in a gray protective material called zolotone. Now that the box and chassis are painted, its becoming easier to visualize what the end product is going to look like. Stay tuned for further updates and information as to the expected delivery time and in-service time as we get closer to completion.
