Firefighter Sims

I really love a lot of things. Two of them are old fire engines and trading patches. I met a firefighter the other day from the Wilson Fire Department in CT.  I did not have a chance to get a lot of information on the department and when I looked it up on the internet I did not find much either.  The interesting part about the department is that they have a functioning  1901 Amoskeag  steam engine.  I found a little bit of information from the Connecticut Historical Society and the Connecticut Fire Museum.



In the picture below: The new propeller, No. 4, extra size Amoskeag, known as the Pride of Hartford. It was the largest engine of its kind at the time. The photo was taken in front of the station at 60 Ann Street. At the throttle, Engineer John C. Moran; in rear, Assistant Engineer Charles F. Grundt; and at the wheel, Tillerman Warren A. Bingham. Photo by William G. Dudley, probably 1901.


The original image is here. at the Connecticut Historical Society website. According to the book Greater Hartford Firefighting (CT) (Images of America) the engine was retired in 1925 and later moved to the Wilson Department.

I am always browsing around the web looking at different fire simulations, because you know you can never train too much. I ending up on the StageIT web page the other day. They had a link to a news story about a Searcy, AR department that is using their Emergency Response Simulator and I attached the video below. The system looks like it lets you build lots of different exercises because you can select different scenarios as you go along. The one thing I thought was interesting was that according to the news clip you can take a digital photo of any building in your area and input it into the simulator for use in a simulation. The simulator comes pre-loaded with clip art images, commercial and residential photographs, fire, smoke animations and over 130 sound files. There is also an expansion pack if you need more smoke and fire effects. The base package with the instructor's license and manual is running $1499 right now with student licenses running $159. You can check their website for more information on this and other simulators the company has.

Earlier this week two cars crashed in front of a New Hampshire fire station. One of the cars was deflected and crashed right into the Pelham fire station. Three firefighters near the station doors heard the car coming and luckily got out of the way in time.

Fire Prevention Week will be here soon.  Lowes Build and Grow Clinics allow you to work on a project with the kids.  Bring the kids into any Lowe's store and build a FREE wooden project. Each participant also receives a free apron, goggles, a project themed patch and a merit certification upon completion of their project.

This Saturday, Sept. 26 the project is a fire engine.  It looks really neat.  For more information  and to sign up for this project, go to www.lowescreativeideas.com.