Numerous West Grove Fire Company volunteers have completed training in recent weeks, with four attaining Fire 1 certification, and four becoming EMT’s.

Skyler Benasutti, William Ginn, John Ryan, and Sophia Crossan have achieved Fire 1 status – meaning they are qualified to do interior firefighting. Skyler graduated from the Octorara Area Homeland Security and Protective Services Academy, with Will, John and Sophia completing Chester County Fire School training. These classes prepare firefighters by teaching skills needed for fire fighting from hose handling, to ladder placement, to use of self-contained breathing apparatus, to how to handle fires in various situations. Students are exposed to real fire conditions and must successfully demonstrate these skills to operate in the environments they may experience while responding to emergency calls with the WGFC. John runs out of the WGFC New London Station, with Skyler, Will and Sophia responding from the London Britain Station.

This video from the County of Chester explains more about the Fire School class recently completed by Sophia Crossan.

Zach Felker, Jack Wharry, Aidan Keller-Moore and his father Mike have also completed training to be certified as Emergency Medical Technicians enabling them to care for patients in emergency situations and on the ambulance. This program requires dozens of hours of classroom and practical skills training, and students must pass state- and national-level certification testing. Jack is a volunteer in West Grove, Zach volunteers in New London, anAidan and Mike are volunteers at the London Britain station and will take national certification tests shortly.

Continuous training is a hallmark of the West Grove Fire Company, with volunteers and career staff constantly participating in on-going training. WGFC holds in-house training every Monday evening, and everyone is offered the opportunity to advance skills with outside classes. WGFC members have already participated in numerous county, state and national classes in 2022. It is also not unusual for members and staff to throw together an ad-hoc session to flow water, practice hose line deployment to or to familiarize themselves with new apparatus. Thousands of hours of training are recorded each year at the WGFC, something the organization is very proud of.

Congratulations to Skyler, Will, John, Sophia, Aidan, and Mike on earning these new certifications.