The leadership, membership and staff at the West Grove Fire Company has a strong commitment to continuous training. Changes to fire fighting tactics, new equipment, and new EMS protocols mean that the learning must be continuous if WGFC is to meet its commitment to providing the very best fire, rescue and emergency medical services to the greater Avon Grove community.

Evidence of that commitment can be found in the recently completed results of WGFC's training program for 2020. That's because the challenges of the Covid pandemic impacted the ability of the Fire Company to conduct training this spring and late fall, and the Department still managed to amass a near record number of training hours this year.

In the recently completed report of training in 2020, the Fire Company logged an impressive 2,402.5 hours of training, just shy of the training results for 2019, even with in person training suspended this spring and winter due to Covid restrictions. That's an impressive 1,154 "people" training, over a total of 92.5 class hours, in 43 different class sessions.

Training at the Fire Company includes annual refresher classes in January and February (like CPR, hazardous materials, etc.); Monday evening training drills (like hose line operations, ladder operations, rescue tool evolution, etc.); and classroom led training. Special training sessions are also held with junior members, helping them build basic skills and become further integrated into the fire service as we develop the "next generation" of emergency responders. A sub-section of members also attended external classes in topics like fire command, emergency vehicle operations, and pipeline safety.

At WGFC, training classes are used to develop new skills, practice routine firefighting tasks, and to simulate emergency calls to practice a variety of emergency situations. In the end, the goal is to keep skills sharp, emphasize safety, and assure WGFC is ready no matter what the emergency.