As part of a continuous commitment to learning and training, the West Grove Fire Company conducted a multi-hour training session on a recent Monday evening focused on hose line deployment.

With the arrival of a new fire ngine, WGFC has been working to make sure firefighters and apparatus drivers are practiced in the new truck. Engine 22-1 joined the Fire Company's fleet last month (https://www.wgfc.org/news/1150/New-Engine-22-1-Placed-in-Service) and the truck brings with it new approaches to how fire hoses are stored and deployed. As such, the recent training session focused on how fire crews pull lines from the Engine, and then -- after they are used -- how to quickly and efficiently re-pack the lines back onto the truck.

The training took place over three hours at the Chester Chester County Public Safety Training Campus, located in Coatesville. The Campus features a realistic "tactical village," a series of specially-constructed buildings that help firefighters train under live fire conditions for a variety of scenarios -- like residential and commercial fires, as well as fires in basements and second floors. Training personnel set fires inside the building, creating heat and smoke conditions, and then fire crews don protective gear and breathing apparatus and practice entering the buildings with hose lines to hone hose handling techniques under realistic fire conditions.

As Engine 22-1 features the WGFC's first Engine with rear mounted hose beds, this also gave crews multiple opportunities to experience how these hose lines are rapidly deployed. The Engine's design places the hose much lower down on the Engine, enabling crews to handle the hose right at shoulder height, with hose packs that enable crews to layout the hose much quicker than through other methods. The goal of Engine crews is to be ready to enter a burning structure with a charged hose line less than 90 seconds after arrival.

And, because the rear hose beds are a different set up than the WGFC's other Engines, crews also used the training session to get familiar with reloading the hose onto the new Engine. Rear hose beds provide easier access to store hose, and special hose packing contributes to fast deployment. Over the course of the training session, there were eight evolutions practiced.

Apparatus drivers trained on operating the new Engine's pump, and experienced apparatus placement with Engine 22-1 at the simulated emergency scene. With a rear-mounted hose bed, pulling past and setting up just beyond the incident address is the preferred apparatus positioning. The training session also provided plenty of opportunity to teach newer firefighters the techniques to establish a water supply at a fire hydrant.

32 Firefighters from WGFC attended the session, a very strong turnout of Fire Company volunteers who gained valuable training experience under realistic training scenarios. WGFC thanks Longwood Fire Company for standing by in West Grove to cover the district while WGFC was training. Thanks as well to the staff at the Chester County Public Safety Training Campus (for more information on the Campus, see: https://www.chesco.org/3109/Public-Safety-Training-Campus).