Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Always a Firefighter Award

From McDaniel Award


Hillsboro Fire & Rescue’s Training Chief Yvain McDaniel was honored this past week by Molalla Rural Fire Protection District #73 for his help with a residential fire. Chief McDaniel lives a few miles outside of Molalla and single-handedly extinguished a residential fire in a neighbor’s home. Last Thursday, Molalla recognized Yvain for his actions and presented him with a plaque in front of the Volunteer Association meeting at the main fire station. In making the presentation, Battalion Chief Lonnie Loyer, who was the incident commander on-scene, stated the following:

“On the evening of June 1st at 5:45 pm, we were toned for a residential fire on the southern end of our district. Upon the arrival of myself as the duty officer, I observed a single story home fully charged with smoke. As I gave my size-up to dispatch and was getting out of the vehicle, I was approached by an individual who stated that the fire was extinguished. This individual introduced himself as Yvain McDaniel. He explained there was still a lot of heat and smoke in the home, but that he had opened a door and window and had started positive pressure to extract the smoke and heat with a common household fan. He then took me to the seat of the fire on the exterior of the home. What I observed was unique and not usually seen when being the first arriving representative from the local fire department."

"Yvain had quickly determined the seat of the fire and removed the siding from the home with just his hands and, maybe, feet, and gained access without any special tools or gear. He then used the garden hose through the wall and fully extinguished the fire. When my first responding engine arrived and we began overhauling and gathering information from the homeowner, I looked around for Yvain to thank him again for his efforts and complete success at single-handedly saving this family’s home from destruction. But, Yvain had quietly slipped off and went back to his home to be with his own family."

"Because of his willingness to investigate, his knowledge to access, his ability to perform, his heart to help someone in need and his humbleness to just quietly slip away, all of us at Mollalla Fire District would like to honor Yvain McDaniel for going above and beyond the call of duty and for acquiring the utmost respect and gratitude from all of us here at the fire station and, certainly, from our community.”

We’re pretty proud of him, too!

Monday, June 28, 2010

From the Outpost



Hillsboro Fire and Rescue is participating again this year in Hillsboro Parks and Recreation Department’s Summer Outpost program at Shute Park. This is the 5th year of this great lunch and activity program which runs from June 21 through August 20 from 10:30 am to 1:30 pm.

On Monday, Truck 3 kicked off Americana Week with a visit to the park to let kids and parents climb on and investigate. Hillsboro Firefighters will be there each day this week. On Wednesday, we’ll be serving lunch to the kids, so come on down and see what’s happening.

Children ages one to 18 are invited to drop in for arts, sports, reading and science lab (sponsored by Genentech Science Lab) activities. Hillsboro School District’s Nutrition Services prepares the lunch with funds from the USDA Summer Food Program. The Outpost program serves an average of 350 meals a day and as many as 500 per day to area youth.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Injury Prevention



Hillsboro Firefighters are learning a new way to work out this week. They’re using Kettle Bells. If you haven’t heard of this new trend in free weight workouts, you’re not alone. Kettle Bells are essentially a canon ball-shaped weight with a loop handle on top and rubber base. They come in 26, 35, 44 and 96 pound weights.

The workout process is based on a series of short, but intense, series of exercises of swinging and lifting these weights. The experience is designed to help workout nearly all muscle groups in the body. Correct posture and technique ensure maximum benefit while minimizing undue stress on joints.

HFD has purchased a set of Kettle Bells and enlisted local trainers to provide basic technique education for all firefighters. The Kettle Bells will be placed at each station in the workout rooms provided under HFD’s Health and Wellness program. Firefighters are often injured on the job when lifting equipment or dealing with rescues at odd angles and postures. This addition to the firefighter’s exercise regimen will hopefully reduce those on-the-job injuries.

For more information on Kettle Bells, visit Wikipedia.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Burn to Learn June 15



Hillsboro Fire and Rescue conducted a Burn to Learn Tuesday. It’s a joint venture between the HFD and the home’s owner who wanted the 1940s vintage structure removed. Firefighters practiced forcible entry drills on the doors before setting the fire. The firefighters practiced controlling fire volume and intensity by using different sized hose lines. Additionally, they used differing nozzles—smooth bore versus variable fog nozzle—in order to learn how each affect heavy fire conditions.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Get Ready for Anything



Hillsboro Fire Department Station 3 hosted a video shoot for Intel to produce a podcast on emergency preparedness. The video is for the company’s employees as a reminder to create an emergency kit at home to be prepared to live without external services (electricity, water, natural gas, etc.) for 72 hours to seven days in the event of an area-wide disaster. Scott Stewart and Maru Kramer from Environmental Health and Safety Division in Corporate Services interviewed Randy Dodds, Oregon Corporate Services Facilities and Services Team Emergency Manager. They shot the video on a cell phone and will edit in video of our firefighters responding to emergencies.

This is an excellent reminder for us all to check our emergency kits to see if we have water, food, necessary medicine, flashlights, battery-operated radio and the myriad of items you might need if all normal services are cut off.
Here is a link to additional materials on being prepared for emergencies:

www.take5tosurvive.com

And, don’t forget about Hillsboro CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) training.