Monday, February 14, 2011  On Saturday February 12, eleven members of the Hamlin Fire Department participated in an ice water rescue drill held by the Lake Shore Fire Department. In addition to Hamlin and Lake Shore the North Greece, Ridge Road, Barnard, Hilton and US Coast Guard also participated. In addition to learning or refreshing skills and techniques, several departments shared some of their equipment used in ice water rescues.

Story and Movie by John Deserto

Monday, January 31, 2011  The Hamlin Fire Department lost a member outside of the line of duty. Probationary Firefighter Matt Gruenewald was new to our department but he had a bright future in the fire service ahead of him.
 
The Hamlin and Albion Fire Department’s provided an Honor Guard for the service.


He will be missed.

Monday, January 17, 2011  Brockport had a room and contents fire early this morning and Hamlin sent one engine company to assist. The Hamlin crew assisted with some outside venting tasks and overhaul. The temperature was negative 6 degrees but that had no impact on operations.

Links to several news stories are below.

Compiled by John Deserto

Channel 13 WHAM

D&C

YNN

Friday, December 24, 2010  Each year members of the Hamlin Fire Department volunteer extra time to participate in several Christmas activities to further benefit the Hamlin community. For the last several years members have taken shifts at the Salvation Army’s donation kettles ringing the bell.

The Hamlin Fire Department also teamed up with Life Solutions of Hamlin to spread holiday cheer to the Hamlin community. Jolly old St. Nicolas was escorted by two fire trucks as he delivered Christmas meals and trees to clients of Life Solutions.

The tradition started seven years ago when a Hamlin firefighter learned that Life Solutions needed some help delivering the gifts and thought that the fire department could help. It is always difficult to tell who enjoys this more, the kids when Santa jumps out of the big red truck or the firefighters who carry the gifts in.

An added bonus is the opportunity to take advantage of this “teachable moment” to talk about having and maintaining smoke and CO2 detectors, electrical safety and escape plans with families on site.

While the firefighters get much of the glory, they all know the real hero’s are the members of Life Solutions who work untold hours all year to help the members of the Hamlin community.
 

Photo's, video and story by members of the Hamlin FD

Saturday, December 4, 2010  On Wednesday December 1, the Hamlin Fire Department was called to a report of a fire in a barn complex on Redman Road in the Morton Fire District. Hamlin and Morton have an automatic mutual assistance agreement on all structure fires and many MVA’s. Hamlin chief’s 2C-34 and 2C-14 arrived on scene almost simultaneously from the north and the south. Both reported thick white smoke from the eastern most barn in the complex. Further size-up showed a large amount of fire in the workshop area of that barn and it was extending to the northern section of the barn that held a cabbage processing room and cabbage storage as well as a second, very large, connected cabbage storage barn to the west of the area of origin. Hamlin engine 243, driven by Daryl Prince, arrived on scene first and a 2 and a half hand line was pulled by the crew of Jesse Seeler, Hannah Deserto, Kelly Slossar, Sal Magovero and Rich Breslawski, to put a large quantity of water between the burning workshop area and the processing – storage area.

Hamlin tanker 246, driven by Ron Breslawski, had followed engine 243 to the scene because this section of Redman Road does not have hydrants. 243 used its tank water and the 3,000 gallons from the tanker as 243’s crew tried to protect the rest of the barn. The tanker then joined the growing tanker shuttle operation.

Hamlin engine 242, driven by John Holman, was soon on location with the crew of Anthony Deserto, Joey Burke and Mike Broskin and was tasked with protecting the “football field” sized cabbage storage barn to the west of the burning workshop. This task was made much more difficult because the structure that connected the two barns was absolutely packed solid with 4’X4’X3’pallet boxes full of cabbage, high stacked 5 high. This was accomplished by directing the farm owners to use their forklift to enable a “bay door” sized hole to be cut in the metal building and then to remove the cabbage pallets out to gain access to the fire. Once this was accomplished, a blitzfire nozzle with a 3-inch line was pulled from 243 and set up to protect the remaining barn.

A tanker shuttle was started, with 243 as the base pumper, and included tankers from most of Western Monroe and Eastern Orleans County. This was eventually replaced by a engine relay which involved approximately 4,000 feet of supply line and 3 engines pumping from a hydrant to the south of the scene. There was also an engine relay from the north that was drafting from a pond, which involved more engines including Kendall 33, which pumped to Brockport’s ladder truck on the northeast side of the barn. Holley’s ladder was set up on the south east side of the barn and was fed by Hamlin 243.

The firefighters faced many problems during this incident. The lack of a continuous water supply required a “water supply” sector to be established immediately which was commanded by Hamlin’s 2C-24. Even so, water was lost to the lines fighting the fire early in the incident. Manpower was another area of concern. Almost all the departments involved are volunteer, and the incident occurred about 9AM, after most members had already left town to go to work. This required many more departments to be called in, including East Rochester, West Webster and Fairport, from the eastern side of Monroe County and most west side departments. Many departments from eastern Orleans were also involved, including Medina. These units were called to the scene and also to back fill empty stations. The fire started in the workshop area of the first barn and a pick-up truck, forklift and the welding tanks and propane cylinders periodically exploded, shaking the walls and collapsing parts of the roof. Lastly, access was very limited. Plowed fields on two side of the buildings and the lack of man doors and aisle ways in the unburned areas of the barn prohibited the tactic of pushing the fire back on itself to preserve the unburned areas.

In all, Hamlin firefighters and equipment were utilized for 12 hours at this event and the largest barn was saved. Unfortunately the barn of origin with the processing room and additional cabbage storage was lost. This incident demonstrated the strong mutual assistance programs between local departments, county departments and between counties.

Links to photo stories and news clips below.
 

Sunday, November 28, 2010  On Saturday, November 27 the Hamlin Fire Department answered Brockport's request for assistance at a fire on Ridge Road near the Monroe-Orleans County Line. Hamlin engine 243 with a crew of 8 went directly to the scene and deployed their blitzfire gun on the south east side of the blaze which turned out to be three mobile home trailers. There was some concern that the property was used as a meth lab so extra precautions were taken. This report later turned out to be false. Another crew from Hamlin on engine 242 was directed to fill in at Brockports Market Street firehouse. This crew eventually was called to the scene as the task of overhaul was daunting. All Hamlin crews were back in quarters after four hours of work. An engine from Walker filled in at the Hamlin firehouse.

Story and movie by John Deserto

Sunday, November 28, 2010  On Tuesday, November 23 the Hamlin Fire Department held a car fire drill at the east end of Railroad Ave. The two donated cars used in this drill had been used the week before in an MVA drill. These donated cars are of great use to the department to practice EMS skills, hydraulic tool practice, forced entry, MVA simulations and lastly car fires. Thank you to the community members who donated the cars and keep the department in mind if you have a clunker that you wish to donate.

Story and movie by John Deserto