Now that I'm done travelling around the country, I thought I should get this blog done. Sorry I don't get out on Friday.
Engine 83: Capt Duross, Lt Johnston and I had a very productive trip to the Pierce Factory to do the final inspection. The detail that went into building our rescue-pumper was impressive. As with any complex machine there are going to be some problems. And our job was to find those problems. We were successful. Our list had 53 items. Most were very minor. Several were fixed on the spot. When you think about all the man-hours, welded seams, bolts, nuts, screws, hinges, miles of wire, plumbing, valves, fittings, fixtures, etc, etc, etc, that went into manufacturing this fire engine, to think we only found 50 discrepancies, I'd say it's built pretty good. I think you'll be impressed with it. It is different than anything we've ever owned before. So each of us has some learning to do. On our website www.gmfd.org there are links to training videos on the foam system and the pressure governor. I highly recommend you review them. I'm anticipating the truck will be at the dealer in Walpole, Mass. around May 27th. It'll be there for a couple weeks and we should have it in house mid-June. We're tentatively scheduling a commissioning ceremony on June 30th.
Engine 81: We should be getting E81 back by Wednesday. There was a delay in getting the parts.
Training Officer: Capt. Hooper has taken a leave of absence. I will be appointing an interim training officer soon.
Recruiting: I've received 4 applications for potential new members today. Please get the word out. We'll be accepting applications for per diem and the potential full-time list through June. Call force candidates can apply any time through out the year.
BLS Firefighter School: Still in planning stages. But it looks very good that we'll run this course for 8-weeks starting August 24th. The next planning meeting is May 27th in Sanford. This BLS class will be regional.
Memorial Day: The parade will start as usual at 1300 on Monday. Lining up on Waterhouse Road and heading towards South St. We need drivers for apparatus and traffic control. We also need help in getting the trucks cleaned up for the parade.
I want to thank those who responded to the various calls over the past week. Just this weekend alone we ran 7 calls. In the past 10 days we've answered 26 calls!
Have an enjoyable week!
Chief
