Weekly Update for Friday, November 11, 2016. Veteran's Day.

Knowing that I wasn't going to be in the office on Friday, I intended to get this out on Thursday afternoon. As you can tell I missed that deadline.
----
OPEN SHIFTS: November: Wed 11/16 0700-1900. December: Fri 12/2 0700-1900. Sun 12/4 1900-0700 (EMT), Mon 12/5 0700-1900; Fri 12/9 1900-0700 (EMT), Sat 12/10 0700-1900. Mon 12/12 1900-0700 (EMT), Tue 12/13 0700-1900 (EMT), Sat 12/17 1900-0700 (EMT), Sun 12/18 0700-1900, Tue 12/20 1900-0700 (EMT), Wed 12/21 0700-1900, Sunday 12/25 0700-1900 and 1900-0700 (EMT), Mon 12/26 0700-1900, Wed 12/28 1900-0700 (EMT), Thu 12/29 0700-1900.
----
VETERAN'S DAY:  Over the years many Veterans have served on our fire department. Bill Johnston, a WWII Navy Seabee, Oscar Rundgren, a WWII Army M.P.  Bob Varney, Helo Pilot in Vietnam, George Davis a door gunner in Vietnam.  Many others; Ed Mullen, Don Lord, Bob Johnston, Stan Stearns, Coyle Meserve, Tom Grimaldi, Bob Bilodeau, Chris L'heureux, and that's just a few, the list goes on. Many of our current members are Veterans; Engineer Howard Smith, USMC; Lieutenant Phil Daniels, USA; Firefighter/EMT Chris Carpenter, USA; Firefighter/Paramedic Wes Loignon, USAF; Firefighter/EVO3 Jeff Perry, USAF; Commissioner Don Hernon, USN; Commissioner Paul Reynolds, USN; Commissioner Chris Boyden, USN.  Let's not forget what these people went through for each of us.
----
RED CROSS BLOOD DRIVES;  Our next scheduled blood drive is December 10th.  We need a volunteer to be the contact person for the Red Cross for these events. If anyone is interested, please send me an e-mail.
----
HOSE STREAMS: NIST has completed a Study of Hose Streams and Air Flows. Which assess the effect your  hose stream and nozzle pattern have on the air flow in a structure and its effect on fire suppression.   http://www.fireengineering.com/articles/2016/11/nist-hose-stream.html
----
ELECTION DAY DETAIL:  I want to extend a thanks to our Fire-Police unit, Norm Bilodeau, John Leeeman and Patty Dill for the traffic management conducted at the Lyman Town Hall on Election day. Great job! Thanks.  Speaking of fire-police, we've recruited one more. Ernie Sparks, who lives in Dayton and has previous fire-police experience with Saco FD has joined. He'll be completing his orientation soon.
----
LYMAN COMPREHENSIVE PLAN: For those of you who live in Lyman, I've placed a copy of the Comprehensive Plan Survey in your mail slot.  If you're interested, please complete it and return it to me, I'll get it to the committee. Thanks.
----
CALL VOLUME: As of 11/10/16 we've run 634 times. On this day in 2015 we had gone out 620 times.  We've treated 425 patients to date, compared to 414 at this point last year.
----
DEPUTY DIRECTOR of MFSI: The Maine Fire Service Institute has a new deputy director. Jim Roy was Waterville was appointed earlier this month. The #2 spot had been vacant for quite some time. Jim comes from the Waterville FD and brings over 30-years of fire service experience to MFSI.  MFSI oversees all firefighter training and certification in Maine.
----
FIREFIGHTER SAFETY;  Take some time and check out these websites. There is some great training and information on these sites that can help you from getting hurt, help you do your job better.  http://www.firefighterclosecalls.com/    http://www.respondersafety.com/    If you see something there worth sharing,  share it!
----
WINTER HEATING SEASON:  We are now into the winter heating season. Very soon people will be bringing fur trees into their homes, stringing them with cheap electric lights, put boxes wrapped in tissue paper underneath them, light candles, get drunk and start signing. That's a Christmas tradition from a fire prevention point of view. Seriously, Firefighters in Maine will be busier over the next few months.  We've already lost a family of 3 in Oxford this month. No operating smoke detectors in the home.  When we go into people's homes on calls, if time and the situation permits, (if not, we can always go back on a follow-up), check the smoke alarms. If they need batteries, get them some batteries. Please, leave the home with an operating smoke alarm.  I want to commend Capt Lang, FF Tarbell and Enr Robert for doing just this. We were on a medical call to the home of an elderly woman, none of the smoke alarms worked. She had plenty of 9v and AA batteries for them. We simply replaced the batteries for her. Easy day!
----
Events Next Week: Monday 1500 Standards. Tuesday 1830 Training. Thursday 1830 Fire Commission.
----

Have a great weekend,
Chief



--
Roger S. Hooper, Fire Chief
Goodwins Mills Fire-Rescue
481 Goodwins Mills Road
Lyman, ME 04002
Office: 207-499-7878
Station: 207-499-2362
Fax: 207-499-2893
www.gmfd.org

"Any man in this century who may be asked what he did to make his life worthwhile can respond with a great deal of pride; I served in the United States Navy." -John F. Kennedy