On Sunday, April 29th 2012, four members of the Putnam Valley Volunteer Fire Department were honored at the Putnam County EMS Awards Brunch at Centennial Golf Club for a Class B Life Saving Award. These four men were 1st Lieutenant Lawrence Cobb Jr., 2nd Lieutenant Kenneth Rohrauer III Deputy Chief Michael Koenig, and fire police Patrick McQuillan . This award was given for the selfless acts that these men performed in order to save the life of another.

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At 18:03 hours, Putnam Valley Volunteer Fire Department was called to Taconic State Parkway for what was originally called in as a car fire with entrapment. Fortunately, there was no car fire, but for nearly an hour rescuers worked to get the victim out of the vehicle and into Stat Flight where they were flown to a nearby hospital.

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Here are pictures of our trip to the truck plant for final inspection.

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At approximately 1411 hours the Putnam Valley Fire Department was dispatched to set up a landing zone at the Putnam Valley Elemtary School for the Putnam Valley Ambulance Corp, who was operating at a local horse farm where a woman had fallen from a horse. The women suffered a compound fracture to her right arm and with the possibility of unseen spinal injuries Medic 2 requested a Helicopter for the patient. Stat Flight Air 2 was dispatched to our location. We established the landing zone and secured the area. Air 2 landed and the patient was then turned over to the flight medics and flight crew and was transported to Westchester Medical Center. A hand line was placed into position as a precautionary.

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At 9:36am on March 26th, The Putnam Valley Volunteer Fire Department was dispatched to the Taconic State Parkway for PIAA rollover with ejection. State Police were first on the scene where they immediately requested Stat Flight to transport the patient. Putnam Valley Fire Department assisted the State Police and EMS and also proceeded to establish the landing zone for Stat Flight.

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March 17, 2012 proved to be a busy day for the Putnam Valley Fire Department. We started out with one of our interior training exercises which began at 8:00am and lasted until approximately 1:30pm. At 2:41pm we were called to 32 Horton Hollow Road for a brush fire. The fire covered between 1/4 and 1/2 acre and was encroaching a residence. After creating a fire line we continued to extinguished the fires throughout the area. After confirming all fires were out we were back in service at approximately 4:00pm. Then, at 5:52pm we were called to 21 Mathes Street for a smoke investigation. While this proved to be nothing more than an open burn, we still had to stand by until the fire was extinguished. We were back in service at 6:30pm. Finally, at 8:41 we were called to 9 Lake Front Road for a possible Structure Fire. Upon arrival we found a car port, no further than 8 feet from the residence fully involved. The first order of business was to protect the house itself. After dousing the the exposed corner of the house we proceeded to try and knock down the car port fire. This proved to be easier said than done as we were dealing with 2 car fires (fully involved), propane tanks and fuel storage containers, all of which had already ignited. After we suppressed the fire and checked for any hotspots the Fire Investigation Team proceeded to do there job in determining the cause. We were then put back in service just after midnight.

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On March 17th, The Putnam Valley Volunteer Fire Department conducted one of our all day trainings at the Putnam County Training Facility. The department will conduct 3-5 of these trainings throughout the course of the year. This particular "all day" was primarily made up of three very important aspects of firefighting and is also one of the requirements of being interior qualified. The first rotation was the mask confidence course where firefighters in full gear, including SCBA (self contained breathing apparatus), were put through an obstacle course which would simulate some of the unusual scenarios that may occur at a fire. The second rotation was a combination two other aspects which are, Search and Rescue and Live Fire. These are conducted together in order to get used to multiple teams working together.

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There are a few things you should remember this weekend when you "Spring Ahead" for Daylight Savings Time. First, and most important, make time to replace the batteries in your smoke detectors and carbon monoxide alarms. Second, remember to set your clocks one hour foward before you go to sleep Saturday. Daylight Savings Time for 2012 officially begins at 2 a.m. Sunday in the United States and Canada.

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On Sunday, March 4th at 3:52PM The Putnam Valley Fire Department was called for a possible structure fire at 156 Oscawana Lake Road (Leonard Wagner Memorial Park). Upon arrival, we did find a fully involved structure fire at the Town Park equipment barn. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the contents, the fire spread quickly. At that point our objective was to suppress the fire and keep it from damaging the surrounding areas. Firefighters worked well into the evening putting out the fire and securing the scene to make it as safe as possible. The building was later torn down for safety reasons. The Putnam Valley Volunteer Ambulance Corps, as well as the Lake Mohegan Fire Department F.A.S.Team stood by to ensure firefighter safety. Continental Village was also dispatched to supply Putnam Valley with 1 tanker to the scene and an engine to stand-by in headquarters.

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On Wednesday, February 23, The Putnam Valley F.A.S.Team assembled for our monthly training. On this particular evening we concentrated on breaching interior walls and search and rescue. In one of the photos below you will see the smoke conditions in which we train. There are six members only 1 foot beyond that wall of smoke. The smoke machine gives us an opportunity to train in these very realistic conditions. For close to 4 grueling hours over 15 members gathered sharpen our skills at trying to find fallen firefighters in what could be anything from a building collapse to a simple loss of orientation. F.A.S.Team training is in addition to our standard departmental training.

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