Sunday, April  1 2012

Nature:  Internal Utility Apparatus Training Evolutions 

Location: Oak Orchard

On Sunday, April 1^st, the Indian River Volunteer Fire Company was performing traditional operator and engineer checklist duties & responsibilities and was able to incorporate some internal training for newer volunteers of the fire company.

This training opportunity evolved into numerous exercises with trailering utility apparatus, operating utility off-road fire suppression vehicles, and brush truck familiarization.

Initially, the utility truck and trailers were being evaluated for their respective monthly inspections and routine running.  Then we had sufficient manpower to conduct some internal operators training for the Polaris 80 which is an off-road fire suppression vehicle.  See website link:  http://www.irvfc.com/apparatus.cfm?pos=1&a=28

The Polaris 80 training incorporated:  unit familiarization; operating vehicle evolutions; fire suppression pump evolutions; trailering evolutions; and hydrant filling evolutions. Other ATV operational highlights included:

• Driver responsibility,
• Safety equipment,
• Hazard identification and avoidance,
• Vehicle vulnerability,
• Understanding ATV / UTV dynamics;
  • weight distribution,
  • acceleration,
  • deceleration, and
  • balance and control.
• General defensive driving, control techniques, & cornering; and
• Traversing rough terrain. 

The Utility 80-08 training incorporated:  unit familiarization; operating vehicle evolutions; and trailering evolutions.  The trailering evolutions include trailer handling and awareness techniques, trailer reversing and duty of care.  See website link:  http://www.irvfc.com/apparatus.cfm?a=32 

The Brush Truck training incorporated:  unit familiarization, fire suppression pump and equipment evaluation, and to highlight that this truck is built on a Ford 4x4 extended cab chassis and includes a Whelen emergency light and siren package, a front-mount winch, various forest fire suppression equipment, and designed to attack on-and off-road forest and brush fires. See website links: http://www.irvfc.com/apparatus.cfm?a=22; and  http://www.irvfc.com/apparatus.cfm?a=3

Additional information regarding Indian River Polaris functionality and capabilities can be identified by viewing the following web page:  http://hmafire.com/titan6.html

Identified herewith are various photographs of the training activities.