03/09/2025 – On Sunday morning, members of the Special Operations Division made the trip with Collapse 95, Collapse 95-1, Rescue-95, and Traffic 95 to the Fame Fire Company of West Chester, Pa. Our two teams are part of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Regional Task Force with our Department being the primary Technical Rescue Team for Berks County and Fame Fire Company being the primary along with several others in Chester County. After a short introduction it was time to look at each other’s equipment cache and discuss the capabilities of each team. Our two teams will be working together in April at a mock drill and decided we should get together before the drill.
For the next several hours on Sunday morning, the personnel from both teams had tours of the apparatus that each department would respond to incidents and compared equipment for compatibility and what equipment each team had that the other did not so their was shared knowledge across the County Lines. Both teams were impressed with each other in equipment and training and the realization that we are both there to assist if needed.
There was a lot of discussion about training and the teams are already setting up joint training sessions in the many disciplines we both do in technical rescue in the future. We all felt this was a necessary event and we plan to have more of these with Chester County and also other Counties in the Task Force. We look forward to growing our relationship with the Chester County Team and beyond in the future.
Thanks to the Fame Fire Company for hosting the event and for the refreshments and allowing us to visit your facility.
