In the wake of a deadly fire in which nine Charleston, South Carolina firefighters lost their lives, Reading firefighters participated in a nationwide safety training. The program, being run from the 17th to the 23rd of June is titled "Ready To Respond". The class focuses on proper training, preparation, and equipage before a call, while promoting the idea that all members can respond to, work, and return home safely from the emergency they are called to mitigate.
Companies, called out by training groups, participate in group discussion, and view a series short films of tragic accounts of firefighter injuries and deaths. Most of the issues are preventable, but only with a change of firefighter attitudes regarding their safety and that of their brothers and sisters. Training Lt. Ronald Wentzel, also states it's important to get away from the "It can't happen to me" mentality that many firefighters posses.
Local news station WFMZ channel 69, looking to capture some thoughts and feeling of the Charleston tragedy, stopped at the training session. The Lt. along with FF's Batz and Shoumlisky answered questions regarding our thoughts on safety in the department, and the class in general. During the night shift's session, the Channel 69 was on hand as fire personnel held a moment of silence at 19:00hrs for the nine firefighters who lost their lives.
All Reading firefighters are keeping those in South Carolina in our thoughts and prayers. Their families, the members left behind and all of those involved in this tragedy should be remembered as we go about our lives.
While looking for ways to honor these men and all our fallen brothers and sisters, we should first look at ourselves and do our jobs with dedication to duty and commitment to learn and train ourselves to be better firefighters and to serve our communities with devotion.
We should also remember that it can happen here. We need to think of the safety of those around us as well as ourselves and always support efforts to increase staffing and other attempts to make the jobs of all emergency service personnel safer.
Local news station WFMZ channel 69, looking to capture some thoughts and feeling of the Charleston tragedy, stopped at the training session. The Lt. along with FF's Batz and Shoumlisky answered questions regarding our thoughts on safety in the department, and the class in general. During the night shift's session, the Channel 69 was on hand as fire personnel held a moment of silence at 19:00hrs for the nine firefighters who lost their lives.