In the month of February 2018, the OVFC responded to 79 calls. Volunteers put in a collective 88 hours of training the month of February.

This month we would like to highlight what a call looks like in its entirety -- specifically what happens when we return to the station after a call. Many of you may see us on the scene of a call, but may not realize that when we return to the station, we do not get to go home immediately. After returning to the station from a fire, we must unload all of the hose we used and wash it (if the weather permits). In order to prepare each piece of apparatus for the next call, we must load clean hose onto them, refill the water, refill our Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA), and wash the SCBA masks. In addition to these tasks, we must also wash our turnout gear and wipe down the inside of apparatus and any equipment used.These tasks can take anywhere from thirty minutes to a couple of hours, depending on the type of call and the clean-up that is necessary. In the midst of completing all of these tasks, a call that may have only required our volunteers to be on scene for two to three hours, can really equate to a four or five hour call.  These types of workloads are physically demanding and are often accompanied by periods of hunger and fatigue . We hope this helps illustrate what tasks are involved in serving our community and hope that this explanation provides a small glimpse into our routine tasks post incident.

We would also like to remind you, when you change your clocks on March 11, don’t forget to change your smoke detector batteries!

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