Chris Mc Loone visits with Ben Bregg, sales engineer with Spencer Manufacturing, to discuss the company’s history, product lines, and its recent expansion.

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The city of Reading made the following Facebook post Sunday, Sept. 22:

“We’re excited to announce the ribbon cutting of the brand-new 9th and Marion Fire Station!

“This modern facility will enhance the safety and service our firefighters provide to the community. A special thanks to former Councilman Strat Marmarou for initiating this project over 15 years ago, and to all those who worked tirelessly to make it a reality.”

A groundbreaking ceremony was held in November 2021 for a new building across Marion Street from the 19th-century station. The city used $5 million of its federal allotment of American Rescue Plan funds for the project and used $4 million of its own capital funds, according to a report in the Reading Eagle.

At the groundbreaking ceremony in November 2021, Reading Mayor Eddie Morán said, “After nearly a decade of planning, designing, negotiating, contracting, and funding, the 9th and
Marion community will finally have its new fire station.

“A new fire station represents fresh beginnings and represents the opportunity for our firefighters
to better serve our residents. With this announcement, we solidify our commitment to a safer
community in the city of Reading.”

“This is truly a great day for the city of Reading and the Department of Fire and Rescue
Services,” said Chief of Fire William Stoudt Jr. at the 2021 groundbreaking. “I cannot thank enough Mayor Morán and his administration along with City Council, especially Councilman Stratton Marmarou, for their
support of this project.

“This station will also allow the firefighters to work in a modern station that provides for their
physical and mental well-being when not responding to calls.”

Among the amenities of the new three-story station is a spacious day room and kitchen on the third floor overlooking Ninth Street that opens up to a courtyard, the Reading Eagle report said. There are also a number of smaller day rooms and larger turnout-gear storage and decontamination spaces, accordin

By Alan M. Petrillo

The interior of an ambulance’s patient module is a technology-filled space with a variety of lifesaving equipment, from cardiac monitors/defibrillators to ventilators and suction units to cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) units and intravenous (IV) start kits, among other gear that emergency medical services (EMS) personnel use when caring for patients in the back of their rigs.

Kristi Hallowell, director of North American EMS and fire marketing for ZOLL Medical, says ZOLL makes three types of equipment used by medics in the back of ambulances, including monitor/defibrillators, ventilators, and automated CPR units. ZOLL’s new X Series® Advanced monitor/defibrillator incorporates Real BVM Help® and TBI Dashboard™ technologies and RescueNet_® Live and enhanced RescueNet CaseReview functionality, four features that are exclusive to ZOLL, Hallowell points out.

She says that with Real BVM Help technology on X Series Advanced, providers can view target and delivered tidal volume and rate directly on the monitor, while real-time feedback guides users to deliver high-quality manual ventilation. For traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients, early treatment is critical, Hallowell notes. ZOLL’s TBI Dashboard on the X Series Advanced monitor/defibrillator provides trending information on the parameters most critical to a TBI patient, enabling clinicians to quickly detect potential patient deterioration, she says.

The RescueNet Live feature allows users to view data from X Series Advanced units at remote locations, Hallowell says, enabling effective decision support to help EMS providers optimize patient care, while RescueNet CaseReview enables providers to view data from X Series Advanced post-case for quality assessment/quality improvement (QA/QI). She notes that the data include ventilation performance with Real BVM Help, CPR performance with Real CPR Help, and automatic recognition and integration of performance with ZOLL’s automated mechanical compression device, the AutoPulse™ Resuscitation System.

Hallowell says the AutoPulse NXT Resuscitation System provides stability and maneuverability, supporting both the patient and the provider from the field to the hospital. Because the NXT automated CPR device has a low profile, lighter weight, and smaller board, it is easy to carry

Savannah Eller
The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
(TNS)

When a fire engulfed a house in the Black Forest neighborhood of Wissler’s Ranch in 2017, the development’s three 10,000-gallon water cisterns built in the 1990s were tested and failed in a real-world situation.

Rather than draw from the cisterns, which were unpressurized and would have required time and special equipment to pump water from, firefighters traveled five miles away to a pressurized fire hydrant. The 45-minute drive and fill up made fighting the blaze difficult and ultimately unsuccessful.

Firefighting Basics: Getting Water to and on the Fire, Part 1

“In the meantime, the house burned to the ground,” said Wissler’s Ranch Homeowner’s Association Vice President Peter Popp.

Black Forest Fire Rescue fires chief, other leaders still on leave

Two Black Forest Fire Rescue executive staff members currently on leave say they are facing retaliation after bringing claims from firefighters against former chief PJ Langmaid to the protection district’s board of directors.

Instead of leaving the vulnerability in place, the neighbors of the community of spacious ranch-style homes — which also were in danger during the Black Forest fire of 2013 — decided to fix the issue themselves. The HOA voted on a special assessment for the $350,000-plus cost of a new pressurized system, complete with a 35,000-gallon tank and a fire hydrant. Each of the 133 homeowners paid a share of about $2,800.

“They did it very quickly,” said Wissler’s Ranch President Harold Goldback. “I was shocked at the response.”

The construction process, which included connecting the new cistern to one of the old ones for a 45,000-gallon total capacity, took nine months.

Wissler Ranch cistern

The spring 2024 arrival of Wissler Ranch’s new 45,000-gallon cistern.

This week the neighborhood unveiled the project with a demonstration from the Monument Fire Department, which hooked an engine up to the new cistern and produced an arch of water for a crowd of neighbors. A community barbecue followed.

Jonathan Bradley, the division chief of community risk reduction at Monument Fire, said the hydrant will help firefighters protect Wissler Ranch and surrounding neighborhoods from single-home fires and wildfires.

“Rural firefighting is difficult,” he said. “It’s really, really difficult to save people’s property when we have a 10- to 15-minute response to get here, and if we run out of water, there’s not much we can do. So having something like this allows us to get ahead and stay ahead of a fire.”

Bradley said that some new housing developments in the area are building pressurized systems, but that the cost of replacement for outdated cisterns can be a tough sell for existing neighborhoods like Wissler Ranch.

Popp said that Wissler Ranch homeowners are looking into whether the new hydrant will help them keep or reduce the cost of home insurance. In the meantime, he said the hydrant was worth it for peace of mind.

“It just makes everybody sleep better,” he said.

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