Review of 2011 Actions taken
Below are some charts showing the actions that were taken during 2011.
Founding Member Orvel "Red" Oates
Orvel “Red” Oates, 90 years of age passed away on Friday November 18, 2011. Red was one of the founding members of the German Township Volunteer Fire Department. The story goes that Carl Wallace and Red were sitting in Carl’s backyard drinking a favorite west side beverage and the subject of starting a FD came up. These two civic minded citizens gave birth to the GTFD. Red and Carl were long standing members of GTFD. When the GTFD bought their first commercial fire truck it was Red who spearheaded. One of the funny stories about the purchase of that vehicle is the membership voted 10-8 in favor of having brakes on the new engine. The minutes did not reflect the true issue of whether to have hydraulic brakes or air brakes. The membership actually voted to install air brakes on the new fire engine. Prior to GTFD actually purchasing the new fire truck Red along with other members had built at least two fire trucks. Red owned a couple of gas stations over time and had the knowledge and skill to be able to build almost anything. Red was a lifetime member of GTFD.
GTFD members desiring
to visit as a group meet at Alexander Funeral Home west chapel at 5:30pm
Sunday Nov. 20, 2011 class A uniform.
GTFD members willing
to assist on Monday with burial services contact Chief Buckman
GTFD members who have
volunteered for Monday
Phillip Craig
Joey Oneal
Captain Cindy Gries
Division Chief Don Neel
On September 24, 2011, German Fire Department personnel were dispatched to a medical alarm to Town & Country Estates. Some thought it was odd that they did not hear 8A4 on the radio saying he was on scene. The reason became clear very quickly when the first units arrived at the address and saw it was the residence of Division Chief Donnie Neel and the dreaded message " this is a code and cpr is being performed." Dispite the efforts of the emergency people on scene and at the hospital our comrade left us for a better place.
Donnie was buried with firefighter's funeral that included all of the nearby departments participating in some way. The picture above shows the procession on Mesker Park Drive going under the flag and about to enter the cemetary. See Donnie's Members page for more.
Fort Branch 9/11/2011 First Responders Day Parade
Annual Awards Banquet for 2011
Each firefighter or former firefighter introduced themself and their guests. The usual good natured bantering went on and the comments are like what happens in Vegas stays in...
The Chief introduce a new award - The Vivian Pauli Award- to be awarded to a member of the department who has been a member for less than 5 years who represents the spirit of the fire service and German Fire. The first recipient is Robby Thomas. Robby will receive the $100.00 award and have his name placed on the Vivian Pauli Award plaque at headquarters.
The Chief's Award was presented to the German Board President, Tom Cook, for all the extra work he had to do in the past two years.
All the officers who were new or received promotions this year were introduced and ceremoniously presented with their badges. They were: Brian Spaetti, Tamara Esche, Mike Tanner, Mike Plumlee, Tim Eickhoff and Kevin Jones.
Membership awards were presented to members. Tim Eickhoff received his 20 year pin. Not present to receive his 40 year watch was J. R. Fechtmeister.
About this time a fire alarm at the Seton Residence interrupted the ceremonies. While the crew was gone for what turned out to be a genuine smoke alarm, a video of the past year prepared by Matt Beach was shown (Matt was on the run.)
The final award was for Volunteer of the Year and this year it was Lt. Mike Plumlee.
Tragic fire with loss of 2 occupants hits German.
At 3:36 on April 11th German Fire was called out to a fire on Fischer Rd. As you can see in the image below it was a completely involved house fire. The picture was taken by 8A2 when he was the first on scene. He immediately put in call for Suburban help. Twelve grueling hours later, there were two children dead, an arson charge, an all area search for a missing auto and its driver, an arrest in Covington and families torn apart by this tragedy.
All
firefighters were safe but very saddened by the event. See more pictures and
story by link from picture.
Some more pictures from 1959
Digging around in the old files, we came up with some more photos from 1959. You can see them here
Kitchen fires - This could save your life and your home
Kitchen Fire - Read first then watch the attachment.
I never realized that a wet dishcloth can be a one size fits all lid to
cover a fire in a pan! This is a dramatic video (30-second,very short)
about how to deal with a common kitchen fire .. oil in a frying pan.
Read the following.
Introduction, then watch the show ...
It's a real eye-opener!!
At the Fire Fighting Training school they would demonstrate this with a
deep fat fryer set on the fire field. An Instructor would don a fire
suit and using an 8 oz cup at the end of a 10- foot pole toss water onto
the grease fire. The results got the attention of the students.
The water, being heavier than oil, sinks to the bottom where it
instantly becomes superheated.
The explosive force of the steam blows the burning oil up and out.
On the open field, it became a thirty foot high fireball that resembled
a nuclear blast.
Inside the confines of a kitchen, the fire ball hits the ceiling and
fills the entire room. Also, do NOT throw sugar or flour on a grease fire.
One cup of either creates the explosive force of two sticks of dynamite.
This is a powerful message----watch the video and don't forget what you see.
Tell your family and friends about this video. Or better yet, send this
to them.
View the video
Some pictures taken in 1960 during dedication of new station on Kasson Drive
Some more history of the fire department - scanned copy of a 1971 Fund Raising Brochure. Sorry that some of the text is hard to read and the pictures are washed out, but that was the printing quality in 1971.
Another batch of old pictures. You will have to go to another page to view them.
Mass Casualties Training
On Monday March 30th, German Twp Firefighters were dispatched to a training exercise that involved 2 vehicles and 6 to 8 victims. When they arrived on the scene they found 2 vehicles set up to represent a near head on accident. Most of the first due apparatus were staffed by new firefighters who had little or no experience in such an incident.
Incident commander, Captain Cindy Gries assigned Lt. Scott Laugel to do triage. Scott used the new triage system and soon found that he was being overwhelmed trying to reach the victims in two vehicles with very limited access to both.
After about 90 minutes of action, the exercise was halted so that it could be critiqued. Scout Venture Crew 399 did an excellent job of acting as victims and friends of the victims. The make up "artist", Lt Brooke Hoesli, made it look very real. Channel 14 heard the dispatch and sent cameraman Jim Nolan to cover it. Here is part of his video
While the critique was going on German was dispatched to a motor vehicle accident at Highway 66 and 65, involving an auto and a pickup. One person was transported to the hospital.