The 2012 Phillies season is coming soon!!! Pitchers and Catchers report in less than 3 weeks.  The Company is raffling off chances to be a part of the action. The 17 game package includes 2 tickets with seats in section 143, row 19, seats 9 & 10.  Chances are $10 and all proceeds benefit the Leedom Fire Company.
 
Stop at the station any Monday night at 6:30.  See any member or message us on our Facebook page.
 
Thank you for your support!!

At 11:38 the first due box assignment was dispatched to the area of Fairmount and Sellers Avenue for a building fire. The police arrived, confirmed a working fire and corrected the address to 149 Fairmount Road. Engine 70 was on the street in two minutes with a staffing of six, followed by the Air Unit. Captain 70A (Kohlbrenner) arrived along with Engine 70 and reported a one story single family dwelling with smoke showing and established the Leedom command. Engine 70 laid in, positioned the apparatus to allow room for the incoming special services in the front of the building, and stretched the 150’ 1 ½” bumper line. Engine 70’s officer forced the front door and completed a primary search of the fire building. The crew on the line located a fire in the kitchen extending into the dining room and quickly knocked the fire. Ladder 48 arrived just behind Engine 70 and ventilated the building just as the interior crew was putting a knock on the fire. Once the fire was knocked, the crew from Ladder 48, Air Unit 70 and Ladder 43 assisted with overhaul.
 
Leedom command placed the fire under control at the eight minute mark. Engine and Air Unit 70 remained on scene and assisted the fire marshal with their investigation. The company cleared the scene just after 13:30. A total of 11 volunteers from Leedom operated on the fire. Thanks to Parkside for providing coverage for the town.
 
*Disclaimer: Engine 70 was positioned the way it was to allow Ladder 43 & 48 to have access to the front of the fire building. Captain Kohlbrenner spoke to the homeowner and apologized for us damaging her lawn. The homeowner responded by saying she knew we did what we had to do and she was “proud of her fire company”. The crew from Engine 70 went to the Home Depot, bought supplies and returned to the resident’s home within an hour. The crew put new soil and grass seed down to repair the resident’s lawn.

This past weekend the Chief and Deputy headed to Downingtown for “Officer Development School” presented by Traditions Training. The topics of the course were leadership, the combat ready fire officer, command presence, incident size-up, situational awareness, on-scene reports, strategic and tactical considerations, managing accountability, documentation and mayday situations.

The Chiefs took in a lot of great information that will be implemented over the next few weeks.

On a side note, the same two Chiefs attended a class in 2006 hosted by Traditions Training called “Advanced Basics”. This class is what opened our eyes to being Combat Ready and has made us the Company we are today. The “Officer Development School” reassured a lot of the things we have done over the years to become Combat Ready and also identified some things we can do to improve. Thanks to Chief Riley, Nick, Doug and Dan from Traditions Training. We look forward to seeing you in June.

As the first winter snow feel from the sky, calls began to be dispatched one after another for accidents all around the county. At about 2315, Company 70 along with 62 and the medics were sent to I-95 at I-476 for an accident. Engine 70 quickly responded with a staffing of five, followed by the Air Unit, Ambulance, and Tac. As units were enroute to the first accident, another accident was reported on I-95 Northbound at mile marker 7.2 for a tractor trailer down and embankment with entrapment and fire. All Ridley Township units were quickly redirected to this accident, and other units were added to cover the two other accidents in the area. Engine 70 arrived and reported a truck down a ’75 foot steep embankment into a tree. After a quick assessment, it was determined that the truck was not able to be accessed from I-95, and all units were to enter from Boeing. Engine 79 (Boeing) was on scene reporting one person trapped and began extrication efforts. Engine 70 and Rescue 62 arrived on the Boeing property and assisted with removing the patient from the wreckage. Once the patient was removed, they were loaded in Ambulance 70 and transported to the hospital with several medics on board.
 
The units from 70, 62, and 79 remained on location for several hours assisting the tow truck with removing the truck from the embankment. Units went available at 0230.

On Monday evening, with a Flyers Winter Classic loss still fresh in their minds, the crew gathered for a night of training. The evening started out with each crew member having to fully donn the SCBA in under a minute. Each member was well under a minute on their first attempts, and continued to improve their times as the night went on.
After everyone had an opportunity to practice donning in under a minute, the crew split up into two teams for a relay race. The two teams of four were facing each other to see what team could have all four crew members successfully paked up in the fastest time. One air pak was used for each team. Once the moderator gave the go signal, the first crew member from each team would pak up as fast as possible. Once completed, they would quickly take the pak off and pass it to the next crew member to continue. In all three races were completed, and regardless of the winner, a good time was had by all.

It is with great pride that I formally present Michael Kelly as Chief of the Department. Michael is a 20+ year member of Leedom and has always been our driving force. He is our motivation to continuously improve the department and to become better firemen. I could not have been the Chief I was without Michael at my side steering the company in the direction we needed. Nor would I have been the Chief I was without the support of the entire company. The Members deserve the credit for our improvement and for continuously striving to be “Combat Ready”. We all look forward to serving the community and the surrounding area with Michael at the helm.
Respectfully,
Jay Mensack, Deputy Chief 
Here is the lineup for 2012
Chief, Michael Kelly
Deputy Chief, Jay Mensack
Assistant Chief, Tom Silpath Jr
Captain, Chris Close
Captain, Jim Kohlbrenner
Lieutenant, Todd Buddy
Engineers Remain, Steve Yeager, Jim Headly

When talking about total fire responses for a year, 222 is certainly not anything to brag about. Heck, some departments do that in a month. But, when your department responded to 47 total calls for the year just a few years ago, and had never responded to 222 calls in a single year in its history, it is something to be proud of. Obviously, to increase your call volume by 480% in just six years requires some big changes and great leadership.


It is certainly no coincidence that Chief Jay Mensack took over as Chief of the department six years ago. Chief Mensack is the leader that drove the company to do bigger and better things. The increase in call volume is just a small sampling of all of the changes that have occurred under Chief Mensack. The company now prides itself on having a combat ready mentality, has a very successful sleep in program, and has a crew that is dedicated to training and learning everything they can about the job. All of this is a testament to Chief Mensacks leadership and motivation.

Even though this is all about how Leedom Fire Company has responded to the most calls in its history, we are still the first ones to say it is not a lot of responses by any stretch of the imagination, which makes the dedication the crew has to the job even more impressive. It is a lot easier to be excited and dedicated to the job when you are responding to several calls a day, and catching a good amount of working fires. But when you are only going to a few calls a week, and a handful of working fires a year, it is not as easy. The entire crew deserves a lot of credit for not only coming to calls, but wanting to be the best they can be at the job, and having a dedication to training that is unmatched by most.

We look forward to serving our community with the same amount of dedication and professionalism that they have come to expect from their firefighters. Also, the crew looks forward to serving under Chief Mensack for what is sure to be another successful year for the Leedom Fire Company. Happy Holidays everybody, and here's to a safe, happy, and healthy New Year.  

On Friday night the crew got together to complete more upgrades for the Engine, this time in the form of new hose. The new hose consisted of 550’ of 1 ½” for both crosslays and the bumper line, 400’ of 1 ¾” hose for the 400’ preconnected line, and 800’ of 3” hose. The crew took all of the old hose off, made some adjustments to the 5”, and packed all of the new hose onto the Engine. A humat was also added to the rear step for the 800’ of 3” hose which will now be used for supply line on all first due residential fires.

The final tally for hose on Engine 70 after the modifications:

150’ 1 ½” bumper line with a combination break-apart nozzle

Two 200’ crosslays with smoothbore nozzles

400’ 1 ¾” line with a smoothbore nozzle

250’ 2 ½” line with a smoothbore nozzle

800’ of 3” supply line with a humat

1000’ of 5” supply line

The task took about four hours to complete. Despite the cold weather being upon us, the crew is looking forward to breaking in the new hose in the coming weeks.
 

The Company was dispatched to the 1700 block of Liberty Road in the Woodlyn Section of Ridley Township for a dwelling with possible entrapment. First arriving crews from 67 (Woodlyn),had fire throughout the first floor and put a line in service. Engine 70 arrived and was ordered to search the residence. With all searches negative, the crew assisted with the remainder of tasks including fire suppression, ventilation and opening up. Thou the incident was under control at the 20 mark, the crew remained on scene for nearly three hours.

This morning, the company was dispatched to I-95 South for the accident with reported injuries. The Engine, Ambulance and Air Unit made the response. Rescue 62 arrived first to find a multivehicle accident with 2 injuries. Members assisted Rescue 62 on scene with miscellaneous tasks and the Ambulance transported 1 patient.

 
The week started off steady on the EMS side of things, as the Ambulance handled 4 calls during our night crew shift, which goes from Monday to Sunday, from 2400-0600. Every shift will once again be handled by a 100% VOLUNTEER crew, as always.