This past Monday I was lucky enough to be granted permission to come for a visit and tour of the firehouse at Westover Air Reserve Base in the town of Chicopee. This was a golden ticket visit for me as my grandfather was stationed here at various points in time after World War II. (He was actually a hurricane hunter and radio operator throughout much of his career in the Air Force) My POC-thats Point of Contact for civilian translation- on base was Asst. Chief Wood, and he could not have been more welcoming and gracious to me during my visit to the firehouse. There was so much to see and talk about while I visited, and I am completely impressed with the operation there on the base. It comes as no surprise to me that the firehouse has won for the third year in a row the Air Force Reserve Command Fire Department of the Year award. By the way, Charles VanGorden, the Fire Chief on the base, also won the award for Best Fire Department Chief in the AFRC this past year. On to some photos now, below is the view of the firehouse from the front-from the base side.
Partial view of the firehouse from the back side-from the tarmac-pictured below
I was generously given a tour of the firehouse, from the common living areas to the administrative offices as well, as you walk inside the entrance from the bays, you are greeted by the patch boards in the hallway.
The patches represent diffent fire departments and stations that the team has collected over the years from visiting or working in other firehouses, including patches worn during tours of duty in the Iraq and Gulf Wars.
I have made a promise to Asst. Chief Wood to bring back a patch from the base in Bermuda the next time I go for a visit there to add to the board for the crew.
(I won't forget!)
The crew in the firehouse have a number of rooms at their disposal during their shifts in the firehouse, from common area rooms to watch television, catch up on email, a training classroom, and a kitchen area. The crew alternates in groups for cooking meals, those who can't cook well are designated to be on pots and pans-cleanup duty! There is also a bunkhouse that I wasn't able to enter, but I was allowed in to look at an officer's sleeping quarters, similar to the quarters that crew would use on overnight shifts. There is also a gym on the base, that the crew has access to while off duty. All of the firehouse team are certified first responders as well, (actually NREMT-Nationally Registered Emergency Medical Techs, a level higher than first responders) so they are prepared for any situation that they are called to. A typical shift on base has a minimum of eighteen staff members, so the firehouse can respond to emergencies as needed.
The firehouse here on base also provides mutual aid to both Hampshire and Hampden counties, which includes of course the town of Chicopee. However, they will respond to other counties if requested. For those who live in Western Mass, you will be interested to know that they were called in to respond to the fire when a tanker truck with fuel overturned on I-291 in Chicopee in an accident in 2010, pictured below.
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| Photo from the Springfield Republican |
More recently, when a fire on Route 9 in the town of Hadley consumed a large commercial building and a local landmark in town this past fall, the Westover crew was also called in to assist.
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| Photo from Daily Hampshire Gazette |
The base firehouse is called in to assist at these types of events especially, because they have the apparatus that is capable of helping to control these types of large fires, especially fires based from fuel or other acellerants. I was lucky enough to be able to climb into some of these vehicles, and get a close up look at their capability to battle these types of emergencies.
Their crash rescue vehicle is equipped with a special nozzle, and is called the "snozzle". The snozzle vehicle can spray out flame retardant foam to help battle the types of fuel fires such as the one on I-291
You can see here in the photo to the right a more close-up view of the snozzle on the front of the Crash Rescue vehicle which can rapidly spray out the foam required to fight these large fires. The snozzle is controlled from within the cab of the vehicle by both a video screen and a REALLY large joystick in the console. There is also a plexiglass viewing area at the top of the cab so the operator can stand and watch through the top where the snozzle is aiming at. When the foam starts spraying, this angle can be accessed to better viewing of where the snozzle needs to be aimed.The operator can move the snozzle to spray out from from all angles and directions at a rapid pace, so that the foam can be concentrated on specific areas.
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| Front view of Crash Rescue |
Asst. Chief Wood can be seen reflected in the windshield (here is your closeup sir! <grin>)
The Crash Rescue truck isn't the only great thing that the base has however, there are a few other interesting ones as well. The base also has an Air Trailer Unit, one of two in Western Mass, the other is located at the Russell firehouse.
This Air Trailer unit is used to refill the breathing apparatus equipment used by firefighters at the scenes of fires or at a fire station. Definitely an invaluable piece of equipment to have, and it is lent out to be used by other firehouses in the community as needed.
The firehouse also has three of these vehicles, C2-C3-C4, also known as Red 2-4, which are capable of pretty much knocking down any obstacles in their way-observe the crash bars and high angles in the front of the vehicles. The height of the tires alone was impressive-keep in mind I'm about 5'2" on a good day and I felt really tiny standing next to them.
Even more impressive looking when you see them in the bays-you can really see the high angles on the front of the vehicles from this view.
This C1 truck is known as Crash 1-similar to the above vehicles-just as impressive. Love the American flag and eagle logo on the cab's side.
All these wonderful vehicles, but what about the rest? Well it is a firehouse- some of the crew members were happy to bring the vehicles out, but they certainly scattered quickly when I gave a 30 second countdown for them or they would be in a candid shot as a crew.
I can see how their response times are so rapid during their alarms with how fast they were able to disappear from my sight.
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| Engine 7-one of the newer vehicles-arrived at the firehouse in 2012, there is also an Engine 8 inside the firehouse |
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| Rescue 1 truck |
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| Engine 7, 8 and Rescue 1 in the bays (FF Bush someday you may get a Ladder 7 yet) |
The firehouse on base also includes a Tanker, a Patrol, and a Hazmat vehicle, but this blog entry would be much longer than it already is if I included them.
It wouldn't be a real visit to the base unless I included a photo of the other transport vehicles as well. I was given permission to take photos of the planes from the tarmac outside of the firehouse, so of course I jumped at the opportunity. It is always amazing to me how large these planes really are, to get a perspective on their actual size you can simply compare them to the backhoe in front of the first plane. You can visit the base during their air show in May of 2015-where the U.S. Navy Blue Angels will be showcased, as well as commemorating the 75th anniversary of the base. For a link to the upcoming show, you can visit the show's facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/greatnewenglandairshow
I had a wonderful time at the air base, it was incredibly hard to contain my excitement when I spent part of an afternoon there this week. I think the highlight for me was being able to climb into some of the vehicles and see all of the inner workings and controls involved in their operation. Asst. Chief Wood deserves a tremendous thank you for his time and willingness to host me during my visit, and was a wonderful tour guide who patiently answered my questions about the firehouse as well as giving me a comprehensive history and explanation of the role that the crew plays both on base and off base with fire and emergency situations. I learned not only about the firehouse and the crew, but also about the types of calls they receive and their abilities to respond to any situation that arises, whether it be on base or off. Thank you to the entire firehouse crew for making me feel welcome during my visit to your base!
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