Rookie Dinner

By: Battalion Chief David Polikoff 

Eating well at FS12-A

It has been a long standing tradition that when a rookie comes off probation, he/she will cook dinner for their shift. The rookie is to cook the dinner with their own hands and the meal will be free of charge for the shift. The rules the recruits are told in the academy, is that the meal will be good, creative and expensive.

This past Wednesday Firefighter Clinton Pfarr, Fire Station 12-A Shift, lived up to the tradition. On the menu was:

Prime rib
Crab cakes
Mashed potatoes
Fresh green beans

For desert Apple pie and Ice cream

Bravo Firefighter Pfarr and congratulations on coming off probation.

Rookie Training

By: Battalion Chief Mark Davis

The B-Shift "rookies" gathered at Station 16 on Tuesday for some familiarization training on Truck 716 - which is a tractor drawn ladder truck equipped with vehicle extrication equipment in addition to the normal ladder truck complement of equipment.

The folks are shown in this photo learning basic info about one of the power saws.

Tuesday's training was lead by LT Sean Regan with FF Reggie Hill and FF TJ Carlin assisting. 

Probationary Firefighter Training

By: Lieutenant Pedro Meneses, Jr

Silver Spring Fire Station #19

FF Joseph Forsythe is our newest addition to Company 19, on the C shift, located in Silver Spring MD.  Firefighter Forsythe is a probationary firefighter who recently completed fire recruit training at our Public Safety Training Academy and will be assigned to our firehouse for a one year period.

He will be expected to learn the rules and tricks of the trade and will be assessed periodically. After one year, he will be taken off of probationary status if he has successfully completed all assigned training tasks and has shown himself to be a good employee. 

Besides training any probationary firefighters, we take advantage of every shift to practice the basic skills and keep sharp so that we may perform our jobs more efficiently.