Saturday was a busy day with multiple events in progress in the area. In Harrison Valley a benefit "poker run" was taking place. This event would ultimately involve almost 250 ATVs, UTVs and motorcycles that would cover a large cross country course that included the coverage area of both Dept. 20 and Dept. 47. This even was scheduled to begin at 1230 hrs at the start/finish point on Rt. in Harrison Twp. Members of Dept. 20 provided traffic control at the "hard road" crossings to help ensure that there were no incidents with autos on the highway. The department had also coordinated efforts for emergency medical coverage on the course in the event that there was an accident during the run.

Also scheduled to occur the same day was the American Eagles motorcycle club's "Rock-N-Roar" that was to come through the area on Route 49 with several hundred motorcycles as they covered a course that began and ended in Arkport, NY. This event also necessitated that Dept. 20 as well as Dept. 47 provide traffic control through their respective districts as the motorcade passed through the area.

Well, we all know what they say about the best laid plans...... The poker run got off as planned, after which Dept. 20 personnel returned to Station 20 to regroup and prepare for the Rock-N-Roar event. As they were about to head to their staging points for that event, Tioga County Fire Control called Station 20 via radio and advised there was a report from one of the medical personnel with the poker run that there had been an ATV accident with injury in the Loucks Mills area of the run. Chief 20 advised Tioga to dispatch Departments 20 & 47 for the incident.

On a sunny weekend (one of the few) in the middle of June while most people were enjoying a nice summer weekend outdoors several members of the Tri-Town Fire Co. were attending a Rural Fire Ground Water Movement course that was hosted by the Harrison Township Fire Co. in Harrison Valley. A total of 20 firefighters from Harrison Township, Ulysses, Genesee and Knoxville attended the 16 hour course. The course explored various means of supplying a large amount of water to the scene of an incident in a rural area. This included the use of tanker operations as well as the use of large diameter hose. 

On Sunday manpower and equipment from several area departments was used to conduct a water supply operation. Students set up a tanker fill site on the Harrison-Rooks Rd. using one engine and several portable pumps. The tankers transported the water to the "incident scene" on the Whitney Rd. where several portable tanks were set up for the tankers to off-load there water. A pumper was set up at the dumpsite to pump the water from the portable tanks to the attack engine that was located several hundred feet away. Over the period of just a few hours approximately 100,000 gallons of water was moved. Instructors for the course were Barry Hutchins and Jim Shepard.

Taking part in the class from Tri-Town were: Roy Hunt, Ken Wingo, Mike Hager, Christopher Healy, Mike Healy, Daniel Rumsey and Harold Barber.

On Sunday May 31st eleven members of the Tri-Town Fire Co. along with several firefighters from Roulette Dept. 46 and Genesee Dept. 37 completed the thrid of four modules of the Delmar Essentials of Firefighting course. This module, Exterior Firefighting, built upon the knowledge the firefighters obtained in the first two modules of the course, Introduction to Firefighting and Firegound Support. The thrid module included 42 hours of training in ground ladder placement and operations, pre-fire planning, sprinler system operations, public fire prevention and forcible entry. The training included a trip to the Tri-County Fireman's Association trainging facility in Smethport to conduct ladder evolutions on the ladder training tower located there as well as a trip to Electricord to get first hand information on the layout and operation of a sprinkler system in a commercial building. As part of the course the sudent firefighters each were required to conduct a pre-fire planning exersize of a local business. The information provided by the students will be used by the department as part of the pre-fire planning process.

A short video illustrating some aspects of the training this group of firefighters has gone through during the Delmar course can be found in our Video Gallery.