Emergency responders celebrate training success

TYRONE—The Schuyler County Emergency Management Office (EMO) held its annual training banquet Friday, March 28 at the Tyrone Fire Hall. More than 90 people attended the event to honor the time and effort first responders put into training. The banquet honored those who took fire training classes as well as those who participated in emergency medical service (EMS) training.
Emergency Services Coordinator William Kennedy introduced the training instructors, saying the county is very fortunate to have them. He said each of them have years of fire service experience as well as instructing to ensure Schuyler County’s first responders are prepared to handle an emergency.
During the banquet, Kennedy honored both the fire department and individuals with the most training hours within the county between April 2013 and March 2014. Kennedy presented the Mecklenburg Fire Department with the Most Department Training Hours Award for having nine students complete 11 certificates for a total of 489 training hours. Mecklenburg was followed by Monterey with 360 training hours, Odessa with 343 hours and Watkins Glen with 259 hours.
There was a tie for the Most Individual Training Hours during this time, with awards going to both Anthony Lewis of Monterey and Matthew Ward of Mecklenburg for completing 108 training hours each. Kennedy mentioned the classes that were offered included emergency vehicle operator course (EVOC) training, hazardous material first responder operations refresher, truck company operations, fire police and a firefighter I course.
Schuyler County EMO also acknowledged the training done by their emergency medical technicians (EMT) and certified first responders (CFR) during the banquet. Kennedy said four classes were offered, including an EMT basic original, an EMT basic refresher, a CFR original and a CFR refresher. Kennedy said the EMT refresher had the most students with 21 people completing 1,596 hours. The EMT basic original had three students complete 480 hours, while the CFR original had three students complete 144 hours. CFR refresher had one person complete 14 hours.