Woodstock Emergency Services (Fire, Police, Ambulance) invite you to attend a presentation by Wayne Bindas, retired after 27 years as Deputy Chief and Director of Training for the Hartford, Connecticut Fire Dept. He is currently the Fire Chief of Lost Acres Volunteer Fire Dept in Granby, Connecticut.
Wayne has taught at the National Fire Academy in a “command and control” section and has been in the Fire Service for 43 years.
The seminar, open to the public, in particular VOLUNTEERS, or those wanting to help out during the next Woodstock “incident” takes place from 8:3oam to 2:00pm this Saturday, November 3rd at the Woodstock High School Auditorium.
It is FREE and refreshments and lunch will be served. In addition to the general public, this will be a great tool for current firefighters, EMT’s, First Responders, Police, Highway Workers, Dispatch Personnel, Town Managers/administrators and all community groups.
This is not an official training seminar in incident command, but we are told Wayne knows how to keep interest going for the whole program. Since we all went through Irene and worked to get through it, all the more prepared with the recent threat of Sandy, there are actually federal, state and national standards for managing incidents for maximum efficiency and safety.
Ever been on a Fire Scene here in Woodstock? Ever noticed Fire Chief L.D. Sutherland, Jr. hanging out by his vehicle? Why isn’t he going in? The answer is because it’s important during every incident to have someone NOT in the thick of it, someone NOT with tunnel vision. Guy inside the fire has no idea if the fire has jumped somewhere else and so on… Every incident needs the “Big Picture” guy who can sort out all the various “tunnel vision” projects that may be going on. More on that on Saturday….
Also…Woodstock Fire and Ambulance Services NEED RECRUITS! Woodstock’s “Senior” Volunteer Firefighters and EMT’s need to pass on a lot of very important “institutional knowledge” about how they get the job done and the history of emergencies in Woodstock. This seminar is a great place to casually meet and get to know the folks who are here to help us 24/7. They’d like your help. They provide training. Young people in particular can get some great training — in medicine, in management, in responsibility and community service. Woodstock Early Bird can also vouch for the fact that despite the difficulties of the job, this is a great way to meet new people and have some fun. No, seriously, really… If you have a few evenings to spare a month, maybe a weekend as well, this is a job for you.
In any case, no sweat, no commitment required beyond a morning or so, but Emergency Services wants to see all of Woodstock’s smiling faces at this get-together on Saturday! (P.S. A perfect thing for our Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, too!)
Julia Carlisle
Woodstock Early Bird 