Weathersfield trustees honor 17 firefighters

June 18, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

MINERAL RIDGE

Seventeen township firefighters and officers were honored by Weathersfield Township trustees and presented certificates for their participation in a Rapid Intervention Team Training.

The training is designed to teach firefighters how to save one of their own should they become at risk or be in distress while fighting a fire or in other rescue operations.

The sessions were May 4-6 and lasted 20 hours.

Firefighters were taught how to get a firefighter out of a building quickly.

Honored were: Capt. Ray Knepper, Capt. Tom Lambert, Capt. Todd Stitt, Lt. Todd Allen, Lt. Tim Morris and firefighters Andrew Bickerstaff, Dan Shehy, Dan Lowery, Jake Bukovina, Dennis Simpson, Greg Rowley, Anthony Caruso, Jessie Humphrey, Seth Durig, Chris Streamo, Michael O’Connell and Jeff Tucker.

The township paid for the $3,500 training course, which was conducted by a Columbus company, Hose and Hook Training Center, which is run by firefighters as a side job.

Local firefighters attended the session donating all of their training hours. They started Friday from 5 to 10 p.m. and came back Saturday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“I couldn’t be prouder of these guys,” Chief Randall Pugh said.

The house the department used at state Route 46 and McDonald-Ohltown Road has been condemned by the local zoning board, and its owner, Chuck Parilla, agreed to allow firefighters to train there as long as they signed a waiver that the township department would be responsible if anyone was injured.

Pugh said the township now can help other departments that need an RIT team but don’t have the training. He noted that his priority as chief always has been safety.