SFD: 2015 Year in review

In addition Snyder firefighters also trained regularly though out the year both in class room and hands on settings. During our drill season firefighters train regularly on Wednesday nights at our firehouse and at sites across our district. The topics ranged from learning the newest technologies and tactics used in fire-fighting, automobile extrication, and medical emergencies. Our members also cross-trained with neigh-boring fire companies in a collaborative way to foster growth and to strengthen our relationships with our neighboring firefighters. This is all apart of the strong tradition of brotherhood within the fire service, especially within the Town of Amherst.

A large part of our training included the ability to send line officers to firefighting conferences around the nation to learn from top instructors in the nations fire service. This training was brought back to Snyder, and shared during our drills with the membership. This is all part of our efforts to maintain our Fire Department’s strong reputation as a highly skilled professional progressive volunteer fire department.

In 2015 your Snyder Firefighters responded to 1057 emergency calls. These included a variety of responses from large structure fires to small fires that were contained and extinguished before they could cause further damage; motor vehicle accidents that were both minor and accidents that involved major extrication; medical calls; utility emergecies.

Snyder firefighters and line officers are also regularly out in the community pre-planning for emergency incidents. This includes holding many walk-through’s of commercial buildings, public facilities and educational sites throughout our district to establish plans in the event of an emergency. This allows our Chiefs and incident commanders instantaneous access to critical information in the event of an incident to coordinate and execute and save life and property.

Many of our members also became qualified as New York State Emergency Medical Technicians, and re-certified their EMT qualifications. Additionally members trained on how to drive and operate our fleet of vehicle apparatus.

In addition to our emergency responses and training, Snyder firefighters and line officers planned, prepared, and hosted our annual fire prevention open house, which attracted many residents from our district where we presented many topics and live demonstrations on safety and how to prevent fires in your homes. During fire prevention month in October,

numerous events were held both at the firehouse and in schools across our district to spread those messages to school aged children. Of course this also included spending time with children and adults, looking at and exploring the many tools we carry on the big red fire engines, heavy rescue, and ladder truck.

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Snyder members also provided community support throughout the year, whether it as standing by with emergency medical gear at the high school football games, and during other community events. During the summer months many times our apparatus bay doors were open allowing residents the opportunity to look at our fleet of apparatus and to ask questions. Many children were given the op-portunity to see the trucks up-close and in person and to meet with some of our firefighters. This gives us tremendous joy sharing our passion and hopefully inspiring other to join our ranks some day.

As our department celebrates our 100th anniversary in 2016, we look forward to continuing to serve our community and residents with un-paralleled professional services on a volunteer level for many years and decades to come. In the fire service we look back and honor the legacies of those who came before us, while we look to enhance that legacy as we move ahead. Our membership is very strong and proud, but we are always looking for the next generation of firefighters to join us and continue our mission in providing the utmost professional level of service from a professional volunteer fire department.

Snyder firefighters like many volunteer firefighters across the nation are your friends, family and neighbors who are ready, willing and able to respond at a moments notice to help those in need.

Photo’s and Text Courtesy of Firefighter Zachary Polvino