Volunteer firefighters were waiting at the Greenfield Fire Department when a call came through last weekend: a single motor vehicle accident had occurred at Oak Park, there was one patient with unknown injuries and the vehicle had appeared to hit a tree. They received more information as they arrived on scene: there was smoke coming from the vehicle, and the crash had apparently damaged a large propane tank.
“I don’t think it gets any more interesting than this,” EMS educator David Hall said. He, after all, had orchestrated the whole scene, a training drill for the fire department.
This was a backyard training for Hall, the retired Greenfield Fire Chief who trains emergency responders in twelve different towns every month through the Academy of First Response, which he founded in 1995 to fill a gap he saw in training opportunities for EMS and firefighters in Southern New Hampshire.
Hall and Fire Chief Rick McQuade watched from a distance as nine first responders – most of the town’s roster – arrived at the park with an ambulance, tanker, engine, and ladder truck. Although the team was moving slower than they would in an actual emergency, they were following every procedure as they would in a real accident involving a fire and a gas leak, Hall said – save for running oxygen into their masks, since it’s difficult to decontaminate the air tanks for COVID-19, he said.
Crews quickly knocked down the “vehicle fire,” a fog machine Hall set up in the back of the wrecked utility van donated to the cause, and trained a jet of water on the propane tank to draw the imaginary gases away from the crash site. A Jaws of Life popped the van’s doors off one at a time, and responders secured the mannequin that was slumped in the front seat and carried it out on a backboard.
Hall stepped in only once during the whole drill, to direct the team to arc the water over the tank rather than directly at it, in order to ventilate the gases more effectively. Hall prefers to make corrections during drills rather than waiting. “It’s demoralizing to play the “gotcha” game,” he said.
Drill completed, everyone circled up on the soaked ground by the propane tank as Allen & Matthewson Energy staff Martin Nolan and Tim Allen discuss how to safely respond to propane leaks and fires, whether caused by a 20-pound barbecue tank or a “bobtail” truck full of gas. Hall would later debrief the crew at the fire station after they brought all the trucks back, discussing what they did well and poorly, and how they could improve.
“It’s comforting when he comes in,” McQuade said of Hall, whose familiar face puts emergency personnel at ease during trainings. “It’s a huge relief to have that support,” he said, and to have an experienced trainer right in town. It’s a positive among what McQuade and Hall see as other troubling trends in the industry. Just 15 years ago, there was a waiting list for volunteers at the Lyndeborough Fire Department, where McQuade served as Chief before coming to Greenfield. Now, Greenfield and other small towns are struggling to fill their rosters and respond to daytime calls when most of their members work out of town, Hall said. Volunteer fire departments started in agrarian societies, he said, and volunteerism has declined as rural communities change: more people work out of town and have second jobs, he said, and volunteers are expected to train more than ever before. Nationwide, numbers of volunteer firefighters dropped by a third in the last 20 years. He spoke on the issue during a February NH Chronicle episode, which also featured Hancock firefighters.
Currently, there are three Greenfield Fire Department members who are regularly available for daytime calls, Hall said. In other parts of the country, volunteer fire departments have been forced to shutter for lack of staff, leaving their towns to rely on mutual aid from similarly strained neighboring communities.
Although the decline in volunteers is one of the biggest changes in Hall’s 25 years of training emergency personnel, he’s also seen what he sees as a good change in station culture. Fire departments have come around to volunteers who want to help in limited capacities, he said, such as people who want to respond to medical calls but are uncomfortable entering burning buildings. “We can use the help,” he said, and that there are few set time commitments to being a volunteer. “It’s as much as you’re able to give,” he said.
The Academy of First Response conducts EMT, Emergency Medical Responder, and First Aid and CPR certifications, as well as trainings on just about any specific situation a first responder might encounter. Sometimes a bad situation in the field prompts a department’s request for training afterward, Hall said. He estimates he’s trained over 1,000 EMTs himself, and has even encountered children of earlier trainees in classes. At one point Hall had contracts for training personnel in 21 different towns, but is now winding down his teaching commitments as he plans to retire in the next couple years. Underpinning all his classes is the notion that experienced first responders themselves are the most effective teachers. “This isn’t theory, this should be where the rubber meets the road,” he said.