The Wakefield Fire Department responded to 237 emergency incidents during the month of April including 34 box alarms and 203 still alarms.
The Department responded to 4 mutual aid requests during April, including two to Melrose, one to Stoneham and one to Lexington. The department received mutual aid four times in April, three times from Stoneham and once from Melrose.
The Department responded to a serious car accident on the lower common near the intersection of Main and Salem Streets during the evening of April 14th. Firefighters under the command of Captain David Myette used the Jaws of Life to extricate the two vehicle occupants who sadly died of injuries sustained during the crash.
Wakefield Engine 2, stationed at the greenwood fire station, responded to two serious out of town fires during the month of April. The first was a two alarm house fire on Waterhouse Road in Stoneham during the morning of April 8th while the second occurred during the afternoon of April 18th at a two alarm house fire in Melrose. Wakefield Engine 2 was requested to respond to the community of Lexington as part of a mutual aid response to a large brush fire in that community on April 15th.
All duty shifts received training in the prevention of blood borne diseases during the month of April courtesy of the Massachusetts Department of Industrial Hygiene. All shifts also toured the water treatment facility on Broadway operated by the Wakefield Department of Public Works during the month of April. The Massachusetts Firefighting Academy conducted a training class on counter-terrorism on April 22nd at the Wakefield Public Safety Building. The crew of Ladder 1 visited the Tall Spire nursery school on the mornings of April 15th and 16th to the delight of the children enrolled there.
The department started its annual pressure testing of all fire department hose the last two Saturdays in April with the remainder of the testing to be completed in May. This testing is important in that it picks up defects in hose and potential failures before they can cause a problem during a fire incident.
