The Wakefield Fire Department responded to 277 emergency incidents during the month of July including 45 box alarms and 232 still alarms.
The department responded to four mutual aid requests during July, twice to Melrose and once each to Reading and Woburn. It received mutual aid twice during July, once from Melrose and once from Reading. Wakefield Engine 2 covered a vacant fire station in the City of Woburn during the evening of July 16 during a tanker rollover on Route 128. This tanker incident, occurring almost exactly one year after the tanker crash and explosion that occurred last year in Saugus on Route 1, serves as a sobering reminder of the hazard that traffic transporting hazardous materials on our highways represents. Lieutenant Thomas Purcell and a crew covered the Melrose Fire headquarters for a brief period during the afternoon of July 18 during their working fire at 170 Laurel Street. This Melrose fire occurred during a severe lightning storm that resulted in 17 calls for fire alarm activations and trees down in Wakefield during a 90 minute period.
Firefighters under the command of Captain Paul Pronco responded twice to the same residence at 17 Old Colony Drive for lightning strikes. The first time the home was struck was during the evening of July 4 when the home suffered damage to its electrical system. Incredibly, the home was struck a second time two weeks later during another storm on July 18. This time the chimney was struck blasting a hole in it near the top throwing bricks all over the side yard and damaging the electrical system a second time. Fortunately, the home owners were not injured during either incident and were not displaced.
All four groups participated in emergency medical training towards their continuing education requirements for maintaining their certification as Emergency Medical Technicians. All Department regulators, air masks, and self-contained breathing apparatus were flow-tested to insure that they were in good working order. The department’s air compressor, used to re-fill breathing air for its self-contained breathing apparatus, was tested and certified for air quality during July. A large group of children from the Middlesex County Sheriff’s Academy visited Wakefield Fire and Police Headquarters on July 18.
Wakefield Firefighters Nolan Curran, Patrick Jarvis and Michael Rowe began a twelve week-week training program with the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy on July 9 with an anticipated graduation date of September 28.
