Every Monday night at the Barre Town Fire Department in East Barre, there is training to k
eep the volunteers and equipment up to date on everything needed to complete their job. At the East Barre station, we just completed truck check night, which is always during the first Monday of every month.
Many people have questions for firefighters. Some being; “What is it like to be a firefighter? What is the good and bad of being a firefighter? How does Mutual Aid work? How does the truck check night work?”
Being a Firefighter is a lot of work but, in the end, is very rewarding. 1st Lieutenant, Josh Stewart, is here to explain, “It is a great feeling when you help yourself, and the community out in any way shape or form.”
A lot of people like the thought of becoming a volunteer and helping the community but don’t understand that there are consequences as well. Stewart commented, “[t]he good is that you help the community out and anyone and everyone around you. The bad is you see a lot of things you don’t want to see.”
Stewart added, “mutual aid is when fire departments work together at a large incident. It allows us to have more resources and more hands to do our job.” Barre Town works with everyone within central Vermont, including, Barre City Fire and EMS, Berlin Fire, Montpelier Fire, East Montpelier Fire, Plainfield Fire, Williamstown Fire, etc.
Stewart explained truck check night. “Truck check night is a night dedicated to making sure all trucks are up to par and all of the equipment and accessories are ready to be used at their next job.” It isn’t just for checking equipment, it also helps the firefighters learn about how the trucks work and how the equipment acts because they use it so often. When they check a truck, they go over all of the equipment they are not likely to use so whenever they need to use it, they will remember from practicing with it.
