November 1,
2009 - On October 10th the Dryden Fire Department along
with Freeville, McLean, and Groton Fire Departments were
dispatched for all available interior personnel mutual aide to
Groton for a working structure fire.
Dryden Engine 502, Ladder 531, and Rescue 541 responded with manpower and
equipment to the one hundred block of Cortland Rd in Groton.
Upon arrival Dryden's manpower was assigned to assist Freeville and setup
a FAST Team outside the structure.
Other members assisted by filling up the manpower pool in front of the
house.
Firefighters made a good stop on the Fire and most
of it was
contained in the upstairs and
attic areas. All Dryden were back in service by 11:30PM that night.
2009
Company Photo
Taken September 3, 2009
From Left to Right
TOP ROW: Reggie Brown, Bryon Newbury, Don Gilbert, Clint
Cotterill, Alan Ackley,
Jonathan Kirkwyland, Greg Cotterill, Dan Hill, Doug Cotterill,
Drew Hill,
Jeremy Neagle, Jim Shigley, Adam Talbot
MID ROW: Bill Harding, Pat Ackley, Tricia Cotterill, Dan Tier,
Diane Hill, Stephanie Neagle,
Staci Hall
BOTTOM ROW: Krystal Baker, Will Hine, Bruce Eck, Frank Palmer,
Jennifer Wildridge,
George Wildridge, Deputy Chief Jeff Kirkland, Fire Chief Tom
Warner
DFD Open House
October 11, 2009
October 1,
2009 - Coming Sunday October 11th is the Dryden Fire
Departments annual Open House.
This
years scheduled activities include a Vehicle Extrication
Demonstration starting at 11:00PM followed by Guthrie Air's
Medvac Helicopter Landing around 12:00PM, and a Fire
Extinguisher Demonstration at 1:00PM.
Our Guest agencies include Deputy Spencer of the Tompkins County
Sheriffs Department K-9 unit. The New York State
police will be displaying their Vehicle Rollover Simulator. The
Ithaca Police Department will bring up their new S.W.A.T. Team
Bus for display.
Throughout the day we will be having our Chicken Barbeque with
Hamburgers, Hotdogs, side dishes, and refreshments. Dryden
Ambulance will be doing free blood pressure checks. We will be
giving rides in the bucket of our Ladder truck. Kids can spray
water from a fire hose. Learn valuable Fire Prevention and
Hazard preparedness tips from our information booths and of
course Sparky the fire Dog will be their to greet all the kids.
New Month... Another Vehicle Fire
On Tuesday
September 15th at 8:21AM Dryden Fire was dispatched for a
vehicle fire at the intersection of North & Main Street. Deputy
Chief Jeff Kirkland checked in route and arrived on-scene
to a fully involved car fire.
Engine 501 checked en-route at 8:25AM with Driver Doug Cotterill and a
crew of FF. Rick Young, FF. Troy Pudney, FF. Bruce Eck, and FF.
Will Hine. Engine 501 arrived on-scene in less than a minute and
stretched a handline to extinguish the fire. Vehicle traffic was
diverted for a short time while fire crews extinguished the
fire.
Other Dryden units at the scene were Assistant Chief 564 Mike
Hall, Safety Officer Dan Hill, and FF. Don Gilbert.
Captain 582 Christy Warner and FF. Bill Enders back filled Dryden Station
incase anything else was needed at the scene.
The cause of the fire was undetermined at the time and most of the fire
was confined to the engine compartment. All Dryden fire units
were back in service within half an hour, by 8:50AM
Dryden
Firefighters Handle Truck Fire
September 1,
2009 - On
Thursday August 13th at 7:57PM Dryden Fire Department was
dispatched for a vehicle fire in front of the Dryden High
School. Firefighters were at the station taking a training class
at the time of the alarm. Deputy Chief 562 Jeff Kirkland
immediately headed to the scene.
Engine 502 (Capt. 584 Adam Talbot, Capt. 581 Jeremy Neagle, Lt.
587 Drew Hill, FF. Frank Palmer, FF. Jennifer Wildridge, FF.
George Wildridge) checked in
route less-
(Photos & Video Taken by DFD. Assistant Chief Dave Cotterill)
(Click above to watch a clip of
Engine 502's crew
extinguish the fire)
-than a minute after the initial tones dropped. Tanker
521(Lt. Greg Cotterill, FF. Bruce Eck) followed the engine out
shortly there after.
Upon Engine 502's arrival the crew quickly
attempted to knockdown the fire with a water can. The attempt
was unsuccessful and a hand line was pulled off the engine. Once
entry into the trucks engine compartment was made, the fire was
quickly extinguished.
Chief 561 Tom Warner, Rescue 541(FF. Pete Tyler & Capt. 585 Kenny
Vorstadt) shut the road down while vehicle extinguishment and
the investigation took place.
Other Units on-scene were Duty Chief Vehicle 569 (Asst. Chief 564 Mark
Bell, Safety Officer Dan Hill) & Asst. Chief 563 Dave Cotterill.
FF. Doug Cotterill, Fire Police Capt. Jim Shigley, and FF. Troy Pudney
manned Dryden station while Dryden units investigated the cause of
the fire. In all 17 firefighters responded to the alarm, Dryden Units were back in service by 9:00PM.
Autumn
= Dryden
Schools
back in Session
September has arrived and that means
Dryden Central Schools
will be back in session very
soon.
Please remember to watch out for pedestrian traffic around the schools.
Obey ALL traffic laws and NEVER pass a stopped school bus.
Dryden
Junior Fire Academy
August 10, 2009 - After much
anticipation the Dryden Junior Fire Academy debuted with a
roster of 23 Students. During the course of the four days the
take PART theme was stressed: Prevention, Attitude,
Respect, & Teamwork. I hope every student enjoyed
there time with us and we hope to see you again in the future.
I want to thank all the volunteers that helped
out during the course of the week. Without everyone's help and
support, this program could not have been such a big success.
If you add up all the
planning and implementation that went into the Junior Fire
Academy, over 350 man hours were spent on
this program alone.
Both students and our personnel had a lot of
fun!
Above are some sample pictures of what we did over the course of
that week. If you would like to see the entire archive please
checkout the
JFA
gallery.
TC3 Dorms almost Complete
Tompkins Cortland Community College (TC3) will be opening their
two newest dormitories later this year.
Seneca Hall and Cascadilla Hall with be the sixth and seventh of
the residential halls on the TC3 campus.
The buildings are very close to completion and work with their fire
alarm systems is progressing. Pictured above is a photo
taken during an accidental alarm activation earlier this year at one of
the new buildings.
Dryden
Fire Department
Junior Fire Academy
July 1, 2009 - On July
13th, 14th, 15th, & 16th our department will debut a one of a
kind summer program for our area youth. In cooperation and
conjunction with Dave Hall and the Dryden Youth Services
Program, the Dryden Fire Department will host it's first ever
Junior Fire Academy.
Our goal is to teach our students skills and let them take
"PART" in their community. This program is also designed to give
it's students a snapshot of what it means to be a volunteer
firefighter showing some of it's risks and letting them enjoy
it's rewards.
There are many fun activities planned including; engine operations,
spraying water, outdoors search techniques, wearing fire gear,
search & rescue, and learning Hazards Preparedness.
If your children is between the ages of 10 & 14, living in the Town of
Dryden, and interested. Please download an application by clicking the form
below. We are looking for a maximum of 25 students and the
last day to signup will be on July 11th.
***Students, Family, and Friends can access pictures of each days
activities through our website online. Simple type in the
private website address that will be sent home with each
student on July 13th. Photo
uploads will be added no later than 7:00PM each night.
On June 13th the
annual celebration of Dryden Dairy Days took place. The event
celebrated it's twenty-fifth year with the theme Cows on the
Moo..ve.
Dryden Fire and Ambulance began the morning at the
front of the community parade down West Main St. After the
parade, a number of members spent the afternoon inside
Montgomery Park to promote fire safety awareness and answer
questions from the public.
Sparky
Invades Homer
June 1, 2009 - On June
6th after making a brief appearance at the Cortlandville Fire
Department to promote safety the prior week. Sparky the Fire Dog
visited his fan base in Homer New York for their annual "Homer
Old Home Days."
Sparky's goal is to get the message out to every man, woman, and child
that everyone needs to maintain a working smoke detector in
their residence. Fire safety is important and not something that
should be put on the back burner.
Sparky try's to spread his message to every child personally. If you
would like to meet Sparky or ask him any questions, his next
appearance will be at the Dryden Dairy Days on Saturday June
13th beginning with the morning parade at 9:30AM.
Groton's controlled burn runs like clockwork
On May 31st, Dryden
Tanker 521 helped provide water supply to the Groton Fire
Department, assisting with the structures removal via a
controlled burn.
Groton Engine 802 tail boarded the structure and dropped two ponds behind
it. McLean Engine 1202 setup further down the road with two
ponds and supplied Groton Ladder 831 to protect a storage barn
adjacent to the structure. Two tanker fill sites were setup
using Moravia's Engine and Locke's mini-pumper. All the
departments that assisted with the action were; Groton,
Freeville, McLean, Dryden, Lansing, Locke, & Moravia.
It was a good solid training session and for some of the Groton
Firefighters who went swimming, a very wet morning.
3
Students become Firefighters
FF. Anthony Costa FF.
Brint Genzler
FF. Bruce Eck
May 15, 2009 - Through hard
work, determination, and grit: Anthony Costa, Brint Genzler,
Bruce Eck all completed there Firefighter 1 class. These
three students completed a
journey which began back in January, and ended on May 7th, 2009.
The above picture was taken just minutes after four hours of
intense physical training on their final evolutions.
Those certificates represent many hours of commitment to themselves, the
Dryden Fire Department, and our community.
Now that
summer has replaced winter in Central New York, it's
important not to forget safety when responding to the
station for alarms.
1. The weathers nice, watch for more Pedestrians and Children
playing
2. Always use your defensive driving skills
3. Use due regard/care when responding, whether it's your POV or
a fire truck.
4. Obey all of New York State's traffic laws
Victims trapped when 3rd Floor Deck Collapses
April 4, 2009
On March 21st 2009 at 4:30PM, Dryden
Fire & Ambulance were toned out for a reported deck/stairway collapse on
Mineah Road.
Dryden Lt. Greg Cotterill was one of the
first on the scene, having driven by just moments before the
accident. He was able to quickly access two of the patients
after removing the debris that blanketed them.
In addition to Dryden personnel, Groton Ambulance was requested
mutual aide to the scene.
The building complex houses numerous apartments. One of the
third story apartments had an attached deck and a stairway
leading to the ground roughly 20 feet below. Three of the four
residents fell to the
ground when this deck came loose from the side of the building
and collapsed.
The fourth individual was able to jump back inside the apartment just in time.
Two of the individuals were taken to Cayuga
Medical Center with minor injuries, the third was flown out by
helicopter as a precaution.
Antique
Hose Cart to be Restored
April 2, 2009
- A remnant of
a bygone error, this hand drawn cart is one of the Dryden Fire
Departments most prized possessions.
Our antique Hose Cart has been brought out of storage and back to the station
for a restoration project.
Over the last couple years it has been taken out for some Open Houses but
mostly
parades, giving it the nickname "the Parade Cart".
It has had some previous restoration repair work done to it in the past; by DFD
members Marty Taylor and Eric Stevens.
A total restoration project will begin in the coming months,
overseen by Dryden member Jim Shigley.
Once the process has been completed and the Hose Cart restored to it's
former glory, it will take it's place in our meeting hall on
display next to our trophy case.
Successful Knockdown on Midline Rd
March 1, 2009
At approximately 19:30 hours on February 13th, Dryden Fire was dispatched
for a working structure fire out on Midline Rd. Dryden Assistant
Chief 563 (Dave Cotterill) was the first on the scene and
confirmed a working structure fire with the house unoccupied.
Additional
mutual aide tankers were requested to the scene due to lack of
water resources in that area.
Brooktondale 121, Freeville 721, Slaterville 1521, & Varna 1921 were
toned out to the scene. A FAST Team out of the Heights was also
requested and responded in on their Engine 202.
An engine from Virgil and a tanker from Harford
weredispatched
(Photos & Video Taken by DAI. Assistant Director Chris DeWilde)
(Click above to watch a video of
Engine 502's crew attacking the fire) through Cortland County to back fill our station.
Dryden Engine 502 (Capt. 584 Adam Talbot, Capt. 581 Jeremy Neagle, Capt.
585 Kenny Vorstadt, Lt. 586 Greg Cotterill) checked in route two
minutes after the first alarm sounded. Command determined that
an interior attack was the best approach and informed all
responding Dryden Units.
Engine 502 arrived at the scene and tail boarded the structure on the
roadway. Two attack lines were pulled off the engine and Capt.
Kenny Vorstadt and Lt. Greg Cotterill made entry into the
structure. An aggressive interior attack on the fire commenced
and a great knockdown was made.
Soon after Ladder 531
(Doug Cotterill, Deputy Chief 562 Jeff Kirkland, Capt. 582
Christy Warner, George Wildridge, Leigh Duncan) arrived and
provided manpower assistance to 502's interior attack crew.
A portable pond from Slaterville 1521 was deployed behind Engine 502 and
they dumped their water. Tanker 521 (Shawn Flynn, Anthony Costa)
arrived on-scene and provided more manpower assistance and
staged next to Slaterville's pond.
Engine 501 (Ed Bell, Jim Drew, Jennifer Wildridge, Troy Pudney, Bruce
Eck, Tim Arnold) setup down the road at the intersection of
Midline and Irish Settlement. There they drafted (The above photo
taken from Ithaca Journal)
from a water source near the roadway and filled Slaterville 1521
and Freeville 721.
In all twenty seven firefighters from the Dryden Fire Department
responded to the scene and the fire was out within 15 minutes of
Engine 502's arrival. Thank you to the mutual aide
companies and their personnel that responded to our fire scene. No
injuries occurred and the cause of the fire is under
investigation.
Outgoing Chief Honored
February 14, 2009
- Dryden Ambulance & Neptune Hose Company
celebrated the passing of 2008. The banquet committee put together
another great night. Aside from a piece of DJ equipment catching
on fire, the night passed by without incident.
Outgoing Chief Ron Flynn was
honored for his years as our department leader in which our
company has prospered. Other awards were handed out to
individuals who have gone above and beyond.
Awards of
2008
Chiefs
Award
Jim Drew
Firefighter of
the Year
Matt Wood
Ed Hill
Award
Adam Talbot
Perkins
Award
Greg
Cotterill
EMS
Volunteer Award
Frank
Palmer
Rotary Town Firefighter of the Year
Adam Talbot
February 5, 2009
Through
professionalism, dedication, integrity and training the Dryden
Fire Department works to safe guard the lives and property and
to enhance the quality of life of the people of Dryden. This
will be accomplished by providing a vast range of emergency
services, strong public relations, and fire safety education. We
also protect and preserve the health of our membership and
return our personnel safely to their families.
“As the Fire Chief it is my goal to fulfill our mission to
save lives and protect the firefighters of the department
through public education and training of the membership. When
needed the Dryden Fire Department will respond in a timely,
professional manner.
We will support Dryden
Ambulance, Inc. along with other Emergency Service Agencies
within the Town of Dryden and the surrounding Counties.
Through the commitment and allocation of necessary
resources, we will develop and assess our emergency response
system and continuously monitor and evaluate our training
curriculum to ensure the professional, expedient and safe
operation of the fire
department”.
Thomas W. Warner
Fire Chief
Online Incentive Catalog
With the collaboration of George and Jennifer Wildridge, the
incentive order form is now
available to members online. All you have to do is
login into the members section and
choose between the two links; Incentive Apparel & Incentive
Gear.
The Incentive Apparel link will take you to the online ordering form. You
can choose your size and the quantity of the item you would like
by using the drop down menu's. If you would like to see an image
of the clothing close-up, simple click the image that represents
each item. After you select what you want, add any comments at
the bottom and click submit. The form will create an e-mail and
all you have to do is send the e-mail to the address in the
address box.
The Incentive Gear
link will take you to the equipment ordering form. Simply select
what you want, hit the submit button, and send the e-mail. At
this time you can not click the equipment photo's to enlarge
them.
Orders will be placed at the beginning of next month. So remember to
submit your forms to get the best prices.
If you would like to order using the traditional paper form. There are
still some in the station. Thank you to everyone who modeled for
these photo's and Ken, your looking pretty sharp in that three
season jacket!
Site
Update
January 5, 2009
With the new year, I thought I would rework some of the websites layout. A
few of the pages are still a work in progress but will be done
shortly. Here is a list of the current changes on this update:
MENU Changes:
(Cartoon
by Paul Combs)
* Added DFD Video Montage
* Updated Year End Statistics for 2008
* Added Operations tab with types of functions we
perform. (Incomplete)
* Added Kids tab with links to games and safety
materials.
* Personnel tab was split into Officers and Membership
tabs.
* Added 2009 Department Line & Business
Officers.
* Added Station Tour Page with picture of new lounge
* Divided News Page into news by Year
* Reworked Links pages. First page consists of Local
Links.
* Added Catskills, Alleghany, and Seaway Region fire
department links
* Video Gallery is now populated with department movie
clips
* Updated Training and Events Pages
* Added more information to the E-911 page
* Added Deceased Members, Sign, & Donations page
* Reworked Safety & Volunteer Pages. (Incomplete)
* Added Web-Admin Page with survey form
Members Section:
* Added Current By-Laws
* Added 2009 E-mail Listing
* Added Incentive Apparel and Gear ordering forms.
(Incomplete)
Christmas Eve Fire on Hillside Drive
A garage fire began shortly after 7:30AM on the morning of December 24th.
Dryden Assistant Chief 565 (Mike Hall) was first on scene and assumed
command. He reported heavy smoke coming from the structure
with fire quickly spreading to the attached house.
A second alarm was struck for mutual aide tankers from Freeville, Etna,
Varna, Dryden, McLean, & Slaterville with manpower. A FAST
team from the Heights was also requested to the scene.
Freeville Chief 761 arrived next and became operations command. By this
time parts of the attached house were on fire.
Dryden Engine 502 (Rick Young, Lt. 586 Matt Wood, Capt. 584 Adam Talbot)
was
first in. Captain 584 pulled the 5" supply hose with
manifold off. The engine took off and proceeded to lay hose
from the bottom of the hill on Ringwood Rd, up to the fire
at the top of Hillside Dr.
Tanker 521 (Ed Bell) arrived next, dropping its two ponds on Ringwood Rd.
It proceeded up Hillside Dr. to give crews additional
water, while supply operations setup a tanker shuttle system.
By this time individual firefighters from Dryden and
surrounding areas were trickling in to provide manpower
assistance. Ladder 531 (Mark Bell, Capt. Kenny Vorstadt,
Frank Palmer) arrived and followed up the hill to provide
additional manpower and aerial support.
Interior firefighting operations began in the house once sufficient
manpower had arrived. Crews quickly halted the spread of the
fire inside the garage, then pulled out because of
structural instability inside the house.
Exterior firefighting operations commenced with crews on the ground
fighting the fire through doors and windows. At the same
time Ladder 531 (supplied through 502 & 501) began an aerial
bombardment of the fire.
Down on Ringwood Rd. Captain 584 became water supply command and directed
Engine 501 (Shawn Flynn, Troy Pudney) to tailboard the ponds
at the bottom of the hill. Engine 501
began drafting and supplied water through the 5" supply to the
apparatus above.
By this time Freeville Tanker 721 (Brent Hollister) had dumped his first
load of water and met with Engine 702 (Andy Clark, Steve
Johnson) at the intersection of Ringwood and Midline Rd.
where the tanker fill site was set up.
Varna's Engine 1901 arrived and dropped manpower off to help crews above.
The Heights arrived with their FAST team and proceeded up
the hill for support.
The remaining tankers in route arrived and dumped their water. A third
call was then issued for additional tankers to the scene.
With the ladder's help, crews were able to re-enter the structure and put
out the remaining hotspots. Interior crews were able to
salvage some of the families important possessions, including
some of the children's Christmas presents.
Tanker crews returned from the fill site and Brooktondale & Lansing
arrived dumping their water. Cortlandville's Tanker who was
backfilling our station, relocated to the scene for
additional water supply.
The fire was deemed out and Interior crews began salvage and overhaul
of the structure to eliminate any possibility of a
rekindle.
In all, about 50 firefighters responded from Dryden, Varna, Freeville, Etna,
McLean, Brooktondale, Slaterville, Lansing, Cayuga Heights,
& Cortlandville departments. Virgil firefighters backfilled
our station during the fire and helped get our apparatus
back in service. No firefighter injuries were reported and
everyone made it out of the structure safely before fire
crews arrived on-scene.
Special recognition is given to twelve year old Megan Cornelius who got
her sister Emily out of the house. She also notified a
neighboring tenant to evacuate. Thankfully the house had
several working smoke detectors which alerted her to the
rapidly growing fire. Though crews were hampered by icy
roads, manpower shortage, and water supply issues due to the
location of the house, the fire was out within 20-25
minutes. Most of the house suffered water and smoke
damage. But most importantly, everyone made it out of the
house safely.
Thank you to
neighboring departments for their assistance, and well done. All the above photos taken by the
(Ithaca Journal)
JAN
33
FEB
24
MAR
21
APR
19
MAY
25
JUN
20
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
NOV
DEC
TOTAL
= 142
2010 Dryden
Junior Fire Academy July 12th thru 16th SIGNUP HERE
For Dryden Town Residents age 10-16
Mutual
Aid to Groton Structure Fire
This
years scheduled activities include a Vehicle Extrication
Demonstration starting at 11:00PM followed by Guthrie Air's
Medvac Helicopter Landing around 12:00PM, and a Fire
Extinguisher Demonstration at 1:00PM.
Our Guest agencies include Deputy Spencer of the Tompkins County
Sheriffs Department K-9 unit. The New York State
police will be displaying their Vehicle Rollover Simulator. The
Ithaca Police Department will bring up their new S.W.A.T. Team
Bus for display. 
Throughout the day we will be having our Chicken Barbeque with
Hamburgers, Hotdogs, side dishes, and refreshments. Dryden
Ambulance will be doing free blood pressure checks. We will be
giving rides in the bucket of our Ladder truck. Kids can spray
water from a fire hose. Learn valuable Fire Prevention and
Hazard preparedness tips from our information booths and of
course Sparky the fire Dog will be their to greet all the kids.
Other Dryden units at the scene were Assistant Chief 564 Mike
Hall, Safety Officer Dan Hill, and FF. Don Gilbert.
Tompkins Cortland Community College (TC3) will be opening their
two newest dormitories later this year. 
Sparky
Invades Homer
available to members online. All you have to do is
login into the members section and
choose between the two links; Incentive Apparel & Incentive
Gear.
Site
Update
was
first in. Captain 584 pulled the 5" supply hose with
manifold off. The engine took off and proceeded to lay hose
from the bottom of the hill on Ringwood Rd, up to the fire
at the top of Hillside Dr. 
began drafting and supplied water through the 5" supply to the
apparatus above. 
