Witmer Fire Protective Association

The Witmer Fire Company would like to congratulate Lieutenant 62-3 Justin Gossert and his wife Rachelle as they welcome their newborn daughter Kelsey Whinn Gossert into the world who was born on Wednesday February 21st.

The Witmer Fire Company is proud to announce that the 2015 Line Officers include two new Lieutenants, taking on an officer spot is a very demanding position that demands many hours spent in training, meetings, emergency calls, and much more as we try to build a team that serves our community as well as our neighboring communities to the highest level possible. Please help us welcome Dereck Duffy into the spot of Lieutenant 62-2, and Justin Gossert into Lieutenant 62-3, if you happen to have the pleasure of meeting these new Lieutenants be sure to congratulate and encourage them on their new journey! We would also like to take the time to congratulate John Kreider Jr. and say thanks for his many years as a line officer as he steps down from a line Officer spot, John was a line officer  for 23 years, ten of those years as a Captain, and 13 years as a Lieutenant which are very impressive numbers!

The 2015 Line Officers of the Witmer Fire protective Association are as follow;

Chief 62 : Matthew Bono

Deputy Chief 62 : Christian Kauffman

Assistant Chief 62 : Greg Sherman

Captain 62-1 : Reuben Lapp

Lieutenant 62-1 : Jacob Lapp

Lieutenant 62-2 : Dereck Duffy

Lieutenant 62-3 : Justin Gossert

Safety Officer 62 : John Latscher

At 1434 Hrs Tanker 62 was dispatched as part of the first alarm assignment for a mobile home on fire in Station 48′s(Ronks) first due, a neighboring Chief arrived on the scene first and reported heavy fire showing from a mobile home and then requested the 2nd alarm assignment which put E62-2 on the assignment as well. Shortly thereafter engine 48-2 arrived on the scene as the first arriving piece of apparatus and made an aggressive attack on the fire and with the help of the support pieces that arrived shortly thereafter the fire was brought under control within an hour and Station 62 was clear of the scene shortly after and crews where able to return to the station and warm up after being outside in the extreme temperatures! Stay safe everyone!

We would like to thank everyone who came out to our Ox Roast today for their generous support, 1,925 takeout meals where sold, and 739 meals where sold in the family style dining area for a total of 2664 meals sold! We would like to remind everyone that this would not be possible if the community would not come out and help us the way they do, there are dozens of volunteers who selfishly spend the day helping us to prepare and serve this meal and we greatly appreciate it! Thank you for helping us help others!

At 1707 E62-2 was dispatched to Greenland Drive in Station 63′s (Lafayette) first due for a gas leak, minutes after being dispatched county advised the Station 62 that they are receiving reports of a vehicle accident at Horseshoe Rd/Jefferson Rd so Deputy 62 advised that E62-2 will continue to the gas leak and E62-1 and SQ62-1 will handle the accident. E62-2 arrived at the gas leak and assisted 63′s crews with what turned out to be unfounded while E62-1 and SQ62-1 arrived at the vehicle accident to find a minor wreck and were happy to report that no EMS units where needed to transport and all 62 apparatus returned to the station shortly thereafter.

After crews got back to quarters and returned all the equipment back into its place the members prepared to go to work preparing coleslaw and peaches for takeout dinners at the Saturday Ox Roast only to be interrupted by the Pre Alert for an outbuilding fire along Willow Rd in East Lampeter Township in Station 204′s (Eden) first due. Which once again brought E62-2 along with T62 to the street. Deputy 20 and E204 arrived first and reported a 50×60 barn fully involved. E62-2 arrived next, supplied water to E204, and the crew assisted with attacking the fire. T62 arrived as the first Tanker and was asked to drop it Port-A-Tank and set up to supply the scene with the water that was being brought to the scene by tankers. The scene was clear by 1930,

On Wednesday afternoon E62-2, E62-2, and Tr63(Lafayette) where dispatched to the 900 block of Hartman Station Rd for a gas leak, E62-2 went enroute first and was advised by county that they received a call from a  third hand caller who stated his wife called him at work and said that their 500 gallon propane tank was leaking gas from the top of the tank. The Engine arrived minutes later to find a 500 gallon tank that was venting propane into the air from the top of the tank about 100 feet from a house and a barn, crews quickly pulled a 1.50″ handline and starting vapor dispersion by using a fog stream through the vapors. In the meantime E62-1 and Tr63 had made the response and the truck assisted E62-2′s crew while E62-1 went into the house with a gas meter and checked for gas levels and also pulled a backup handline in case anything should go wrong. It soon became evident that this could be a drawn out event until either the tank empties or the propane company arrives on the scene and is able to stop the leak so Chief 62 who by this time arrived and had command established requested that two tankers be dispatched to the scene bringing T62, and T29(West Earl) for water supply. Command then requested that Chief 44(Intercourse) contacts him due to his work involving servicing propane tanks and once he made contact Chief 44 responded to the scene and after doing a size up determined that it is actually a simple fix with the right accessories and had the leak fixed within 15 minutes. Thanks to Chief 44, Tr63, and T29 for the assistance!!

Crew members from Tr63 working on vapor dispersion

Monday morning as the snow was starting to fall E62-1 and SQ62-1 where dispatched to the 100 block of Witmer Road for a vehicle accident/unknown injuries. As the engine made the response county advised that they are now getting reports of someone being trapped inside the vehicle and that they are upgrading the assignment, this added E62-1, E41-1(Bird-In-Hand),RES48(Ronks) along with a medic unit. E62-1 arrived first and found one vehicle into a tree with all the doors jammed and the driver still inside, the Engine crew went to work and stabilized the vehicle and then removed the drivers side door and extricated the driver, the extrication was complete 8 minutes after E62-1 arrived.

The Witmer Fire Company is asking that everyone uses caution while driving on icy or snow covered roadways and avoid being on the roads whenever possible. Local meteorologists are still scrambling to determine how this storm will affect the county but there is a good chance we will receive our first significant snowfall of the year so we are asking everyone to please use caution while driving as well as making smart decisions while heating your house during the cold and windy times. We will gladly come out and assist anybody in time of need, however we would much prefer that there isn’t anybody that finds themselves in an emergency situation that requires our services. Also if there is a fire hydrant close to your property that is obstructed by snow it could have a negative impact in the unfortunate event that a fire would break out in the neighborhood so do yourselves and your community a favor and clear those hydrants!  Be Safe!

The 2015 Ox Roast dates are official and are on the following days, February 14th, April 25th, and October 17th. For more information visit the Ox Roast page on our website.

At 16:03 Tanker 62 was dispatched as part of the first alarm assignment to assist station 48(Ronks) with a reported dwelling fire, 48 units where on the scene by 16:07 and reported the fire knocked and held the assignment to their station only, seconds after Tanker 62 the pre-alert went out for a apartment building fire on Granger Rd in Station 61′s(Upper Leacock) first due, engine 62-2 was on the first alarm assignment and made the response with 6 firefighters on board. Chief 29(West Earl) was in the area and arrived on scene within minutes and reported heavy smoke on the second floor of a multi unit townhouse, E62-2 arrived simultaneously with Truck 204 with E61-1 , E62-2′s crew advanced a handline while 204 laddered the building and made entry into the apartment and 61-1 dropped a supply line from the hydrant, crews encountered heavy smoke due to a kitchen fire in a second floor apartment and made a quick knockdown of the fire and opened the walls to make sure it doesn’t extend into the attic. crews also encountered fridgid tempts turning water into ice on the outside within minutes adding to the challenge, great job to everyone involved!

The third building assignment and second working fire of the night came at 2304 when Engine 62-2 was once again dispatched to Station 61′s first due this time it was for a automatic fire alarm at Skyline Manufactured Housing while 61 was currently working a CO alarm elsewhere in their due, Deputy Chief 62 arrived first on the scene and reported a smoke condition on the Bravo side and Countywide Communications quickly upgraded the assignment to a building fire box alarm. In the first mintutes crews had a difficult time finding the fire due to it being a very large building and it being secured, once crews gained access to the building they determined that there was heavy fire coming from a mobile home that was being constructed inside the structure. Crews remained on the scene completing extensive overhaul for a lengthy period of time, once again great job to all involved!

Ever hear our house siren or see the fire trucks go by while we are responding to an emergency and wonder where we are going? Wonder no more, you can now come to our website and look on the left side, underneath the call totals for a list of the last five incidents that the Witmer Fire Company has been dispatched to, this feature is a RSS feed from Active911 which is an alerting system that we use to automatically send alerts to our firefighters via their cell phones when we get dispatched, so therefore it will be updated automatically and should be on the website within minutes of dispatch.

Around 17:30 units where dispatched to Smoketown Airport hanger E for a building fire, first arriving crews found a small fire in the furnace area of the building with minor extension into the ceiling, crews extinguished the fire and pulled some of the ceiling down to get to the extension.

A few hours later the box alarm was struck again for the same building this time the report was a smoke condition inside the building again and they are thinking there is still a hot spot in the wall, crews arrived and found a hot spot in the wall and pulled some more of the ceiling and walls open to get to the hot embers. Units on scene on both calls where E62-2, E62-1, E41-1, E63-3, TR63, RES48, T62-1, and T41-1.

Photo by 3rd Alarm Photography