PHOTOS COURTESY OF SPOTSWOOD FIRE DEPARTMENT Spotswood firefighters drag hundreds of feet of hose through the Appleby School during a smoke-out at the Appleby School Aug. 12. School and fire officials sought to prepare for an event such as a school fire, given two recent blazes at schools elsewhere. SPOTSWOOD — In the wake of a fire that caused substantial damage at an East Brunswick school this summer, borough school officials and firefighters decided to prepare themselves in the event of such an emergency.
Last week, at the suggestion of Superintendent of Schools Jack Krewer, volunteers from the Spotswood Fire Department conducted a drill at the Appleby School.
“I spoke to the Board of Education about using the Appleby School to simulate a classroom fire with victims down,” said Assistant Fire Chief Nick Poliseno. “This entailed using live smoke inside the building, simulating the conditions present if indeed a fire was to happen.”
Firefighters had to drag 474 feet of hose throughout the building and made all the necessary hose connections, all with visibility of just about 3 inches, Poliseno said.
Monroe volunteer firefighters from that township’s District No. 1 also participated in the Aug. 12 drill, along with Spotswood Emergency Medical Services.
The drill session was prompted by the July 10 fire that left East Brunswick’s Memorial Elementary School uninhabitable for the coming school year, and on a smaller scale, the June 24 propane tank fire at Milltown’s Joyce Kilmer School.
“With the two recent local school fires, we felt taking the proactive route of train- ing for the unthinkable will give us a big step up, God forgiving this ever happens,” Poliseno said. “We were met with nothing but support from the superintendent of schools and Mayor [Tom] Barlow, with wanting to do this kind of training.”
Many school employees were on location to get a firsthand look at the drill.
“Fighting a fire in a large building, compared to a single-family house, does not compare at all and takes many different strategies to be successful in protecting life and property,” Poliseno said.
He thanked Krewer and the Board of Education for helping them conduct a realistic training scenario of a school fire. The firefighters may ask the board to run a drill at Spotswood High School next summer.
During the drill, the firefighters were able to try out a new GPS device built into the fire department’s new Scott self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBAs), obtained through a $237,000 FEMA grant in February. The device assists responders in locating a downed firefighter inside a building by locking onto the GPS unit inside the firefighter’s SCBA unit and giving a signal to track and find the person.
“Being able to train with this unit inside a smoke-filled environment proved to have extraordinary value in itself,” Poliseno said.