Huntingdon Valley Fire Company

FIREFIGHTERS WANTED Friends, neighbors and members of the Lower Moreland community, Huntingdon Valley Fire Company has served our community as a 100% Volunteer organization providing emergency response when needed. As many know, the volunteer fire service across PA and the US continues to be a struggle in the 21st century for recruiting and retaining members with competing family demands, challenging work schedules, training requirements and relocation needs. We are not i...mmune from these issues and are looking to tackle these challenges head on to prevent delays in our response or an overreliance on the mutual aid system without switching to career staff or costing a fortune. Today we are announcing the launch of our Volunteer Shift Program and are actively recruiting new members! The Volunteer Shift Program is a stipend based, duty crew program, where certified firefighters can sign up for shifts that work for their schedule providing consistent staff in the firehouse to respond to emergencies as needed. Our goal is to schedule Monday to Friday, 6a-6p with 4 of these 12-hour shifts. We will work with you for flexible scheduling by day and/or week. For your time, volunteers will be given $70 a shift. We are actively recruiting firefighters with the following qualifications from the surrounding area: - Certification in Fire Fighter 1 IFSAC or ProBoard - PA DOH VRT - Hazardous Materials Operations - CPR/First Aid For more information please see the flyer below and visit hvfire.org/shiftprogram for information and to apply. You can also email [email protected] for further questions. If you or someone you know is eligible, apply today! Share with your friends, and thank you for your support!

Our featured member this week is Kate Valesky. Kate joined the fire company in 2005. Her certifications include Firefighter 1 and 2, water rescue, vehicle rescue, fire officer, and fire instructor. Kate has served as sergeant, lieutenant, and was the first woman in our company to achieve the rank of captain. In addition to being an active firefighter, she currently serves as one of our trustees. Her reason for joining HVFC is that both of her parents, uncle, and grandfat...her are, or have been members. The fire service is definitely in Kate's blood as she is also a member of the Willow Grove Fire Company. Kate’s full-time job is working for Best Buy as an assistant store manager of operations. Her hobbies include softball, computer games, travel, animals, and the great outdoors. Kate’s safety tip is to know that carbon monoxide is a silent killer. Be sure to have a working carbon monoxide alarm on every level of your home. See more

Activity Stats for this week (4/3 - 4/9) 6 Emergency Response calls Monday night’s drill and we trained on hydrant work. Our admin held their weekly meeting. ... Wednesday night was Engineers night for preventative maintenance on our trucks and equipment. 121 total volunteer hours to the community. We are always looking for volunteers and stipend members. If interested, please reach out to us through messenger. #110yearsofservice #dedication #loyaltoourduty

At 11:07 AM, the fire company was dispatched to a multi-vehicle accident at the intersection of Pine Road and Red Lion Road. Crews performed an extrication of the driver of 1 vehicle who was transported to the hospital by Bryn Athyn Fire Company Ambulance. Special thanks to our Fire Police unit for securing the intersection making it safe for our crews to operate.

Our featured firefighter this week is Chuck Chiaverelli who serves as a member of our new shift program. Chuck previously served HVFC from 1986 to 1989 and joined our new shift program last year. His certifications include Firefighter 1 and 2, Vehicle Rescue, Hazmat, Aircraft Rescue Firefighting, Fire Officer, Fire Inspector, Confined Space Rescue, Safety Officer, and Shipboard Firefighting. He is also a certified EMT and is an aircraft rescue firefighter/EMT with Boeing A...ircraft for his full-time job. Chuck’s interests include spending time with his family, aviation, car shows, fishing, and playing softball. His reason for becoming a firefighter is helping people. We are excited to welcome Chuck back to HVFC as a part of our shift crew! So what is the shift program? We started our shift program as a way to provide better coverage during the day when many of our volunteers are working at their full-time jobs. We also face increasing traffic congestion during the morning and evening rush hours. The township authorized the funds for us to pay, per-diem, up to four firefighters at our station from 6 am to 6 pm, Monday thru Friday. Even though our program was just started in November, we have dramatically improved our response times and we have a growing number of firefighters participating. We are grateful to Lower Moreland for their support of this program.

Squad 8 was dispatched at 7:40 am for a vehicle accident rescue involving an overturned car on Huntingdon Pike in Bryn Athyn. FM 25 reported no rescue needed and ordered units to proceed in for hazard control.

Activity Stats for this week (3/27 - 4/2) 7 Emergency Response calls Monday night was a company meeting. ... Wednesday night was Engineers night for preventative maintenance on our trucks and equipment. In addition, we also did driver training. We held a special company meeting on Thursday night. 273.5 total volunteer hours to the community. We are always looking for volunteers and stipend members. If interested, please reach out to us through messenger. #110yearsofservice #dedication #loyaltoourduty