What's News?

By Second Assistant Chief Roblee

Monday September 15, 2025

It's been a busy summer of training for Firefighter Jacob Schweickert.  In June, he completed the 12 hour "Firefighter Survival: Self Rescue" course at Newton Abbott Fire Company.  Self-Rescue teaches firefighters how to manage and escape a MAYDAY situation they might encounter while in a building fire.  Skills included following hose lines, ladder and rope bailout, bailout of the first floor window, and wall breaching.  They also cover calling a MAYDAY over the radio; understanding what information to relay for the best chance of being rescued.

At the same time, Firefighter Schweickert also completed the 15 hour "Basic Passenger Vehicle Rescue" course at Warsaw Fire Department.  This course provides the knowledge and skills to perform stabilization and extrication techniques on passenger vehicles.  These skills are critical for our company, since our heavy rescue equipment is a vital resource to Sardinia and surrounding towns.

This month, Jacob wrapped up summer by completing the 42 hour "Firefighter 2" course at the Erie County Training Operations Center in Cheektowaga.  Firefighter 2 builds knowledge of more advanced firefighting functions such as standpipes, propane emergencies, firefighting foam and incident pre-planning.  The course also acts as a firefighters first exposure to leading a group of firefighters in firefighting operations.  Jacob had the opportunity to lead a team of fellow students through interior firefighting operations, which requires serious situational awareness, communication and understanding of the objectives at hand.

In all, Firefighter Schweickert completed 69 hours of state training, not including travel time and home department skills.  But he's not done training yet!  This fall, he is scheduled to take the 15 hour "Firefighter Assist and Search Team" course, the 16 hour "Hazmat Incident Command" course and the 55 hour "Certified First Responder" course.  Each of the courses he completes brings more critical knowledge and skills back to our company.  We are extremely grateful to have Jacob and many other dedicated volunteers putting in countless hours of effort to provide the best service possible to the Town of Sardinia.