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THE MISSION OF THE NORTHAMPTON COUNTY FIRE SCHOOL |
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The mission of the Northampton County Fire School is to provide quality training to the county's emergency service
personnel at no cost to the students.
The Northampton County Fire School Association has kept up to date with the school cutting edge classroom
training material and physical training equipment along with highly trained instructors. The measure
of the Northampton County Fire School's success lies in the low rate of fatalities and injuries among Northampton
County's emergency service personnel while in the line of duty. As the future continues to bring major
advancements in emergency services training, the Northampton County Fire School will continue to rise and meet
the challenges of supplying quality education and training to Northampton County's emergency services
organizations and personnel.
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A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE NORTHAMPTON COUNTY FIRE SCHOOL |
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The years after World War II saw many changes in
firefighting equipment and methods.
Some of these changes included: 1) The availability of new
“pumpers” for purchase for the first time since the start of
the war; 2) The Navy's development of fog and foam for
fighting Class B fires aboard ship; and 3) The Scott
Aviation Company’s conversion of their aircraft oxygen mask
to a self-contained breathing apparatus which utilizes
compressed air.
It soon became evident that better firefighter training was
needed. The U.S. Navy Yard Fire Training School in
Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania State Fire Training
facility in Lewistown were the only options available in
relative close proximity for Northampton County
firefighters. The only training program available to most
Firefighters was the 45 hour Fundamentals of Firefighting
program, and only a few instructors were available to teach
it.
In the fall of 1963, the membership of the
Lehigh-Northampton County Fire Chiefs Association decided a
need existed for a fire training school in Northampton
County. And so the process began. First, a committee was
appointed to apply to the Northampton County Court for a
Charter. The officers were then elected and the by-laws were
drawn up. The first officers to be elected were: President -
Barry Buss; Secretary - William Bogari; Treasurer - Robert
Rogers; and Trustees - Thomas Seip, Reno Buss, John Leith,
Joseph Poltl, and Eugene Brown. The total assets listed on
the charter for the new organization was $100.00 in personal
currency. The charter was approved and signed by Judge
Carleton T. Woodring on June 22, 1964, and so was born the
Northampton County Fire School Association, Inc.
The Committee began looking into potential sites for a
permanent fire school location. During this time frame, the
fire school sessions were conducted on two Sundays in
October at various locations. The first official fire school
was held at Palmer Township in 1964. By November 1964
negotiations were completed with the City of Bethlehem to
lease a site on Applebutter Road for $1.00. Irvin Good,
Public Service Director for the City of Bethlehem, who also
participated on the Fire Technology Advisory Committee, was
instrumental in obtaining the lease. Under the terms of the
lease, the City of Bethlehem was to have representation on
the fire school’s Board of Trustees. So as to comply, it was
necessary to change the by-laws and add a representative
from the City of Bethlehem to the five trustees.
At last it appeared that the fire school had a permanent
fire training facility. A local contracting firm was hired
to proceed with the project resulting in the construction of
a three story training tower along with a pit for flammable
liquid fires, which was dug and encompassed with a blacktop
edge, for the price of $4650.00. John Leith, Fire Chief of
Leithsville, devoted countless hours to constructing the
training tower. At our dedication ceremony, we named the
tower the" John Leith Training Tower in his honor.
The first of the Fire School classes were held at the new
facility in the fall of 1966. Previously, the classes were
held in both Palmer Township and East Bangor. The roster of
fire school instructors included: William Balliet, Chief of
Whitehall Twp.; Richard Smith, Asst. Chief of Laurel Fire
Co. in Cementon; George Samok, Asst. Chief, Palmerton F.D;
Edward Reimbold, Bethlehem F.D.; Corvin Solt, Lehighton Fire
Chief; Reno Buss, Palmer Twp. Fire Chief; Guy Tomaino, Asst.
Chief, Wilson Boro; Frank Sobyak, Bethlehem F.D.; and Earle
Brotzman, Asst. Chief of Easton F.D.. The roster of fire
school instructor assistants included: Raymond Marsh,
Firefighter, Palmer Twp.; Harvey Mitchell, Asst. Chief,
Palmer Twp.; Edward White, Asst. Chief, Palmer Twp.; Willis
Weidner, Capt., Wilson Boro; Robert Davis, East Bangor Fire
Chief; Irvin Kannapel, Firefighter, Wilson Boro; and Richard
BeIIesfield, Firefighter, Palmer Twp..
It became obvious from the very first class, which brought
out the neighbors (one with a shotgun) protesting about the
smoke, that before spending any more money on the
Applebutter Road site, it was time to look for land in a
more rural setting which the Association could own. The
Trustees spent many weekends looking at various tracts of
land throughout Northampton County. Robert R. Davis, East
Bangor Fire Chief, and Kenneth Beegle, Bangor Fire Chief,
came up with the idea of using an area along the
Bangor-Martins Creek Highway for the new fire school site.
After some checking, they found that a tract of land owned
by Mr. Joe DeMarco was obtainable. The committee approached
Mr. DeMarco about the property and was advised that he had a
10-acre tract which he would sell them for $1,000.00 an
acre. The land was grown over with underbrush, but the
stream on the western boundary made it look much more
appealing than any of the other sites that were looked at.
With the committee’s recommended to purchase the property
from Mr. DeMarco for a total price of $10,000.00, the wheels
were set into motion. On Feb.3, 1971, Mr. DeMarco accepted
$50.00 for an option to purchase the land. The Northampton
County Commissioners agreed to provide the funding and in
less than one year from the time the Trustees first looked
at the land, the Northampton County Commissioners supplied
the funds in full to complete the purchase.
Now, upon completion of the purchase of land that the fire
school could finally call its own, the hard work of
preparing it for use began. The main goal was to be able to
conduct the first fire school sessions there by the
following spring. On April 23,1972, the first fire school
classes were held at the school’s new permanent site.
Portable generators were used for power for the overhead
projectors. Smith Burial Vault Company graciously provided
funeral tents for shelters. One large tent was set up with
side curtains as a projector area and dubbed "Cinema 3". A
trailer box became a smoke house. A wooden tower, which
still stands today, was constructed and completed the day
before the start of classes, providing the ladder class
setting. The highlight of the day was the “burn class”. An
old gasoline tanker was filled with water and a top floating
of 100 gallons of gasoline. A pipe was installed in the rear
of the tank and charged by a pumper. When the gasoline was
ignited, water was pumped through the line into the tank
causing the flaming gasoline to overflow.
As you can probably guess, the honeymoon was soon to be
over. One can easily imagine the amount of smoke generated
by burning 100 gallons or more of gasoline at a time. The
very next morning 51 people that lived in the vicinity filed
protests with the Washington Township Supervisors and the
Northampton County Commissioners to have the fire school
closed down and moved to another area. Over the next several
weeks, numerous meetings with Washing Township, Northampton
County, and D.E.R. officials were attended in an effort to
convince the neighbors that the school would do whatever was
necessary in order to continue at that location. Martin
Bechtel, Chairman of the Northampton County Commissioners,
was most helpful in conducting the meetings. The school had
plans to construct a permanent concrete tower that same
summer which, by containing the fires within would eliminate
the need for the gasoline tanker fires, thereby also
eliminating most of the emitted smoke. After numerous
meetings with the area residents, the Association was
finally able to convince them that all efforts would be made
to keep the smoke to an acceptable level by use of a
concrete smoke tower. That summer, the construction of a
permanent concrete three story tower at a cost of $25,476.00
was underway. The new tower was completed and on Oct. 12,
1972, it was used for the first time. The neighbors and the
press were invited to observe the tower training in an
effort to enlighten them of both the importance of the
school’s work as well as its desire to be a good neighbor.
There have been no problems since.
Under the dedication and hard work by Ray Marsh, Director
and State Instructor, the next couple of years saw three
temporary wooden classrooms built to replace the use of the
funeral tents, but they were not heated and in late October
and early March when classes began, they were rather chilly.
For the next several years, fire school sessions were held
on two consecutive Sundays in the spring and fall. Students
started in group one and moved to group two and so on until
they received their certificate upon completion of group
four. This process took two years for a firefighter to
obtain a certificate.
By the mid 1980's, with more and more fire departments
requiring that all Firefighters obtain certification, it
became obvious that a way had to be found to shorten the
time required to complete Fundamentals of Firefighting
certification. After being appointed as Director of the
Fundamentals program, David Renninger devised a schedule
which had a student attending classes one night a week and
several Saturdays or Sundays. This scheduling enabled a
firefighter to become certified in about ten weeks,
ultimately becoming the forerunner for the Essentials of
Firefighting that is in place today. At the same time a
program of construction began bringing about permanent
classrooms that were heated and well lighted. The main
classroom was completed in 1993 and contains both electric
heat and air conditioning.
The ten year period from 1995 to 2005 has seen tremendous
changes in fire training. The PA State Fire Academy changed
the Basic Firefighter Course from 45 hours to 88 hours. The
tragic events of.9/11 have fostered many new courses ranging
from "Response to Terrorism" to various levels of Hazardous
Material training.
The Northampton County Fire School has graduated over 600
students from the "Essentials of Firefighting" course alone.
Over 1,000 students are involved in training classes of one
type or another throughout the average calendar year.
In 2000, the school received $314,000 from a bond issued by
Northampton County. This allowed for the complete rebuilding
of the concrete training tower, burn rooms. And construction
of a new classroom facility> This facility hosts seating
space for 40 students, has bathrooms, an office area, and a
kitchen where meals are prepared for the students, central
air conditioning, and a built-in state-of-the-art
audio-visual system.
In November of 2004 the school was certified by the State of
Pennsylvania as a Firefighter 1 test site. The school
received great accolades from the PA State Fire Academy in
May 2005 after witnessing the first certification tests.
In January of 2006 Pennsylvania will be initiating a new
program to replace the 88 hour Essentials of Firefighting
course. While the name may remain the same, the program will
be undergo a major change causing a curriculum time
expansion to exceed 120 hours.
Over the years the Northampton County Fire School Association
has kept up to date with the purchasing of classroom
training material as well as physical training equipment.
All indicators show that the future will continue to bring
major advancements in fire suppression training, and the
Northampton County Fire School will continue to rise and meet
the challenges of supplying quality education and training
to our county firefighters.
Unlike other types of businesses, there is no way of
measuring the fire school’s success except for the fact that
the low rate of Firefighter deaths and injuries in
Northampton County can be attributed in great part to good
firefighter training. What lies in the future is impossible
to predict, however as long as we continue to have good
dedicated people to carry out the Fire School Programs, we
will continue to produce well trained emergency service
personnel.
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