Fire Suppression
Click here to read an excerpt about interior firefighting
Since the first fire department was formed, the main purpose of the fire department was to save lives and property from the destruction of fire. Since the beginning the fire service has been evolving to meets new challenges in fire fighting. In the early days the majority of fire fighting was done with bucket brigades. Firefighters were not equipped to
enter burning structures and rescue people or to extinguish the blaze from the inside. As time progressed so did technology, with the introduction of fire engines, ladders, hoses, fire hydrants, protective gear, air packs, power tools, radios and even today thermal imaging cameras that allow firefighters to see people and fire through the blinding smoke. Today firefighters fight fire in a very different way and have new challenges. Changes have taken place in building construction, fire codes, and in the materials that regular household products are made out of. Below you will find some of the different operations that the St. Johnsbury Fire Dept. uses to suppress fire and save lives.
The engine company is the what most people think of when they think of a fire truck. Its main job is to supply water to the firefighters with hose lines to put out the fire. The members who make up the engine company perform several functions, some of which include:
- Search and rescue of trapped occupants
- Place hose lines in the building to confine and extinguish the fire
- Water supply
- Protect nearby buildings (called exposures)
- Participate in overhaul and salvage operations after the fire
In St. Johnsbury the first vehicle to leave the station is most often an engine with 2-3 firefighters on
-board. Since manpower is limited in the first minutes of the fire, the first arriving engine must perform the primary search and of the building. Once that is complete then the firefighters can put hose lines in place. Depending on the fire conditions the members may choose to take a hose line with them on the primary search, giving them much greater protection. At any time a firefighter may be asked to perform a variety of duties. Firefighters who arrive on an engine may be assigned to ladder company operations if conditions require it.
Ladder Company Operations
Ladder companies are referred to by several different names including, truck companies, snorkels, hook and 
ladder trucks, aerial trucks and towers.
This usually refers to the vehicle that makes up the company but the job is still the same. Tower 4 is St. Johnsbury's ladder truck and consists of a truck mounted boom with a bucket at the end. The current setup allows the department to accomplish many more operations, and do them much more safely than a conventional ladder truck, without a bucket would allow. Like the engine company the crew on the tower has several priority jobs including:
- Search and rescue trapped occupants
- Ventilate the building to let hot gases and smoke out
- Place ladders on and around the building
- Forcibly enter areas that may be locked or secured
- Check for fire that has extended to other parts of the structure
- Protect exposures
- Setup master streams for an outside attack
