The Washington Fire Company has had a long tradition of providing rescue services to our community and surrounding communities.  While the most common rescue scenario to our area is that of vehicle extrication the mix of agriculture, heavy transportation, and heavy industry carries its own potential.

The area of technical rescue is a specialty in its own. The time dedicated to training even in the basic levels usually limits participation in the volunteer service. Do to this limitation a potential gap in services was identified by a group of companies within the county.

Based on the simple pooling of manpower and equipment the Cumberland County Technical Rescue Operations Team was organized and entered into operations in July of 2003. Participating companies within Cumberland County have organized into an efficient, well trained unit know identified as Team 500.

The Washington Fire Company is proud to participate in this group and offers 19 company members to the team 500 roster.

A large group within our membership has embraced technical rescue operations leading to vastly expanded and updated rescue capability provided by the company. In the past 3 years the majority of these members have given literally hundreds of hours to training and drilling in the area of technical rescue including, collapse, trench, advanced rope and rigging, water rescue, and confined space. We now have 4 company members expanding their experience and training as part of Pa Task Force One.

The companies long range plans involve expanding our technical rescue capability even further with equipment purchases and upgrades. This project was launched in January of 2004 with vastly expanded rope and rigging capability, remote ventilation, collapse and confined space rescue equipment, remote air capability, heavy lifting, large area search kits and RIT.

The Washington Fire Company has dedicated it members and resources to providing and expanding on top level rescue services well into the future.

Vehicle Extrication and Heavy Lift Drill July 2005

Structure Collapse Drill May 2005

LT Snyder checks the shores in a recent trench drill