The month of December is promising to be an exciting one as the JFRD will once again have the opportunity to welcome new recruits into the family. Thirty-three excited and proud men and women will have their official cermony Thursday evening, 17 December: to all of you a hearty and sincere "Welcome to the best Fire/Rescue Department anywhere!"
Tuesday, the 28th of this month and just after 7:30 AM, and once again units from the JFRD are dispatched to a structure fire: for this specific time and date the location being 419 Basswood Street. The additional information supplied to the responders detailed a vacant, two story residential structure with boarded up windows on fire, with potentially more than one person still inside of the structure. Upon arriving on scene Engine 9 immediately confirmed that heavy flames were rolling up the front of the house, engulfing the entire second floor. Although crews managed to promptly initiate an interior attack and perform a primary search, the latter thankfully revealing no one inside of the house, Command soon felt the need to pull everyone out as the overall situation began to deteriorate with flames spreading toward the rear of the home. Once the crews were safely out, the defensive posture now entertained soon resulted in the fire being contained after nearly 15 minutes of incessant pounding by the deployed masterstream. The State Fire Marshal was subsequently notified to investigate what was clearly a 'suspicious' fire. Additionally, in the immediate aftermath of the incident, two firefighters required transport to an area hospital for minor injuries sustained during the combat evolution: both were released that very same day.