Photos and Article by Mary Alice Murphy

The Tyrone Volunteer Fire Department held an open house to introduce the community to its newly expanded station. Roger Groves, Tyrone VFD chief, explained the different in firemen's helmets. The wildland fire one is basic and is to protect the head from falling limbs or debris. The helmet worn for fighting structural fires includes thermal protection for the head. 

Groves told the Beat that the department received its certificate of occupancy in December 2014. Wendy Shaul, assistant department chief, said this year has been a calm year for wildlifes, with the main one having been the Treasure Mountain Fire at Wind Canyon. Groves said they fought another one along Interstate 10.

The expansion of the station allows training to be held inside the new training room rather than in the fire truck bays. "We never had a meeting and training room before," Groves said. "We have held quite a few training, including for firefighters from all over the state." Shaul said the trainings have included advanced training session.

Karmon Johnson, the department training officer showed the sand table. "We can simulate the topography of the terrain using images of Google Earth projected on the screen. The closer we can get it in the classroom, the better prepared we are."

Ken Gardner, White Signal VFD chief, said the simlation allows drawing the fire and the movement of the fire to better prepare the volunteers on the ground."It also give information to the incident commander. We try to choose specifics, such as wind speed, temperature, humidty, if a storm is coming. We also need to do more interdepartmental training."