Being a Firefighter

Volunteering to Put Yourself in Harm's Way

Enterprise Fire Co., like many fire departments, is constantly on the lookout for new volunteer firefighters.

Back when Enterprise Fire Co. Chief Keith Gordon joined the fire department 37 years ago, firefighters had to "fight" to get on a truck. "If you could hang on somewhere, you got on," Gordon recalled.  Not so much anymore. Now, if 15 or 20 people respond to a fire, that's a good day, Gordon said.  "Everybody has less volunteers," he said. "We've been in pretty good shape the last couple of years. But, you never have enough." The fire company has 30 active members and 75 regular members on its roster, according to Gordon. But, since some of the newer volunteers are younger–in some cases junior firefighters–the chief said he worries about holes in the lineup if they go away to college. To date, Enterprise has not really needed to do a …

•  2 Comments
• Videos (1)

Being a Firefighter

Can You Dress Like a Firefighter?

How long does it take you to get dressed? A minute? How about when you wake in the middle of the night from a sound sleep and must get dressed and out the door for an emergency?  Can your half-asleep body shove on heavy trousers and boots and zip up a 15-pound fire retardant jacket in under a minute? If you want to be a firefighter, that's a necessity. Along with completing roughly 150 hours of training to receive Firefighter I certification, a firefighter must be able to dress in boots and turnout gear within a minute, according to Enterprise Fire Co. Chief Keith Gordon. "It takes a while, but that's what these guys do," Gordon said during a live burn fire drill in a West Lehman Avenue home recently. "They make it a competition among …

•  2 Comments
• Videos (1)

Theresa Katalinas

2:43 pm on Friday, May 3, 2013

Mac, The final segment on this series is about volunteering. Look for it next week.   more ›

Being a Firefighter

Patch Learns to Crawl Before Walking

The editor of Hatboro-Horsham Patch suited up in turnout gear alongside the volunteers of Enterprise Fire Co. to get an insider's look at firefighting.

The expression you need to learn to crawl before you can walk could have been said about firefighting.  When I led a recent search and rescue live burn drill with the Enterprise Fire Co. of Hatboro, I learned that these mighty volunteer heroes who extinguish fires, save people and rescue our pets too, do so, mostly, on their hands and knees. I had forgotten the "stop, drop and roll" message from school and I attempted to walk in to the West Lehman Avenue home. My crew, meanwhile, was on all fours crawling through the first floor of the building looking for occupants. Enterprise Fire Chief Keith Gordon shared that crawling–instead of walking–is safer for several reasons. First, heat, particularly from a fire, rises and firefighters can feel…

• Videos (1)

Being a Firefighter

Patch Leads Firefighting Search During Drill

Hatboro-Horsham Patch Editor Theresa Katalinas joined the volunteers of Enterprise Fire Co. in Hatboro during a live burn drill recently.

I'll never forget my first "fire." I was 8 or 9 years old. I walked home from school and when I unlocked the door, smoke came pouring out. So much, in fact, that I had trouble seeing anything beyond the cloud.  The deafening sound of our home's smoke detectors rang in my ears and I was terrified.  I called 9-1-1 and reported that my house was on fire. My uncle, a volunteer firefighter, responded, and for this little girl, saved the day. He teases me about the fact that the "fire" amounted to smoke from a pot my mom had forgotten to remove from the stove before going to work. All of the water had evaporated and the pot burned, causing lots of smoke and sending the detectors into a frenzy. ... Call it a precursor to my most recent "fire." On…

•  1 Comment
• Photos (3)
• Videos (2)

Being a Firefighter

Patch Gets Firsthand Look at Firefighting

The editor of Hatboro-Horsham Patch suited up in turnout gear alongside the volunteers of Enterprise Fire Co. to get an insider's look at firefighting.

In an effort to get a firsthand look at a day in the life of a volunteer firefighter, Patch went behind the scenes with the Enterprise Fire Co. of Hatboro during a live burn recently. I took some photos, shot some video and did lots of interviews as part of this series on firefighting. This video, shot by Kevin Drennen, is the first installment of the series. To make sure you don't miss the subsequent parts of the firefighting series, subscribe to our free newsletter, "like" us on Facebook or follow @Hatboropatch on Twitter.  

•  3 Comments
• Videos (1)

New Rides Coming to Hatboro Carnival

The 'Scrambler' is one of several new attractions at the eighth annual Hatboro Summer Fun Festival and Carnival.

Amusement rides, games, food, fireworks. The makings of a good time are coming to the borough next month as part of the eighth annual Hatboro Summer Fun Festival and Carnival, which kicks off a week earlier this year, according to event organizer Bill George of Pennypack Entertainment. After salvaging about four days of last year's soggy nine-day carnival, George said organizers opted to "move it up a week and shorten it down" to a seven-day event spanning May 21 through May 27 (Memorial Day).  "There's a whole bunch of new stuff," George said of the brand-new ticket boxes, a reworked Scrambler set to return after a five-year absence and a new Roundup ride. "We spent a lot of money this past winter on equipment," George said. "Everything’s…

•  3 Comments
• Photos (3)

Fire Company Recognizes Police Department

Hatboro Mayor Norm Hawkes presented Hatboro Police Chief James Gardner with a plaque from the Enterprise Fire Co.

• Photos (1)

Hatboro Firehouse Project Remains at Impasse

Hatboro officials have withheld payment to Titanium Inc. since last spring for Enterprise Fire Co.'s building expansion and the contractor has said he will not finish until he is paid.

Roy Cain shares his office with a mop, bucket and other custodial supplies. Cain, the new president of Enterprise Fire Co., and a member of 50 years, shared his cramped space woes with Patch during a recent drill night. But, Cain is not the only member short on space. His fellow members listened to a training session in the fire station’s bay area, amid vehicles and equipment. The fire department’s cramped quarters have been at issue for at least the last seven years, former president Chris Gowen told Patch previously. Planning was ongoing for five years and for the last two years, the fire department, as well as borough officials, have waited for what was supposed to be a six-month-long expansion project to conclude. From the looks of it…

•  1 Comment
• Photos (1)

Volunteer Honored for Fire Prevention Work

The Philadelphia Fire Department recognized Enterprise Fire Co. safety officer Jim Anders Jr. for a decade of volunteer efforts.

In any language, fire safety means having a smoke detector, checking its batteries regularly and knowing how to properly evacuate a building in the event of a fire. For the last decade, Enterprise Fire Co. safety officer Jim Anders Jr. has helped the Philadelphia Fire Department share those and other fire prevention messages through his work with the Citizens for Fire Prevention Committee. A former vice chairman of the committee, the group, with Anders' help, compiled fire prevention calendars, pamphlets, fliers for school-aged children, a fire safety app for iPhones and Android devices and more. At the end of 2003, when the first run of calendars were printed, Anders said 100,000 were printed in English and more were printed in other …

• Photos (1)

Web-Based Response System Aids Fire Companies

First responders from Enterprise Fire Co. and Horsham Fire Co. keep up-to-the-second tabs on who is responding to calls with help from a Web-based program.

Want to know who's responding to the scene of a fire instantaneously? There's an app for that. Firefighters from Hatboro's volunteer-run Enterprise Fire Co., as well as paid and volunteer firefighters from Horsham Fire Co. use a Web-based system called I Am Responding, which works with its members' mobile phones to quickly share pertinent information such as who is responding to a fire, if they are driving a ladder truck and more.  "If I'm at the scene, I can now see if my trucks are getting out," Enterprise Fire Co. Deputy Chief Jim Anders III told Patch of the department's newly installed equipment. "Sometimes, during the day, I could be going to the scene and there might not be a driver. If I don't have a truck it's useless." Horsham …

•  2 Comments
• Photos (1)