Westover Fire Department Wins AFRC Award

  • Published
  • By TSgt. George Cloutier
  • 439th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
WESTOVER AIR RESERVE BASE, Mass. --  For the third year in a row, the Westover Fire Department has won the Air Force Reserve Command Fire Department of the Year Award.

According to Josh Nixon, Westover Fire Department Assistant Chief, the department's achievements weighed most heavily toward earning the award included supporting the 16 Air National Guard F-15s from Barnes ANGB during their temporary 2013 stay, earning an excellent rating on a recent inspection, and successful mutual aid operations. The base department assisted in multiple off-base incidents including Brunell's Marina fire, the Easthampton forest fire and a barn fire in Chicopee.

Other notable achievements that contributed to the earning of the award include: Responding to 379 calls with no loss of aircraft or structures, participating in "Kids of Courage" program, completing installation of a $3.5 million base mass notification system, training and certifying 10 local fire departments in airfield firefighting operations and leading the base CPR program.

When asked what Westover firefighters may be doing differently than other departments, it's their training and the base training facilities that really makes the difference.
"We have our own training facilities and that's helped out a lot," said Capt. Eric Rauch. "We can do any kind of operation we want to, day or night. We can do live fires, search and rescue and even high angle operations."

The department gets constant cooperation with Westover building owners and managers, which helps them train for a variety of scenarios, the captain explained. Westover also has live training facilities that can actually be set on fire and extinguished, which are also frequently used by local civilian departments. These facilities include a mock-up plane and a three-story building, located near Patriot Avenue and the North Ramp. Both can be engulfed with flames for optimal realism to help build confidence and familiarity.

"We'll just go in there and watch flame behavior and what it does," said Dan Kostura, a Westover firefighter. "Outside of base, you're only going to get that if you go to the fire academy. It definitely helps to be able to see flames in a training environment. You know what you're looking for."

Along with the unit award, a personal award was given to Charles VanGorden, Westover Fire Department Chief, for "Best Fire Department Chief" in AFRC.