The year 2014 was another busy year for the department in the terms of emergency responses. In 2014 the department responded to 322 calls for assistance, these calls ranged from structure fires, rescue calls, vehicle accidents, alarm calls and a variety of service calls. Even though you may not hear the siren, the department answers calls 24 hour a day 7 days a week.

Besides the emergency calls the department holds weekly drills and meetings as well as attending association meetings and training at the Allegheny County Fire Academy and other formal training sessions. This year we had two members attend the Structural Burn classes at the State Fire Academy in Lewistown, and one member attended training in Pueblo Colorado. This does not include the specialty training most of our fire fighters have including Vehicle and Rope Rescue, and Hazardous Materials Training. When not training we also have work details to maintain the station and equipment.

The department also participates in a wide range of Community Activities, to include the Annual Tree Burning, Community Days, Hay Ride, National Crime Alert Night Out and the Borough’s Halloween night and the Lion’s Club Memorial Day service. We also hold fund raising and community events with other departments as well as participating in the Forest Hills Rotary Annual Chili cook-off.

This past year, the members have accumulated 1436 hours responding to emergency calls, 1346 hours for non-incident activities and 1927 training hours for a total of 4709 hours for the year.

Not only are the members of the Forest Hills VFD committed to the protection of the residents of the Borough of Forest Hills. For the fourth year, on December 6, 2014, we committed to grin and “bear” it for the athletes of Special Olympics of Pennsylvania by taking a frozen dip into the Allegheny River alongside hundreds of other warm-hearted people. Seventeen members, family, and friends of the FHVFD joined members of the Swissvale Police Department with their Family and Friends helped donate over $23,000 to support this worthy cause. Our team also supported 2 “Super Plungers” from the FHVFD. These individuals had raised over $2,500 each and began their PLUNGE experience on the morning of December 5, 2014 by plunging every 30 minutes for 12 hours before joining the team on Saturday.

We know – you’re probably getting cold just thinking about it! But the cold that we felt was only temporary…the positive impact this will have on the lives of thousands of individuals with intellectual disabilities will last a lifetime.

If you want to learn more about this spectacular winter event, visit www.specialolympicspa.org to find out all the chilly details.