Community Corner
Firefighting Training Day at Stanley School
What do you do when your ladder truck is out of commission? Borrow one from Melrose and train in the Stanley School parking lot.
New Swampscott firefighters Chris Dipietro and Chris Drinon had to do some training, unfortunately, the Swampscott ladder truck was in Pennsylvania getting repairs. Thanks to the folks at the Melrose fire department, there was no interruption in Dipietro and Drinon’s training.
“The Chief over in Melrose was good enough to let us borrow Ladder 2 from Melrose while our ladder was getting repaired, and we were able to conduct training exercises in the parking lot at Stanley School,” Captain John Quinn said Wednesday afternoon, as Drinon and Dipietro and other members of the Swampscott fire department wrapped up their training exercise.
Melrose’s Ladder 2 blasted a high stream of water over the far end of the parking lot, which is actually called the Charles M. Ewing woods, with Dipietro at the top of the ladder working the water stream.
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“We take the young guys out, and see what they can do,” firefighter Joe Gambale said. “They did a nice job today.”
Dipietro, who graduated from in 2002, has finished his work at the fire-fighting academy, and Drinon, a 2001 SHS grad, will be completing his work at the academy this fall.
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“We put a couple of calls out and the chief from Melrose was good enough to let us use his ladder truck so we could work on the training with our new guys,” Quinn said. “Our mutual response area is Lynn, Salem, Marblehead, and Peabody, so it was really good that the chief (in Melrose) offered to help us out with our training program.”
Some of the kids at the Park & Rec program at Stanley were wondering why the firefighters were blasting water high above the trees Wednesday morning, as part of their training exercises.
“I love fire trucks and I love firemen, and it’s neat that they’re here working today,” Carl said as he watched the firemen work the hoses and ladder trucks. “We had a field trip to the fire house when I was in second grade and it was very exciting, so to see them working is really neat.”
“These are just some of the drill the guys have to do, they have to be able to work all the machinery we have in Swampscott, so since we didn’t have our truck available, the folks in Melrose were kind enough to let us use theirs,” Quinn said
