Coventry Fire District Trains First Class of Recruits

Fair weather set the scene for Coventry Fire District's training with its first recruit class Thursday afternoon, extending truck ladders and shooting water high into the air.

"Excellent," said Coventry Fire District Chief Paul Labbadia at the Coventry Town Hall Annex parking lot when asked how the first class was performing, "They're doing a great job."

Coventry and Central Coventry Fire Districts were training together - 12 Central Coventry District recruits in Recruit Class 4 and four Coventry District recruits in Recruit Class 1.  

Central Coventry Battalion Chief Scott Murray was instructing recruits in how to operate the ladder on Tower 3. First, he said, the new firefighters would learn how to move the ladder from the engine. The truck's ladder, which can extend up to 103 feet and rotate around the engine, can be operated at ground level from the base. Gradually, Murray said, the recruits move on to operating the ladder from the bucket, where there is a second set of controls. "It's a step by step process," Murray said.

Across the parking lot, Labbadia was doing the same, calling out advice to the firefighters as they extended the ladder and began firing arcs of water across the field behind the Coventry Town Hall Annex. "You gotta retract slow so the water will drain," he advised. 

The recruits trained on the engines until about 5 p.m. Thursday.