02/23/2026
🔥 Welcome to the All Hands Tour 🔥
This past weekend instructors and students gathered in Essex for the first offering of this exciting 24-hour delivery. Students arrived Saturday morning and were assigned to individual companies with Instructors operating as the Company Officer until Sunday morning. Throughout the “shift”, a team of instructors working logistics set up mock incidents and scenarios for the students to navigate. During down time, students were in the firehouse running through the day as a simulated firehouse shift which included housework, meal preparation and training in between “incidents”. Each incident concluded with a debrief in which instructors shared their personal experiences of handling these types of emergency calls. Incidents included various structure fires, vehicle accidents, vehicle fires, alarm activations and service calls.
The immense value of this type of training was evident as students worked to tie together the foundational skills they have learned as a Firefighter I/II student into real world application and decision making. In a fast-paced fire service, students must come out of entry-level certification programs ready to hit the ground running in their respective fire departments. These students now have the skills to better prepare them for life in the firehouse and in the streets.
A huge thank you to Instructor Joe Massey for putting this program together and turning an idea into a reality. We are grateful for our gracious hosts at the Essex Fire Engine Co. #1 for allowing us the use of their facilities for the 24 hour period. Also a thank you to filltheboxfire for joining us to document the training. Pictures included here are from Jack’s work! https://www.filltheboxfire.com/Fire-Events
Students represented the following agencies this weekend:
Essex Fire Engine Co. #1
Kensington Fire-Rescue
Berlin Volunteer Fire Department
Durham Volunteer Fire Company
Haddam Volunteer Fire Company
East Haddam Fire Department
Old Saybrook Fire Department
Keep an eye out for our next run of this awesome program!!