Admin

Our monthly meeting to discuss the general business of our company. New members looking to apply or the public looking for information should visit us during these meetings.

Our monthly meeting to discuss the general business of our company. New members looking to apply or the public looking for information should visit us during these meetings.

Our monthly meeting to discuss the general business of our company. New members looking to apply or the public looking for information should visit us during these meetings.

Our monthly meeting to discuss the general business of our company. New members looking to apply or the public looking for information should visit us during these meetings.

Our monthly meeting to discuss the general business of our company. New members looking to apply or the public looking for information should visit us during these meetings.

Our monthly meeting to discuss the general business of our company. New members looking to apply or the public looking for information should visit us during these meetings.

OUR RAFFLE CALENDARS ARE BACK FOR 2021 AND ARE CURRENTLY AVAILABLE! 2023 Calendars are here! Great Christmas gift that gives all year! Your $35 donation supports the Pond Hill-Lily Lake Fire Department. Match either of the 2 numbers against the PA evening pik 3 lottery and you could win $30 up to $250. If your number matches the first and last day of the month, winning amount is $10,000! How does it work? Each calendar is assigned two 3 digit numbers, these numbers (ranging 000 to 999) are selected via the Pennsylvania Evening Pick-3 each day and if you number gets selected you win the prize listed for that day! (Prizes range from $30 to $250 each day). Official Rules Winning numbers determined by the Pennsylvania Evening Pick-3 Daily Lottery Number at 7:00 PM. All numbers are played straight as drawn. All cash winnings will be paid by determined by the amount of money indicated on that winning day of the calendar. Winners will be paid by check weekly, mailed to the name and address on the information card given to Pond Hill-Lily Lake Fire Company when purchased. It is your responsibility to ensure correctness and to contact us to update information as needed. The $10,000 Winner will be paid in winning PA Lottery Tickets. 20 Pa Evening Pick 3 Daily Lottery tickets are purchased for the last day of the month drawing. The number purchased is the same as was drawn on the first day of the month. If the number is drawn, the winning tickets are used to pay the winner. Lottery Card Number is invalid if the information card is not given to PHLLFC with full payment before day and time of drawing. For More Information Contact Scott Bednar 570-592-4029

OUR RAFFLE CALENDARS ARE BACK FOR 2021 AND ARE CURRENTLY AVAILABLE! As per community feedback, our calendars have returned as a standard monthly calendar design, but with two chances to win each day!. That is right, for $35 you have the chance to win up to $250 a day TWICE! This also doubles your chance to win the $10,000 grand prize each month. How does it work? Each calendar is assigned two 3 digit numbers, these numbers (ranging 000 to 999) are selected via the Pennsylvania Evening Pick-3 each day and if you number gets selected you win the prize listed for that day! (Prizes range from $30 to $250 each day). Official Rules Winning numbers determined by the Pennsylvania Evening Pick-3 Daily Lottery Number at 7:00 PM. All numbers are played straight as drawn. All cash winnings will be paid by determined by the amount of money indicated on that winning day of the calendar. Winners will be paid by check weekly, mailed to the name and address on the information card given to Pond Hill-Lily Lake Fire Company when purchased. It is your responsibility to ensure correctness and to contact us to update information as needed. The $10,000 Winner will be paid in winning PA Lottery Tickets. 20 Pa Evening Pick 3 Daily Lottery tickets are purchased for the last day of the month drawing. The number purchased is the same as was drawn on the first day of the month. If the number is drawn, the winning tickets are used to pay the winner. Lottery Card Number is invalid if the information card is not given to PHLLFC with full payment before day and time of drawing. For More Information Contact us via email at [email protected] or leave a message at 570-379-2204

Our raffle calendars are back for 2017 and are currently available! As per community feedback our calendars have returned as a standard monthly calendar design, but with two chances to win each day!. That is right, for $35 you have the chance to win up to $250 a day TWICE! This also doubles your chance to win the $10,000 grand prize each month. How does it work? Each calendar is assigned two 3 digit numbers, these numbers (ranging 000 to 999) are selected via the Pennsylvania Evening Pick-3 each day and if you number gets selected you win the prize listed for that day! (Prizes range from $30 to $250 each day). Official Rules Winning numbers determined by the Pennsylvania Evening Pick-3 Daily Lottery Number at 7:00 PM. All numbers are played straight as drawn. All cash winnings will be paid by determined by the amount of money indicated on that winning day of the calendar. Winners will be paid by check weekly, mailed to the name and address on the information card given to Pond Hill-Lily Lake Fire Company when purchased. It is your responsibility to ensure correctness and to contact us to update information as needed. The $10,000 Winner will be paid in winning PA Lottery Tickets. 20 Pa Evening Pick 3 Daily Lottery tickets are purchased for the last day of the month drawing. The number purchased is the same as was drawn on the first day of the month. If the number is drawn, the winning tickets are used to pay the winner. Lottery Card Number is invalid if the information card is not given to PHLLFC with full payment before day and time of drawing. For More Information Contact us via email at [email protected] or leave a message at 570-379-2204

Wildland fires, brush fires, woodland fires, wilderness fires, or whatever you may call them by have been a growing concern and problem for our area. If you checked out our Brush Fire Safety article, you can see that these fires are often manmade and are growing in both size and number yearly. Our department has been placing a large amount of resources and training towards being better prepared and more effective at fighting these fires. As of this training day, wildland fires have already overtaken all other types of calls for our most frequent event this year. Pond Hill-Lily Lake Fire Company was accompanied by Slocum Township Fire Company for a live burn training drill to practice techniques and test equipment for this fire season. The burn was a multiple acre burn that was completed in sections while teams focused on certain skills for each section. Members were instructed to build a dry fire line, which is essentially a line of uncovered dirt that will prevent the fire from crossing due to lack of fuel, and a wet fire line which in a line of watered down fuel that will prevent the fire from crossing due to the fuel being too wet to burn. Both of these fire lines have advantages and limitations that require the use of both on larger fires. A large focus of this training was to promote firefighter safety be reinforcing the concepts of “fighting from the black” while maintaining weather and situational awareness. After the training crews went over Slocum’s new brush utility unit that they are putting into service this year.

Members of Pond Hill-Lily Lake Fire Company completed a ladder based in-house training day to improve basic ladder techniques. The training started with proper ladder movement and placement skills on a fire ground and then turned to how each type of ladder is utilized. Our department carries three main types of ladders, these are single (or roof) ladders, extension ladders, and folding (or attic) ladders. For those that are not familiar with ladders, here is a quick summary. Single ladders are generally 10’ to 16’ and are used to gain access to one and two story buildings, our single ladders have roof hooks on them which allow us to latch the ladder onto a roof peak and use the ladder as a support platform when doing work on a roof. Extension ladders are generally 24’ to 35’, but you can find these much taller, and are used for high level structures and for gaining access to roofs. Folding ladders are fairly small ladders that can be folded length-wise to greatly reduce their size, generally these are used inside a structure (e.g. attic access), but with an 8’ to 16’ length these are still capable as normal ladders. All fire department ladders must meet NFPA certifications, which basically means they can hold a lot more weight and abuse then your standard hardware store purchased ladder, but this also comes at a vastly increased cost. All of our ladders are aluminum construction, but you can find departments using wood and fiberglass as well. Of course there are more types of ladders and more uses for each one we already stated, but this was just a summary for the most basic aspects. As far as the training on the ladders went, members started by practicing leg locks in order to secure themselves to a ladder without the use of a ladder belt or specialized device. Afterwards they practiced techniques to bring both a conscious and unconscious victim down a ladder. Victim removal is a vital skill for any firefighter as it is extremely hard to aid a firefighter on a ladder once removal has begun. Members then focused on gaining access to a roof and placing a roof ladder onto the structure before stepping onto the roof. As stated earlier, roof ladders are used to provide a working platform on a roof as falling though a weakened roof into a burning building is critical situation we try to avoid. After the hands on training, members went over different ladder concepts. Ladders are a vital means of access and more importantly emergency escape routes for firefighters, but are often under utilized on scenes. This is one concept of the fire service where you can truly say that more is always better.

Pond Hill-Lily Lake completed our annual yearly refresher training to kick off the 2016 training year! This training is focused on providing all of our members a core skills refreshment along with preparing them for the new set of training to come. Our officers also use this as an opportunity to pick out weaknesses and focus on those problematic skills more with upcoming training. This training session includes a brief SCBA drill that started with the proper donning of gear and SCBA units. Members are spilt into pairs and required to fully don their TOG (Turn Out Gear) and SCBA (Self Contained Breathing Apparatus) and then give each other a “buddy check” to confirm everything is properly in place. This is how we encourage our members to don gear during an active incident, as even the most seasoned fire fighter can make a simple mistake at 3am after days/weeks of down time. Once this session has been completed, members practice basic RIT and self-rescue techniques that vary each year. This year, members practiced swapping out a downed fire fighter’s SCBA pack without removing his/her mask to complete the change. While Pond Hill-Lily Lake is not a RIT (Rapid Intervention Team) department, we do train for providing injured/downed fire fighters air during situations that can happen to our members and our neighboring departments before a RIT department arrives. Once members have reviewed their SCBA skills, our training turns towards pumping. Members went to Lily Lake and connected our Tanker to the dry hydrant to begin flowing water. In order to challenge members, our Engine was relayed with the Tanker and members were given both a static (suctioning from a dry hydrant) and pressurized (getting water pumped from our tanker) water source to train with. Training consisted of multiple water supply changes and issues that required the pump operator to adapt to the situation. Along with basic multiple attack line pumping tactics and equipment use, such as the deck gun and Blitz Fire. With our department being primarily focused on Engine Operations (getting water on and to the fire), this session of our refresher is the main focus and most time consuming. With our official training days starting January 24th, with our SCBA Awareness Training followed by January 31th with our SCBA Challenge Course, we hope to once again improve our departments ability to serve the surrounding communities. This year also marks a special year for our new training program, as we will be purchasing multiple training based manikins to greatly expand our abilities. Keep checking back for details of these training days and how your department can join in. We would like to thank everyone who allow our training to be a success, and also thank the members for their near 100% participation within our training. Our membership levels may be low, but we will always pride ourselves with completing the tasks of many with only a few.

Pond Hill-Lily Lake Fire Company and all of our members would like to thank the Mocanaqua Memorial Post 6434 VFW Home Association for their generous donation to our department. While we are always disheartened to see a local company of any kind close their doors for good, we are thankful that Post 6434 kept the community in mind and used their remaining funds to make donations to multiple community organizations, including ourselves. The donation of $2,500 was presented by John Matusek and Robert Yazemboski at our last monthly meeting on 05/18/15. These funds will go to firefighting equipment and daily upkeep costs of our station; allowing us to better serve and protect our community.

On March 8th members from Pond Hill-Lily Lake Fire Company tested their skills and refreshed their memories about brush fires. This drill included testing and preparing our Heavy Brush's pumps, chainsaws, generators, and other equipment for the upcoming brush fire season. Members were able to use all of the equipment and had time for pumping with our Heavy Brush. We also went over the wild land based equipment on our Engine and Tanker to ensure everything was in working order. Once members had hands on time with all of our equipment, we went to Lily Lake and did a larger scale pumping exercise that involved both our Engine and Brush units. Pond Hill-Lily Lake's Heavy Brush unit is a Ex-Military 2.5 Ton beast that carries 1,000 gallons of water, 1,500 feet of hose, two pumps, one generator, chainsaws, leaf blowers, 7 Indian water tanks, and multiple of hand tools.

On February 22nd crews from Pond Hill-Lily Lake did an in station training session for Motor Vehicle Accidents (MVAs). The drill took place to refresh crews and patient packaging and extrication techniques used during MVAs. Crews went over the equipment needed to safely and effectively remove a person entrapped or confined in a vehicle after an accident has occurred. Crews also went over transporting a patent up embankments and over rough terrain. Crews were able to secure a person into a basket stretcher and successfully upright the person without them moving or compromising cervical spine security. This practice is used to practice transporting patients over rough terrain or even when lifting or lowering a patient vertically during rope rescue. While not a EMS unit ourselves, we try to achieve the highest standards with patient care when supporting our local EMS units on secure. All of our MVA related training has at least one EMT-B or Paramedic present to enforce proper packaging standards and usage of equipment. In fact, many of our members are cross trained within the EMS field to enhance our abilities on scene.

Pond Hill-Lily Lake Fire Company held our annual Turn Out Gear (TOG) and Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) training this weekend. Our newest Turn Out Gear, which is the clothing we wear during a fire, was presented to all members and the details of it's protective levels, cleaning, and setup where evaluated. While most fire fighters view TOG skills and education as basic skills, the need to review them is always present as even a small mistake can be life-threatening. Preventative maintenance and cleaning for TOG is becoming more and more essential as our average set of gear is priced at $3,000 per member. After we completed our TOG section of training, we went over the basic design and function of our SCBA packs and refreshed our members on their use. Member's masks were covered and an obstacle course was setup within our station. Members had to search the building and clear each room eventually finding and extracting a patient from the building. Nearly blind and pushed to fit in places their gear could barely fit, all of our members managed to find the patient and no group got separated or lost in the building. Good work! The last phase of our SCBA training was a simulated low air situation. Members where placed in a situation where their air supply was about to run out and self extrication from the building was impossible. Members practiced breathing techniques to conserve air and experienced running out of air completely. Next month our training will be focused on Rapid Intervention Teams and Self Rescue while using SCBA packs. We would like to thank all members who attended this months training.

We would like to thank Salem Township Volunteer Fire Company for their generous donation of a thermal imaging camera. This device can be used to search for heat sources and hot spots involved with structure and wildland fires. These can also be used to help during search and rescue situations to find heat sources generated from a lost person. These devices generally run for thousands of dollars and can easily top $10,000 new once all the needed mounting and accessories are added on. While the device was donated awhile ago, we have finally achieved the personal training and secondary equipment to place it on our Engine 1.

Members of Pond Hill-Lily Lake successfully completed their in house training for their electronic devices. These devices included: Thermal Imaging Cameras Thermal Detection Guns Gas Meters Voltage Detection Decives PASS Alarms' Members where able to not only detect heat sources in a building, but where also able to see in the dark using our thermal imaging camera. This device can be used for a huge range of situations including structure fires, smoke alarms, search and rescue, vehicle problems, and much more. We were also able to test out our thermal detection gun and successfully found multiple heat sources in a building.

Pond Hill-Lily Lake Fire Company will be hosting an Electronics Devices in-house training day at our station. We will be refreshing on the high tech side of the fire service and will involve hands on use of the equipment along with education of there use. All members of our company are urged to attend and members of outside companies are welcome to come as well, in fact feel free to bring some equipment to use from your own department. Residents can also stop by if they would like to see what we have available to use when it comes to tech equipment. Training starts at 2pm on November 16th, so feel free to stop by.

Our raffle calendars will be back for 2015 and are currently being printed now! The calendars will return at the normal cost of $25 per calendar and offer a chance to win up to $10,000. Sales of our 2015 calendars will begin shortly and residents looking to support our company are welcomed to sale as well. If you would like more information on how to buy, sale, or just general info then contact us at [email protected] or call (570) 379-2204. We would like to thank our sponsors and buyers for hopefully making our calendar return a huge success!

Our yearly donation drive has been sent out and should have arrived in your mail box a few days ago. The funds from this drive go towards the running costs of our origination and will ensures that when you call 911 someone will show up. Even the smallest donation can help keep your local fire company around and perhaps save not only your neighbors life, but your own as well. Thank you for your continued support. If you did not get a letter please contact a fire fighter, call the station at (570) 379-2204, or email us at [email protected]

Around 11:00AM on August 10th, Pond Hill-Lily Lake Fire Company was dispatched for our Brush Tanker (our Heavy Brush Truck) to assist Mocanaqua's Fire Company with a large brush fire. Once en route, crews realized that the fire was larger than a average brush fire as more and more units were being dispatched for response. The fire itself was not only growing at a fast pace, it was also located down a nearly inaccessible access road. Below is a list of units that we know were at the fire: 118 Mocanaqua Volunteer Fire Company 218 Pond Hill-Lily Lake Volunteer Fire Company 137 Hanover Township Fire Department 144 Hunlock Creek Volunteer Fire Company 158 Nanticoke Fire Department 163 Newport Township Fire Department 173 Sweet Valley 174 Salem Township Volunteer Fire Company 575 Shickshinny Area Volunteer Ambulance Berwick Medic 95 Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) Our brush truck was primary assigned to provide water to other units due to our 1,000 gallon water tank, but was also used to provide fire line control at the same time. The fire was located on the edge of a drop off and was working it's way both down the ledge and across. Crews battled with the fire for over 7 hours with the harsh terrain providing little aid. While there were multiple minor injuries and heat issues with fire fighters, but EMS on scene was able to keep everyone taken care of and the Red Cross showed up with food and water. Our brush truck providing fire line control at the start of the incident. Providing water for 118 brush fire crews. Filling Salem's brush truck. Brush trucks from all over the area volunteered their time to provide manpower, equipment, water, and additional resources to try and contain the fire. PA's DCNR crews arrived to aid volunteer crews in a dry, dusty environment. Hills, cliffs, and rocky ledges allowed the fire to spread out of many responders reach. Even areas that were accessible on foot were full of challenges. There seemed to be an endless flow of water onto the fire, but the fire was still a challenge at every step. After the fire crews were able to enjoy the great sights from the areas that whey prevented the fire from burning.

or our June training session, Pond Hill-Lily Lake ran a Dump Site drill that included setting up a single pond and dual pond dump site, supplying water between multiple ponds, and doing a dry run with a tanker. What is a "Dump Site"? During a large fire a lot of water is needed to either extinguish the fire or to simply control it. This water is normally obtained via fire hydrants, directly out of local pools/ponds, or water tankers. However during large brush fires other sources may be used, such as planes and relays. The dump site is used mostly during rural fires where hydrants are not available or hydrants are not big enough for the fire. It is generally one or two fire engines set up with one or more portable ponds and is the receiving point for water tankers or even a water relay system. The dump site is directly responsible for supplying the fire apparatus (fire trucks) at the fire with the water when needed. Our drill was focused on the setup of a dump site for both a single pond and dual pond setup. Most residential structure fires and brush fires only use one pond, but larger buildings and commercial fires can need two or more. The one pond setup is fairly simple and was done simply to setup and run, but the dual pump starts to get more complex with more operations being run at once. Once the ponds where setup crews where explained and shown different ways of setting up the ponds and the reasoning behind it After that a dry run was done by a tanker to show newer members the full cycle of a dump site. We thank everyone who turned out for the drill as it was a great success and we hope our members walked away with more skills to use in the case of an emergency.

People drive nearly everyday of their lives and sadly it has become one of the most dangerous activities for a person to do. First responders are continuously improving their skills, techniques, and equipment to save lives during motor vehicle accidents, but no one has truly found a way to improve the situation when the victim is unresponsive or confused, until now. When a responder can not place a name, medical history, or allergy list to the victim then all of a sudden common medical problems can be overlooked and life saving medicines can kill. Recently PA rolled out it's "Yellow Dot" program. This program is designed to give responders and emergency room staff the information they need when someone's world gets turned upside down. The program is based not only around providing responders with patient information, but standardizing the delivery of the information with the markings to show that it is there to begin with. We highly recommend this to all of our residents and are already training our members to recognize the markings and what to do if they see the "Yellow Dot". This program is even more life changing for people who have medical conditions that may affect their mental status, such as diabetes, dementia, brain injuries, etc. The program itself is free and the steps to sign up can be found on our website here: Click to visit our Yellow Dot Info Page

Pond Hill-Lily Lake Fire Company will be the location for an Alzheimer’s Foundation of America Fundraising Craft Fair/Vendor Show on June 7th. There will be food, crafts, Chinese auctions, and much more including a bake sale! The event is open to the public and will run rain or shine. So come on out and support a great cause and have a good time as well!