On November 18, 2016 approximately 20 members of the Hartsdale, Fairview and Greenville Fire Districts assembled as Squad 6 to conduct a building collapse shoring drill. Squad 6 is both a Hazardous Materials and Technical Rescue asset that will respond both in Greenburgh or mutual aid to any requesting agency. The Squad is made up of multiple highly trained members and specialized rescue vehicles. The training was made possible thanks to the use of an acquired building that the owner has allowed the fire departments to train in prior to the building being torn down. Opportunities to use buildings like this are rare and extremely valuable with regards to the realistic training that can be conducted. The drill focused on structural shoring using both Air Shore Rescue Struts and the use of wood rescue shoring. Members operated in various groups and rotated through constituted of multiple window, door, vertical and lace post shores. Members also focused on how to correctly set up the cutting station to allow multiple functions to be completed at once. The initial training to conduct just basic rescue shoring by the New York State curriculum is over 150 Hours of training. That time commitment then must be built upon by continued refreshers and drills to both retain and expand knowledge and capabilities.

It should be noted that during the training, Fairview had a structure fire just three blocks away. Manpower from this detail responded to supplement the on duty crews both to the scene as well as to provide fire protection in the fire houses in the event of an additional emergency. This shows the value of being able to conduct training of this nature in our own response areas.