The Hawthorne Fire Department, assisted by the Hawthorne Ambulance Corp., held an ice rescue drill today at the Goffle Brook Pond.   There was just enough ice to be able to accomplish the objectives of the drill despite warmer weather the last few days. Making her appearance as Fire Chief for the day was eleven year old Raquel Cabrera. Raquel won this honor through a fundraiser held each year by the Jefferson School PTO. Her first action as Fire Chief was appointing her sisters Maya (5) and Laila (13) as Assistant Chiefs for the day. Raquel’s father,  P.J.,  was bestowed the privilege of being a victim while, Mom, Mariam and other family members looked on.

We ran several scenarios throughout the morning to give firefighters the chance to rotate to different positions and also to allow the guest Incident Commander and her Assistants to get a feel for the size of the operation as well as the responsibility. Raquel was coached by Chief Speranza while she learned the importance of assigning an operations officer (A/C  B. Warner) to run the action part of the incident, and a safety officer (Maya and Laila coached by A/C  J. Van Ek and Capt. J. Longo) to watch out for potentially unsafe conditions around the scene. She also learned the importance of scene security and utilizing spotters so no other bystanders become victims of the incident. This situation became evident when Raquel’s father was prompted to act as a distraught parent and ran onto the ice while a rescue was already in progress. Therefore, firefighters had two rescues to contend with. Once victims were taken from the ice on the sled, they were delivered to EMS for packaging and transport.
When the drill had ended, crews and guests returned to Fire Headquarters for pizza, presentations and a critique of the drill. The Chief and Assistants for the day were presented certificates, hats, shirts and Vermont Teddy(hero) Bear  from Chief Speranza and also Chief Houtsma of the Ambulance Corps. The Cabrera family was also presented shirts as a thank you for their participation. “Chief” Raquel offered praise to the responding firefighters and thanked them for a great learning experience.
 
-503