Granby Center Volunteer Fire Department

TRAINING EXERCISE: We had the amazing opportunity to watch and observe these local heroes train and practice a water drill. This was a multi fire department dri...ll hosted by the Victory Fire Department on Monday night. Ira, Granby, Red Creek, Conquest and Victory fire departments came together to practice and hone their skills. There were 5 tankers that shuttled the water from a nearby pond to the exercise site where they had four portable ponds lined up on the side of the road. Each tanker held approximately 2000 gallons of water. Each portable pond held 2000 gallons of water. The object of this exercise was to see if they could keep a constant supply of water to the three fire engines, two of which were pumping water from the portable ponds to the one engine that was spraying from its water cannon at 1000 gallons per minute. The tankers were being filled by one engine that was stationed at the pond about a half mile away. From our view point, they did a great job keeping the water supplied. All worked well together. Your local fire department is continuously training and preparing themselves for when they are needed in the community to save lives and property. Hopefully no one will never need their service but just know that they are ready at any time. We thank all the men and women of our local fire departments for their sacrifice and dedication to helping their community. Green Gator News looks forward to covering stories and highlighting these brave men and women. If you are interested in volunteering, please stop by your local fire department to get more information. They are always looking for more volunteers! Green Gator News would like to thank everyone for the warm welcome while covering this story. ~Green Gator News~ Photos by Jerry Green

We surely can't let this week go by without acknowledging and thanking all of the emergency service volunteers who are so critical to the effective and timely d...elivery of every type of emergency service. While this may be National Volunteer Week, we are grateful for you every day of the year! See more

Congratulations

More sad news. R.I.P

Fire Chief Stefano Napolitano comforts Bentley Sherman, 12, during a fire at his residence at 37 Maple street in the City of Batavia. Chief Napolitano says he told Bentley its okay to be scared, its okay to cry, even fire chiefs cry.

Passing this on so that others like myself that did not know this, will know... The 9/11 Memorial "Tear Drop" sit's directly across from NYC, in Bayonne New Jer...sey, just the other side of the Statue of Liberty, yet we hear nothing about it. This absolutely beautiful, 100 ft. tall monument was gifted to the people of the United States by the people of Russia in 2006, in memory of all those who lost their lives on that fateful day, September 11, 2001. The breaking in the cracked facade forms the shape of the two towers. The giant suspended tear drop signifies the tears of the entire world that day. Maybe it's something that needs to be known, starting today. Thanks Ilene Hoffmann. See more

Know this tonight. Tonight when you put your kids to bed show them this picture. He didn’t make the winning three pointer, steal a base or catch the touchdo...wn. He was a volunteer firefighter. His name is JARED LLOYD. He rescued multiple people from the grips of hell and returned for more. While doing so he gave up his life so others may live. He leaves behind two young sons, one of whom celebrated his 6th birthday today. He is a true HERO! If only the world had more people like him. I pray for his sons, for his family and his brothers and sisters in Spring Valley FD.

Here is our new School Resource Officer car

HOW THEY FAIL: GUSSET PLATES Behind the failure of many engineered structural elements lies the very instrument designed to hold them together. Engineered woo...d products, for the most part are composite structural elements, which rely on two or more separate materials to achieve strength and ultimately carry a design load. Many fire service professionals recognize Gusset plates in the field to readily identify that of such an engineered, or, lightweight structural element. We must discuss the dangers of these connections in a wood truss system, and the lessons learned that will provide a glimpse into experience based observations instead of relying on test methods within a controlled environment. Let’s take a look A Metal Plate Connector or Gusset Plate hails originally from Fort Lauderdale, FL in 1958. Originally dubbed Grip Plate for Truss they are a metal plate made of light gauge steel that is hydraulically pressed on one side forming small spikes or teeth on the other side. The teeth of the metal plate connector are about 1/4 to 3/8 inch. The plates are then secured by hand at first to truss members, and are then passed on to be secured by a hydraulic press. There is an allowance of a 1/8 max space between web and chord members. Experience has shown us that the weakest part of a wood truss is the connection, or panel point. This is where web members and chords meet by, you guessed it, the connection via a metal plate connector. They penetrate the wood fibers as previously said 1/4 to 3/8 inch. This connection is limited to the premise that there is no mishandling of the truss during transport and installation. Should a truss undergo a significant impact to the panel point and the penetrations are dislodged they cannot be set back in appropriately. It has been observed on one occasion that the metal plate connector that was dislodged was re secured with a inch steel staple. Metal Plate Connectors are made from galvanized light gauge cold formed steel. This type of steel experiences buckling and warping at 800 degrees. Following a recent fire, we looked at the conditions of a parallel chord wood truss floor system in the daylight. It was during this evaluation of structural integrity that we could draw certain conclusions based on real events. The Metal Plate Connectors were the weakest link in the truss system. Littered throughout the debris was hundreds of metal plate connectors, almost if it had been raining gusset plates. Fire damage to the trusses were significant. Charred trusses released the bottom chord once the metal plate connector dislodged and fell. The remaining metal plate connectors did not stay buried into the wood, they pulled away during the shifting of the floor system after multiple trusses had collapsed. On the contrary to many opinions including this authors, the metal plate connectors did not peel back, or warp, or bend. Once the wood surrounding and embedded into the plate connector burned, the plate fell off in one straight piece, and released its members, precipitating other plate failures. The rust on the galvanized plate indicates to us that it was superheated, ultimately deglazing the zinc coating. This is evidence to us of its conductive heat transmission into the wood. This supports the narrative of induced pyrolytic decomposition of the wood fibers of the truss from the metal plate connector’s teeth. Because the teeth of the metal plate connector were superheated and therefore conductively transmitted heat into the penetration, the teeth loosened and ultimately allowed the plate to fall. This disputes the theory that heat is reflected off of the plate, therefore benefiting the panel point. As you can see in the video provided, the top chord of the truss remained secured to the bottom of the second floor decking, due it its nailing from above. You can see a significant 10-12 inch deflection of the floor as well, with no structural integrity underneath. This also proves that due to massive tensile forces upon the bottom chord of the truss via fire damage, the metal plate connectors could not support the compression from above therefore releasing the plate, evidenced by teeth bent all in one direction. The trusses were found only ten minutes into the fire, and when communicated members evacuated the second floor, they opened a wall between the first and second floors and extinguished fire in the trussloft on one side of the house. What’s astonishing is that the post fire assessment showed this allowed the truss members to retain integrity, with little damage to the system, however once the heated metal plate connectors were quenched, there were a number of plates that pulled from their connection. Luckily, members were not on the second floor for long. Had the loading of multiple firefighters continued, including the static loading of water, it is obvious the floor would have collapsed completely. The trusses were free burning throughout the trussloft, and the first floor at times only had a haze, this is very dangerous. The Gypsum board prevented firefighters from seeing that structural compromise was so significant. It is truly a lesson learned. There are many factors that ultimately lead to the collapse of structural elements. Connections within engineered wood materials are the precipitating factor to the majority of such instances. Will a truss always collapse in 5-10 minutes, NO. But that’s not always what we are worried about. We should be concerned with the weakening of materials and connections such as with the metal plate connector that can mask a compromised structural system such as a truss floor, where the only precipitating factor needed to complete the collapse process is.us.

Thank you to Fulton auto salvage for letting us perform auto extrication drills on their stock. It's a huge benefit to have them support us and the community.

A Public Service Announcement from your favorite public servant.

Mental Health For First Responders

The guide to how NOT TO fry your turkey this Thanksgiving!

Congratulations to the 22 firefighters who graduated today from the Recruit Firefighter Training Program at the Academy of Fire Science. Graduates hail from 13 ...fire departments across New York State. Thank you to all of the new firefighters, and the more than 100,000 firefighters statewide, for your commitment to public service. https://on.ny.gov/3jnQdQS #fireservice See more

It only takes 30 seconds for a dry Christmas tree to engulf your room in flames. Everybody needs to see this.

How to (AND NOT) extinguish grease fires! Unfortunately, Facebook took down the original video so I had to repost it.

A day we will never forget, 343 of our brothers and sisters lost their lives 19 years ago. Lets take a moment today and come together to show respect to all lives lost on September 11th, 2001.