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Local firefighter training brightens day of apartment residents

May 13, 2021   ·   0 Comments

By Sam Odrowski

Orangeville’s firefighters recently brightened the day of several residents living in an apartment building on Bythia Street.

Following an emergency call to the apartment on May 3 that required using a ladder to access a balcony on the top floor, Orangeville Fire Capitan Shawn Pryce said the department decided to run a drill in the area the following day, practicing accessing apartment units from outside.

Pryce noted that the Bythia Street apartment has a higher occupancy of older residents and individuals with disabilities, so it’s a good idea to run practice drills there.

Orangeville’s firefighters go through a designated number of hours for training each month so they’re always up to date on best practices. Under this training the firefighters do preplanning for different emergency scenarios.

Once the residents of the Bythia Street apartment learned that firefighters were running a drill and there was no emergency taking place, they were quite happy to watch the firefighters do their training and snap pictures. Particularly, with the current circumstances due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the stay-at-home order, the drill was a highlight for many who watched. 

A resident of the apartment, Rita Payne was amazed by the drill, as she has a great respect for firefighters, having had a fire related emergency at her family home many years ago. She began taking pictures of the action to share with her grandson, before seeing the firefighters come up close to her unit in the apartment building.

“Imagine my surprise when they choose my top floor balcony as their target on my side of the building. Up he came, engaged me in conversation before being then swung away and on up to the roof,” she recalled. “Thank you firemen for all you do. You are heroes indeed!”

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