Ellington Fire

What happened to the Website?

Tue, 23 May 2006 22:38:30 -0400

A week and a half ago our website vanished from the internet. And as we found out our web-host had also vanished from the internet. They still had a working phone, but our calls were not returned. We knew our site had been missed because we started receiving email telling us "your website is down" and asking, "when it will it be back up?" We still don't know exactly what happened, but we decided to find a new host and move on. (click read more below) For the new website the header graphic is all that is familiar from the old site. I decided to go with a Content Management System (CMS) approach using PHP and MySQL. This will allow more of our members to take part in creating and updating content for the website, as each can own their own topic areas. Our interaction with the outside world will aslo take a jump forward as readers of our site can accept an RSS feed from us and integrate our content into their website or MSN, Yahoo, or Google home page. The previous site was pretty technical, requiring knowlegde of HTML, ASP, CSS and image editing tools. I still have to know all that stuff, and now add PHP, MySQL, and the two CMS tools to the mix, but no one else in the department needs this knowledge to get their story or pictures on the web. The potential of what we can accomplish with the new CMS is great. This is an exciting turning point for our website. The photographs of our incidents, drills, and events are what most of our visitors come to see. We will be presenting them using the well known Gallery2 software. I no longer have to scale down the pictures because someone with a 56k connection will take 5 minutes to download one page of images. Through Gallery2, I can produce multiple sizes for each image. Someone with a slow connection can browse the 640px images while someone surfing the web with DSL or cable can grab the largest images. It will take some time to reload all the old images into the Gallery2 system, but we will get there. Our members take a lot of pride in what they do, and enjoy being able to share their courage and expertise with the world. Thank you for visiting our website. It will be changing slowly over the next few weeks to months. The graphics and colors will change here and there and also the look and feel of the presentation will shift as we get used to our new tools and use new ideas to reach out to our community.

Fuel Spill at Valero Station

Wed, 17 May 2006 22:21:16 -0400

On Wednesday, May 17th, the Ellington Volunteer Fire Dept. responded to a report of a fuel spill at the Valero gas station. The call came in from the gas station on the corner of Main and Rt. 83 shortly after noontime. Approximately five gallons of gasoline had spilled on the ground due to overflow. Valero employees had begun applying Speedy Dry to the spill as ET-143, Rescue 143, and the Hazmat Trailer arrived on scene. Firefighters applied additonal Speedy Dry to contain the spill. A contractor was called in to clean up the spill. The station remained closed until cleanup was complete.

The Ellington Volunteer Fire Department Receives grant award from Federal Emergency Management Agency

Fri, 20 Feb 2004 11:09:11 -0500

The Ellington Volunteer Fire Department has received a grant of $39,150 from the 2003 Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program administered by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security�s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The award will be used by the department to upgrade their radio communications equipment increasing their capability to communicate with other emergency response agencies.

�Firefighters play a key role in safeguarding America, and these fire grant funds provide first responders with the resources necessary to protect our communities from all hazards," said Michael D. Brown, Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Emergency Preparedness and Response. "I join President Bush and Secretary Ridge in applauding our nation's firefighters and share their commitment to ensuring that first responders have the proper equipment, resources, training and support to fulfill their responsibilities.�

�In this nation, far too many individuals lose their lives or are injured by fire. Among these victims are firefighters, who provide emergency response services to their fellow residents,� said U.S. Fire Administrator R. David Paulison. �The nation�s firefighters and American homes are safer today through this important grant program.�

Michael D. Brown, Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Emergency Preparedness and Response, announced another 81 grants to fire departments this week in round thirty four of the fiscal year 2003 Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) Program.

"We continue to distribute these important funds to the nation's first responders," said Brown. "President Bush's request and the appropriation by Congress of these funds demonstrate their commitment to support America's firefighters."

The Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program is administered by the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA), part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and assists rural, urban and suburban fire departments throughout the United States. These funds are used by the nation's firefighters to increase the effectiveness of firefighting operations, firefighter health and safety programs, new fire apparatus, emergency medical service programs, and fire prevention and safety programs.

This is the second year in a row that the Ellington Volunteer Fire Department was a recipient of this grant program. In 2002 $162.180 was received and used to replace their self-contained breathing apparatus, upgrade existing air operated rescue tools and purchase fire prevention education equipment.

Over 19,900 fire departments applied for grant awards this year. The request of The Ellington Volunteer Fire Department has been through a national peer review process as part of $750 million being distributed to over 7,000 fire departments in 2003.

In October of 2003 the Ellington Volunteer Fire Department coordinated the response of over sixty response agencies at a large ammonia leak. Communications was one of the areas of improvement identified during that response; this grant will be used to help resolve those problems.

For further information contact:

Michael Varney, Chief
Ellington Volunteer Fire Department
P.O. Box 911, Ellington, Ct 06029
ph 860-209-9430
Fx 860-870-3194
Chief@ellingtonfire.org