Week 10

This week was full of different eventful days. On Tuesday, I attended the Wildland Firefighter Training. It was held at Delaware Water Gap. We started off the day by going over the online courses and refreshing our memory of the vocabulary used during a fire. We also went over the hand tools and how to communicate appropriately with each other in the field. After lunch we hiked a mile up a mountain with our hand tools and began to use them as if we were preparing to put out a fire. We stopped and talked about how far apart we should be from the other members when making our line. We talked about how we should set ourselves up according to what tools we had. After that we hiked back down and learned how to clean the hand tools and sharpen them so that they would be ready for the next time they needed to be used. Once we finished with that, we moved onto the hoses and how to use them. The last thing we did for that day was practice using our fire shelter. The instructors gave us 30 seconds to remove the shelter from our packs and set them up correctly. They came around and tugged on each end of the shelter and let us know why we needed to have them on properly. To conclude the day we spoke a little more on safety and to always speak up when we did not feel safe or comfortable. Unfortunately, because of all the activity we were doing, I was not able to get any pictures of me during the training. We were asked to leave cameras and phones in a safe place.



Visitors at the Beach Concert



Wednesday, I worked in the office for the majority of the day. I input the tickets into the computer as a reference. That way when the officers need to look for a report they can just go into the document pull it up and get all the information that they need. In between doing that, I attended a safety meeting. There everyone talked about what safety hazards and potential safety hazards within the park that needs to be fixed. Good thing is that majority of the things that were on the list have been fixed. Later that evening, I worked our weekly beach concert. Since we have the Piping Plovers at Sandy Hook and they are endangered, I was assigned to make sure visitors stayed out of the nesting areas as the concert was going on. Before the concert ended, I assisted in helping a mother and father find their missing children on the beach. They were reunited in 20 minutes. I was really glad that I was able to help because I know that any parent would be worried about their children, so it was important that we found them.

Thursday, we picked up government vehicles that were fixed and installed with lights. After picking up the vehicles, we assisted in looking for a vehicle related to an arrest. For the next few days we did traffic, which included driving around and opening and closing parking lots when they were at full capacity. We were taught how to assist in a lockout. This involves using a wedge into the car door and using a bag to expand the space between the car door. Then use a long wire to press the unlock button within the car door.