HANOVER — The fire departments in the Upper Valley’s three largest communities — Hanover, Lebanon and Hartford — are made up of career firefighters. But elsewhere, it’s volunteers who are deployed in case of an emergency.
Those volunteers typically work full-time jobs during the week, leaving little time to receive proper training. But on Saturday morning, full-time and volunteer firefighters from nine Upper Valley towns convened at the Outreach House in Hanover, which is scheduled to be demolished next month, to run through several fireground drills.
“Here in Hanover, we train quite frequently with Hartford and Lebanon,” said Josh Merriam, Hanover fire training captain. “But we work with all of these volunteer departments on a regular basis, too. With the career departments, we’re doing it weekdays during the day because that works for us; it’s how we earn our living. For everyone else that’s working full-time, they’re not available. (We need) the nights and weekends to make it happen.”
Once the Outreach House, a former senior living home, is torn down, it will be replaced by a center for adults with special needs, owned and operated by Visions for Creative Housing Solutions.
Visions, a nonprofit organization incorporated in Enfield in 2014, was founded by Sylvia Kluge Dow to provide housing and permanent care for individuals with developmental disabilities. Dow’s older daughter has Down Syndrome and her younger daughter has nonverbal autism, and she saw a need for adults with those and other conditions to have a place to live once their parents can no longer care for them.
Dow converted her family’s Enfield inn into Visions’ first location, housing 12 individuals. Demand quickly grew, so Visions purchased a second property on Green Street in Lebanon, which opened its doors to 11 more people last July. The Hanover site, which will be able to host 12 people, should open in late 2023 or early 2024. It is located across Park Street from the Dartmouth College athletic facilities and within an easy walk from downtown and the rest of the campus.
Visions is looking to raise nearly $3 million to build the new, three-story building, and they’re at $1.4 million so far, according to Dow.
“We hire a registered nurse to oversee medication, the overall health of individuals,” Dow said. “We hire a house manager to oversee individuals who live with us. And then we have staff who provide 24/7 coverage. As parents age, they still have their adult child living with them. If your adult child wants to have a life of their own, they want a roommate, they want friends, they want a life beyond their parents, we can provide that.”
The Hanover Fire Department approached Visions about using the Outreach House to hold their training session, and Dow was enthusiastically on board. One of Visions’ Enfield residents, Trevor McCormack, came by to observe.
Volunteer firefighters came from Lyme and Grafton in New Hampshire, and from Norwich, Thetford, Hartland, Windsor and Strafford in Vermont. They ran through drills including hoseline advancement and forcible entry and also used a ladder to simulate rescuing a baby from an upstairs bedroom.
“What we were trying to do today is take the basic fireground principles and add to those some more unique situations,” Hanover fire chief Martin McMillan said. “We get a firefighter trapped or advancing a hoseline to a third floor up a very narrow staircase — you don’t get an opportunity to do that. So we’re really trying to push the envelope a little bit and concentrate on some of the more difficult situations.”
Benjamin Rosenberg can be reached at brosenberg@vnews.com or 603-727-3302.