This afternoon, Company 50(Steelton) and surrounding units were dispatched to 165 South Front Street for a structure fire with possible entrapment.  Within a few minutes, Chief 50(Vance) arrived reporting a working fire and upgraded the box, bring Rescue 88.  The Rescue(Capt. Coble) responded shortly after dispatch with 7 and arrived to stage on at Engine 50.  The crew assisted with ventilation and minor overhaul before being released by Command 50.  Rescue 88 out for a little over an hour.

In the pre-dawn hours, Engine 88 was dispatched with Tower 6-7(Rohrerstown) to transfer to Station 7-4(E-Town) while units worked a fire in Mount Joy(7-5).  The Engine(FF Shope) arrived at Station 7-4 with four guys and after the crews just got comfy in the dayroom, Command 7-5(Hess) requested two additional Engines and a Truck, bringing Engine 88 and Tower 6-7.  As the units arrived at 38-40 W. Main St, the crew was assigned to assist with extensive overhaul on Division 2 of the fire building.  After completing overhaul, the crew returned to staging and rehab before being released just after 06:00 hours.  Visit www.67fire.com and www.rheemsfire.com for photos.

This evening as the lower end of the county was busy with calls including a structure fire in Hershey, Co. 47(Union Deposit) and Truck 456 were dispatched to 101 Stone Mill Road for an AFA.  As Chief 47arrived, he found a working fire and requested the first alarm as Truck 456 arrived.  Rescue-Engine 88 was dispatched shortly after the upgrade as a replacement and responded within a few minutes with a crew of six.  As Rescue-Engine 88(Capt. Whitebread) arrived, the rig was beached and the crew reported to manpower.  The crew was quickly assigned to assist with overhaul ops and utility control.  As crews worked in the high 90 degree temps, Command requested additional resources to assist.  The Rescue-Engine was then moved into the driveway and set-up lighting to assist the FM's.  The Rescue-Engine remained on scene for a little over 3.5 hours.

Today, crews attended the funeral services for fallen brother, FF/PFC James Yohn of the Highspire Fire Co.  The services which included full Military and Firefighter honors, started with a service at the Neill Funeral Home in Paxtang.  As the crew arrived with Company 32, members paid their respects before moving to Derry Street at the Interstate 83 Northbound ramp to set up an arch.  Truck 88 along with Truck 32 set up the American Flag draped arch for the precession to pass through.  With the Truck at the arch detail, a crew in the duty officer buggy continued in the precession, escorted by the local Freedom Riders motorcycle club, to Ft. Indiantown Gap where PFC Yohn was laid to rest.  Photos courtesy of www.progressfire.com

Congratulations to the following members of the 88 House, Capt Coble, Lt. Eppinger, Firefighters Gilday, Foreman, Adkins, and Menear. Completing the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commision's Emergency Boat Operations Course. This class was a 2 day long course taught by Capt. Cleland, and Capt Whitebread. These members learned how to read the water, how to operate a boat in emergency situations , aswell as victim picks from the water.

The 88 House would like to congratulate FF Scott Adkins for passing his PA Dept of Health EMT. That now makes 15 EMTs within our department to better serve the Community.

Late this evening, Rescue-Engine and Engine 88 were dispatched to North Catherine Street at Detweiler Avenue for an MVA.  Captains 88-2(Coble) and 88(Whitebread) responded with Dauphin County advising of a two vehicle MVA.  The Captains arrived finding two vehicles with a Dodge Neon head on into a parked minivan and an injured driver out of the vehicle.  Rescue-Engine 88(Captain Fink) then responded with a crew of 5 as Command held the box to the Rescue-Engine.  As Captain Whitebread began patient care, MICU 7-3 arrived as well as the Rescue Engine.  The Rescue-Engine crew performed basic MVA ops and assisted with patient care before returning to service in a little over a half hour.

A Highspire (55) firefighter inspired to join the Army after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was killed in action in Iraq.

Pfc. James M. Yohn, 25, of the 200 block of South Second Street, was killed by an improvised explosive device on Tuesday, his mother, Judy Yohn, said Wednesday night. She said James Yohn and his wife, Amber, are expecting their first baby in three weeks.

Jimmy's mother said his enlistment would have been up in November and he hadn't planned to re-enlist

From the members of the Middletown Fire Dept, our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of FF James M. Yohn

This evening Company 88 was dispatched to assist Hummelstown on a search, with 2 young girls un-accounted for as a result of getting lost while tubing with their family. Special Unit 88, along with Boats 88 and 88-1, under the command of Capt. Whitebread were enroute within minutes of being dispatched. While enroute Command 46 assigned the Middletown crew to the area of Fiddlers Elbow to begin the search. Upon arriving, the 88 crew deployed Boat 88-1 (raft) and began a search downstream. While in the darkness, the boat crew heard people screaming for help.  The crew pin pointed where the victims were and started to make there way to them. The 2 young girls were huddled together on a rock, keeping warm.  Boat 1 then called out that they had the victims, and requested manpower to the rear of Indian Echo Caverns to assist the victims up from the creek.  The 88 crew was out for about 3 hours.

This afternoon, Truck and Rescue 88 were dispatched to Palmyra Boro to assist on the scene of a structure fire.  Truck 88(Capt Fink), fully staffed, responded within minutes of dispatch and while enroute, Lebanon County advised it was an A/C unit on fire.  Rescue 88(Capt Coble) with a crew of 4 then went enroute.  Truck 88 arrived and was assigned to RIT.  Upon Rescue 88 arriving , the Rescue crew went to manpower.  Once command marked control, Rescue 88 went back to stand-by at Palmyra's station until they cleared the scene.