Every year on August 1st Communities across the United States celebrate National Night Out which is a night for Community/Police Awareness. This year along with Caln Police and Thorndale Fire Company we were joined by Police Departments from all around Caln Township including PA State Police, East Fallowfield, Amtrak Police, Chester County Sheriff’s and several others.

The night started off with several speakers including Caln Township Police Chief Joseph Elias, Chester County District Attorney Thomas Hogan, Representative Harry Lewis Jr and many more. After the speakers were done guests were treated to a K9 demonstration along with several Police Vehicles to look at, Fire Trucks from Thorndale Fire Company and EMS from Minquas Fire Company.

While all of this was going on numerous Thorndale Volunteers were manning G.O. Carlson Blvd, closing the roadway for the 5K run. This is a huge undertaking as there are several roadways that have to be blocked off and manned during the event to keep the runner’s safe. The Fire Police Officers and Volunteers from the Fire Company manning the parade route were under the command of Fire Police Captain Ron Miller. The run went off without any problems and once done all of the side roads and G.O. Carlson were re-opened. But that wasn’t the end of the night for the Thorndale Volunteers. They had to quickly re-locate to the parking lot across from the Giant because it was time for the Vehicle Rescue Demonstration.

This year’s demonstration was focused on distracted driving. Fire Chief John Cordisco took the microphone and began to explain to the on lookers what would be going on during the vehicle rescue. Typically when a vehicle accident is dispatched in Caln Township the Police are the first to arrive on the scene, quickly followed by the Fire Company and EMS units. So nothing was different during this demonstration as a Caln Police Officer arrived first and began to check on the occupants and was able to calm down the hysterical driver while Fire crews who began to arrive were able to check on the patient in the passenger’s seat. Crews from Rescue 38 then began to remove all four doors to the vehicle along with the roof and did what’s called a dash roll to free the victim’s legs and give more room for EMS. The whole demonstration went off without a hitch and all the spectators were amazed by what some of our tools and volunteers could do.
Once all of the equipment was cleaned up and put away the night ended with a brilliant fireworks show to put a close to another wonderful event put on by Caln Township.