COBLESKILL - On Monday evening, Fire Department President Brian Head stepped before the Cobleskill Town Board to present their brand-new fire education class.

With the catchphrase “You see us when emergencies happen, now come learn what we do every day to protect you, your family, and our community,” the class will focus on the duties of the fire department both during a disaster response and during their day-to-day operations.

“There’s a lot of new individuals that have come into our community, and they might not know what we do at the fire department,” Mr. Head said.

Speaking further on what they plan to talk about, he stated that they’ll also focus on how technology is evolving and how to contact emergency services in the digital age.

Mr. Head gave the example of a child being told to contact 911 in school, yet with many families moving away from landline phones, they may not know how to bypass a parent’s cellphone lock screen in order to place a call.

These new technological challenges go both ways, however, and the class will also present how the landscape has changed on the fire department’s side and what they’re doing to overcome those obstacles.

Finally, several other topics will be touched on, such as what a firefighter’s gear does to protect them, how the fire department communicates with other emergency services, some examples of the disaster responses they’ve been a part of, and how to reduce fire risk at home.

Completely free of charge for anyone interested in attending, the class will first run the evening of February 20th at 6:30 PM, with the same program being offered on March 26th at the same time if someone cannot make the first date.

And while Mr. Head initially extended the invitation to the Board and Town residents, anyone is welcome to attend.

“I think the information will be great for anyone, not just for the residents of Cobleskill,” he said.

As his presentation concluded, the Board thanked Mr. Head for offering the class, with Supervisor Werner Hampel saying “Brian, I can’t thank you enough for coming here tonight.”

“The first responders that we have are all volunteers. You don’t realize how important it is until you need it, and they’ve shown up consistently and they’ve done one heck of a job,” he finished.