Gouverneur Firefighters had an opportunity to train at Sylvia Lake in early April as they razed the old Cole home on West Shore Rd. The property was recently purchased by Shannon Colton.

The old house was in very poor condition and was not repairable. The Gouverneur FD used the structure for training under NYS OFPC and NYSDEC training criteria.

Firefighters used portable pumps to transfer water from the lake into a 2,000 gallon porta tank which served the main pumpers. About 12 firefighters on scene practiced venting proceedures, room and contents firefightting as well as pumper/tanker hookup procedures.

The training went very well according to GFD officers and gave them the needed training for drafting water from the lake in the event of a real event. The procedure took about 4 hours.