Hands-On Evolution: Local Firefighters Refine Rescue Skills at Darrow Lakeside Campus

Canaan, NY - Firefighters from the Canaan Protective Fire Company joined forces with regional mutual aid partners Monday evening to conduct intensive primary search and rescue drills in an acquired campus facility.

The inter-agency training evolution took place on Monday, October 19, 2026, utilizing a surplus structure at Darrow School’s Lakeside Campus. Personnel from the Tsatsawassa Fire Company and several surrounding departments joined Canaan members to run realistic scenarios centered on rapid interior search techniques, zero-visibility navigation, thermal imaging use, and coordinated firefighter rescue maneuvers.

Access to the surplus facility offered crews a practical, complex interior floor plan to simulate high-stress structural search environments without live fire hazards. Department leadership extended gratitude to Darrow School for providing the facility, noting that practical evolutions in unfamiliar buildings sharpen life-saving tactical coordination among neighboring mutual aid companies.

In tandem with the specialized drill, Canaan Protective Fire Company reiterated its call for local community volunteers to bolster frontline emergency response across northeastern Columbia County, encouraging prospective members interested in structural firefighting and support roles to reach out and join.