PHOTOS: Westhampton Beach Firefighters Participate in Training

Chiefs and officers from the Westhampton Beach Fire Department spent their Saturday afternoon, practicing lowering themselves from a window at their Seabreeze Avenue training facility.

Volunteer firefighters were required by New York State to take the class after two firefighters were killed and four others seriously injured fighting a tenement fire in the Bronx on what has come to be known as Black Sunday. The New York City firefighters had been forced by flames to jump out of a fourth story window; two died at the scene and others spent months in the hospital recovering from career ending injuries.

One by one on Saturday, Westhampton Beach firefighters inched their way out of a make-shift window using safety equipment that fits into a small pouch worn on a firefighter's hip. The system, called Petzl EXO, provides for a hook to be used as an anchor, rope, and a self braking system that allows for a controlled descent.

Prior to making the decent, each firefighter watched a 90 minute training video.

The training was conducted by two instructors from Coastal Fire Systems of Amityville.

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