The New Year tradition, the Palaceside Building volunteer fire brigade's first-of-the-year muster, was held on the rooftop on the morning of the 7th.
About 50 people took part from Mainichi Building Co., which manages the building, and partner firms: Globeship for facilities, Aing and Tokyo Center for security, and Seibi for cleaning. The weather was poor from morning, with almost no sun. At the 10 a.m. start the temperature was 6.9 degrees and a 2.7-meter northwest wind made it chilly, but they worked with energy as if blowing the cold away (a well-worn phrase, yes...).
Training had three parts: initial firefighting with extinguishers assuming a fire, hose discharge, and rescue and first aid assuming an injury.
Extinguisher training =photo above= was in teams of three: approaching the fire while shouting "Fire!" and "Please get out!," pulling the safety pin and aiming the nozzle
at the target to extinguish (water, not agent).
Hose training meant opening the red indoor hydrant box =photos right, above, dashing to the fire with the hose =photos right, below and punching the round target cleanly with water =photo below.
Rescue and first-aid training included CPR with chest compressions and an AED =photos at the end, left, and fixing the limbs of a dummy standing in for someone with broken arms and legs, using cardboard and a necktie =photos at the end, right= .
This year too we will keep training steadily toward a safe, secure building.
