This past spring Ward II Councilman Patrick Hurley did something most city councilmen are not susposed to do: he practiced fighting fires with Summit's bravest. But if you know anything about Hurley a combat-trained naval aviator, then you know danger is nothing new to him.

Here, in his own words he describes what it was like to train with the Summit and Millburn fire departments:

I am not a volunteer fire fighter but I was invited, in my capacity as Chairman of the Public Safety Comittee on Council, to accompany Platoon C of the Summit Fire Department on their annual live fire training which took place at the Morris County fire training facility [May 16].

They let me do more than the average observer since I had a lot of fire fighting training in the Navy and was comfortable in those situations and with using the firefighting safety equipment.

Also, it was joint training with members of the Millburn FD so I was able to see how the two departments operate together from a mutual aid perspective along with the capabilities and limitations of our equipment.

Overall a great experience with a great group of people and, combining this experience with my ride along with the Summit Police a few weeks ago, I came away knowing the residents of Summit are in good hands regarding public safety.