By MES Dispatch Staff
The Briefing
- • Approximately 100 firefighters from departments across New England attended the second annual Monadnock Fire Conference at the Meadowood Drill Yard in Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire, during the last weekend of May 2026.
- • The three-day event featured hands-on skills training and classroom instruction covering topics including engine company operations, coordinated ventilation, and survivability tactics.
- • The conference was designed in part to provide volunteer firefighters from smaller departments access to higher-level training not typically available within their own agencies.
- • The event was conceived in 2025 by Keene firefighters Dan Nowill and Jake Poulin as part of an effort to revitalize regional fire training at the Meadowood Drill Yard, which had been largely inactive for several years after decades of use as the region’s primary fire school.
- • Participating departments represented communities from as far as Cabot, Vermont, and North Smithfield, Rhode Island, with multiple local Cheshire County departments also in attendance.
FITZWILLIAM, N.H. — Nearly 100 firefighters representing departments from across New England gathered at the Meadowood Drill Yard in Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire, for the second annual Monadnock Fire Conference, a three-day regional training event held in late May 2026 and focused on hands-on skill development and interagency relationship building.
The conference drew participants from communities spanning Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire, including departments from Alstead, Fitzwilliam, Hancock, Keene, North Walpole, Peterborough, Rindge, Stoddard, Swanzey, and Troy. The majority of attending members serve as volunteers in smaller departments, and organizers framed the event as an opportunity for those firefighters to access advanced instruction not routinely available through their home agencies.
Featured instructors included Captain Dave Quick of the Manchester Fire Department, who presented on engine boss operations, and New Britain, Connecticut, Deputy Chief Nick Papa, who covered coordinated ventilation strategies and techniques for improving survivability outcomes. Additional instructors came from departments in Concord, Derry, and South Windsor, Vermont, as well as the New Hampshire Fire Academy.
The Monadnock Fire Conference was established in 2025 by Keene firefighters Dan Nowill and Jake Poulin with the goal of reviving regular training activity at the Meadowood Drill Yard, a facility managed by a board of local fire personnel that had gone largely dormant after serving for decades as the region’s leading fire training school.
Conference organizers described the event’s primary purpose as building fellowship and shared professional culture among regional departments. In a post-event statement, organizers said the weekend was about firefighters from different places coming together to learn from one another, build skills, and foster relationships — and emphasized that the best training environments are characterized by purpose over arrogance.