| Fire Box - 1201
For the past two Monday nights the volunteers of the West Grove Fire Company did in-house training on vehicle rescue. Motor vehicle accidents make up a majority of our yearly runs as a 500+ call department.
Over 30 volunteers arrived at Station 12 to take part in the training. Firefighters Mike Predmore II and Danny O'Connell served as the instructors for this basic vehicle rescue course. Monday, April 11th training started out with the basics; use of small and large hand tools, stabilization and vehicle anatomy. Crews worked on three donated cars for two hours, going through different drills taken from the topics discussed earlier in the evening. The members were met with some challenges and this help build crew integrity as well as having a 'Plan B' ready to go into action.
Monday, April 18th began with a brief review and then live drills of a major motor vehicle collision. Crews could use any tools or techniques discussed to remove three patients from three different types of vehicles. The incident began with the establishment of command, followed by crews aboard Rescue 22, Rescue 12, Ambulance 22-2 and Ambulance 22-3. Rescue 22's crew made quick work of passenger side door removal, while Rescue 12's crew began to work on the car which was on its' roof. After the Rescue 22 crew completed extrication and the patient was removed, crews assisted on the total roof removal that the Rescue 12 crews' were working on. Once again the members worked together and had all three patients en-route to the hospital within 30 minutes of dispatch. This was a great showing of how the volunteers of West Grove are 'Combat Ready' when the alarm sounds.
After the incident the instructors had a post-rescue debriefing and discussion on things that could have been done differently and things that worked well such as tool placement, team work and accountability to name a few. For the remaining time, crews demolished the cars by doing a 2-man, 2-minute, 2-tool total side removal, a third door cut and a dash lift.
In closing the instructors would like to thank all those that participated to make this training as real as it could get. Team work was 100% and now the members will always be thinking at least one step ahead and to have a 'Plan B' ready to be placed into service. |
