| With volunteers staffing all units at Station 11 for President's Day, SJVFD members took the opportunity to refresh their rope rescue skills by hosting a drill at the station. BC591 (Heindrichs) was asked to conduct some skills training and then test crews with a scenario. RS504 and RS501 were invited and participated in the drill.
Crews practiced building anchor systems, lowering systems, hauling systems, and using the stokes basket to remove a patient. After enjoying lunch together the units were "dispatched" to a rescue incident.
T511 arrived on the scene to find a victim who had "fallen" 30-40 feet down a tower and moved rigging equipment and rope to the top of the tower. BC501Y (Wilson) arrived and established command, assigning T511's officer as the Rescue Group Supervisor. The Rescue Group Supervisor then assigned RS504's Officer as the Master Rigger and together developed a plan to access and remove the patient while RS501's crew donned harnesses and gathered equipment in preparation for a descent.
T511 and RS504 established a main and belay line to lower rescuers from RS501 down to the patient. The crew from RS501 was lowered to the patient and packaged him in an LSP extrication harness for a vertical removal. T511 and RS504 reversed the lowering system to a haul system and successfully removed the patient to the top of the tower. Once there, the system was reversed again, the patient was transferred to a stokes basket, and the crews lowered the patient to the ground from the tower balcony.
E511's crew was used for manpower in between running actual calls. The evolution was completed it just over an hour.
Career and volunteer members from three different departments worked seamlessly together to perform the "rescue," and shared a lot of good ideas and experience. All personnel involved enjoyed the opportunity to polish little-used skills and to work together to solve a complex problem. SJVFD would like to thank the members of the City of Manassas RS501 and Prince William County DFR RS504 and BC591 for joining us in this opportunity, and we look forward to future joint training events. |
