Joint Training for the Big Stuff
Reprinted in part with permission from Tow Times MagazineTowers and firefighters trained side-by-side last fall to save accident victims from heavy truck accidents. Big Rig Rescue is a training program that allows the towing and recovery industry to interact with fire/rescue personnel in training. This gives both groups the opportunity to learn more about the other’s capabilities in a classroom and hands-on environment.
Sixty firefighters from Colorado, Ohio, New York, Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, the upper panhandle of Florida and surrounding counties gathered at the Volusia County Emergency services Institute and Fire Training Center to practice extrication skills and learn the advantages recovery equipment can offer in rescue.
Towers prepared mock accident scenes, stacking, crushing and tilting vehicles. The firefighters then treated each scene as actual extrication scenarios in which "victims" would have to be freed. A small, tracked forklift proved handy for positioning wrecked vehicles.
"Fire departments have been trained and traditionally have tried to accomplish goals with the equipment they have available to them", according to Billy Leach Jr., 28 year veteran of the emergency services field specializing in comprehensive training for heavy truck and bus anatomy and extrication. Leach says, "In most instances of heavy truck extrications involving vehicles like loaded cement mixers, they just simply don’t have the equipment capability to lift and secure these loads." By cooperative training with the towing and recovery industry, fire departments have realized there are opportunities they have in terms of stabilizing larger vehicles and that the optimum tool for the rescue is going to be a large recovery vehicle. Once they realize the expertise of the operators, they can simply integrate that tool into their everyday rescue operations involving mixers or tankers overturned or under-ride situations.
Thomas Humiston, Fire Protection Specialist Department of State Office of Fire Prevention and Control, sums up the training this way, "Too many times we (emergency services personnel and towing operators) are territorial. Programs like this bring everyone together for an understanding of what is best for the patient. These (towers) are professional people, you can tell by their equipment. I plan on taking this interaction back to New York State."
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