Members of the Lethbridge Fire Department went to great heights today for their training. The Rope Rescue Team spent time working together to learn about “ground-up” rescues. Part of this involved getting acquainted with modern advancements.
“We’re looking at some new equipment that’s been in the industry for the past couple years, some new techniques to use for high angle rescue and tower rescue,” said Peter Kidd, leader of the Rope Rescue Team.
Calls that could require the rope rescue team would be to cell towers, transmission line towers and even stranded window washers.
While the Rope Rescue Team is on scene at an incident there are different elements they need to be aware of that could affect their own safety.
The weather could impact their ability to communicate with one another while on scene. The type of structure they are working on is also taken into consideration.
“Knowing the safety issues associated with towers, so if it’s a decommissioned tower or active tower, communication tower, these kind of things, hydro tower, wind turbine, then knowing the equipment,” said George Hanus, technical rescue instructor.
One piece of new equipment the rope rescue team learned about was the Multi-Purpose Device, or M.P.D., which helped to change the way their rescue systems are set up.
Whether practising their strategies or out on call, team work is crucial.
“They will be separated quite a bit. Somebody will have to climb to the top, somebody will have to stay on the ground and wind conditions, weather, they can make it quite difficult,” said Hanus.
Training continues tomorrow. The team will be using different scenarios and techniques but the same equipment.
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