Training is Key
Today’s Fire Rescue services are being tasked with more and more duties that require unique types of training, such as Haz-mat, confined space, vehicle extrication, and other specialties. Because drowning is one of the top causes of accidental death for children and adults worldwide, water is a major issue for all rescue service agencies. Just as Fire Rescue services have numerous, growing specialties, water has so many different...
I am OK
Do we, as water rescue response teams understand what it takes, mentally and physically, to make the total operation work? How do we get the most from our rescue personnel, while maintaining strict safety standards? Your beeper / Plectrum is going off, the code tells you to respond to a confirmed drowning. It is five fifteen in the afternoon, you are sitting in traffic, you have not had the easiest day at work, and now it is time to...
The 15 minute Expert! PWC Operations
Personnel watercraft, are thrusting themselves into both the sport and public safety market at an unbelievable rate. The National Safe Boating Council states that more than 30% of all registered boats are personnel watercraft, while 60% of all boating and watercraft accidents involve PWC. A Personnel watercraft is described as any vessel with a water jet engine. The PWC functions as a wonderful rescue tool in a multitude of water...
Dressing divers and tenders for Mass Casualty Operations
In parts I and II we discussed the initial steps for becoming prepared to manage a mass casualty water-related disaster such as a bridge collapse with multiple vehicle submersions. Drill training sessions were introduced with surface and subsurface personnel working around vehicles stacked up on land. This article discusses the minimum equipment needed by divers and tenders. One goal of this article is to help you make safe, effective...
Drysuit Tricks
For sport divers, drysuits offer a warm advantage that can be used to extend the diving season – possibly all year – and to extend the amount of time divers are actually able to spend in the water. For public safety divers who are often faced with contaminated water diving, though, drysuits are more than a luxury. Public safety divers must wear drysuits all year ‘round. Because they wear them for every dive, and because they must...