RESCUE
RESCUE/EMS
A lot of practice and a little luck was the winning combination for the Lambertville, N.J., Ambulance and Rescue Squad Heavy Rescue Team, which captured first place at this year’s Annual International Rescue and Emergency Care Conference Heavy Rescue Contest held in Baltimore last Aug. 22-28.
Sponsored by the Maryland State Ambulance and Rescue Association, the conference activities included the heavy duty rescue contest, the emergency care contest, seminars and a tour of shock trauma.
The Lambertville team is not a newcomer to the rescue competition, having attended for 21 years. This year marks the fourth time the team has won the contest. The team has also been successful in other heavy rescue contests, winning in South Carolina recently.
Raymond Lind, captain of the eight-man team, attributes his team’s success to the caliber of the team members and the intensity and amount of their training. “We have a bunch of good guys on the team, who practice once a week all year long.” During the summer months the team practices even more, as they also do whenever a contest draws near.
From a small town of just 5000, 12 miles north of Trenton, the all-volunteer team is unusual in the fact that six of the eight team members are under 25 years of age. The team itself is split into four groups, each person assigned a number. Number one and number two men are first-aiders; three and four are riggers; and five, six and seven are ground men. Lind, the captain of the team, directs all evolutions. Each man, assigned his role, practices different problems using A-frames, tripods, first-aid methods, gin pole or derrick, and lowering with a life basket. No one knows what problems will be assigned for the contest until the day of the contest.
Photos by Becky Spicer
RESCUE
“The judges look for the handling of the victims, the way knots are tied, how the team works together and how the captain keeps the team busy,” explained Lind. “Personal gear is important also. The judges make sure each member of the team has a knife, helmet, gloves, flashlight and lashings.”
The team also spends part of the year raising money for each contest. According to Lind, this year’s costs came to about $10,000 for the team to attend the conference. This money was raised by bake sales and other fund-raising activities by the squad. “We don’t get any money for winning, just a trophy, but that’s enough,” Lind commented about the contest.
Eight teams from around the country entered the contest this year, from as far away as California. The quality of teams was so close that the four top teams were only separated by 10 points.
Preparing for such an intense and exciting contest is not an easy job for the teams or the coordinators, as Charles Perry, conference coordinator and Chief Edwin “Boots” Raynor, heavy rescue chairman, can attest.
“I figure it takes close to six months to get everything together for this contest,” explained Raynor, chief of the Riviera Beach Volunteer Fire Department in Maryland. Raynor and his committee of seven members had to develop the problems to be used in the contest, select a building location for the contest, acquire the equipment necessary for the contest and select the judges.
According to Raynor, the problems were selected from the International Manual of Basic Rescue Methods, written by Dawson Nethercutt of the North Carolina Department of Insurance, Division of Fire and Rescue Training Services. The problems as well as the location of the building to be used were a well-kept secret because the committee members did not want the teams to practice in its rooms.
The problems for the contest were:
1.Using a life line to lower team members to a victim. Then the team members raise the victim to the fourth floor using a four-point horizontal raise. Using a jib arm from the floor above, the team members lower the victim to the group in a horizontal position
2. Team members erect a tripod and lower personnel to the victim on the second floor. The team members place the victim in a stokes basket and lower it to the ground vertically out the window at the front of the building.
3. Team members erect an A-frame and relocate a weight 24 feet from the original position and prepare all equipment for reuse.
Most equipment for the contest was borrowed from the University of Maryland and from New Jersey and Maryland fire companies, although some teams brought their own equipment to use. Each piece of equipment to be used was examined for safety reasons.
Each of the selected contest judges had to be from a heavy rescue squad, had to have passed a heavy rescue course, and then had to attend the judges’ school at the conference. Quality of care and technical ability of the teams were the leading criteria for the contest judges.
With a contest of this magnitude, safety is always a major factor. Conference Coordinator Perry arranged to have the Baltimore City Fire Department, including an ambulance and aerial unit on the scene in case someone got hurt. “We’ve very safety conscious. It’s better to have the equipment there than have to call and wait for it,” Perry explained.
A good relationship with Baltimore City government made the conference and contest run even smoother. “They had a real good staff to help with everything,” Perry said. The city assisted the committee by providing needed rescue equipment and communication equipment, as well as allowing the team to use a downtown abandoned building for the contest.
