Members of the Medicine Hat Fire Department's technical rescue team participate in training at the Saamis Tepee on Friday.--NEWS PHOTO SAMANTHA JOHNSON
reporter@medicinehatnews.com
The Medicine Hat Fire Department technical rescue team was out at Saamis Tepee on Friday for a training exercise.
Dave Gibson, senior firefighter with Medicine Hat Fire Department and a co-team lead for the technical rescue team, explained, “Members of our technical rescue team are training in a high-angle environment today.
“The (Saamis) Tepee offers one of those environments and it gets us used to being out in open space for rappelling, getting us to trust our equipment and into the mode where we can operate and function for a rescue.”
Real-world applications might be a rescue from grain silos or a catwalk. The training allows the team to be ready to access those environments so they can safely lower people down who are injured or having a medical emergency.
The team practised rappelling in the morning and led climbing practice off the trusses at the front of the teepee in the afternoon. Lead climbing practice is for if the team must climb a cell or radio tower to perform a rescue.
The team trains once a month and specializes in anything that is low-, medium- or high-angle rope rescue. They also do confined space rescue, which involves those areas with a restricted opening into a tight or narrow space not fit for human habitation, such as a vessel or underground vault.
There are 16 members on the team who are spread between the four different platoons, and all train at different times. As senior members retire from the team, the department will put out the call for new ones.
Everyone on the team volunteers for the position, as the training is outside their regularly scheduled workdays. When a call happens for either a confined space or technical rescue, those members on duty will respond with the likelihood of others being called in as six trained rescuers are required.
“Training on the teepee several hundred feet in the air (requires) self-confidence in yourself and your equipment and the team you are working with,” said Gibson. “It works on your fears, most people have a fear of heights once they get a couple hundred feet in the air and this definitely pushes that limit and gets you comfortable in those situations.
“All those on the team are committed to the safety of our citizens and they are ready to train and sharpen their skills.”
