Longford Fire & Rescue Service participate at the Spanish Nationals
Longford Fire & Rescue Service's Extrication Team attended the Spanish National Challenge on 16th to 18th September. The challenge consisted of three days of learning and competing with the best and was a huge success. ROI would like to extend their thanks to APRAT for facilitating the team entry and for the overwhelming support and hospitability given to the team during their stay.
The three day event was held in Barcelona, Longford’s Team Leader, Station Officer Richard Greene said “the three days where invaluable to them and although it proved to be very demanding, it was also very enjoyable and every effort was made by the organisers to accommodate his team”.
The first day consisted of four training pits where each team was allocated a time slot to participate and learn various techniques on the following:
Pit 1 – Lifting and Stabilising Heavy Good Vehicles and Loads
Pit 2 – Electric Vehicles dos and don’ts
Pit 3 – Side out technique using hydraulic spreaders only
Pit 4 – Casualty Handling Techniques
During the following two days Longford competed in both the 20 minute Standard and 30 minute Complex scenarios. Rescue Organisation Ireland is very proud of Longford’s involvement over the last years, their commitment and professionalism is to be applauded. At our own national challenge held in Monahan earlier this year Longford came first in the 20 minute Standard scenario and ROI are very proud to announce that Longford are still a force to be reckoned with taking fourth place in Spain in the 20 minute evolution, please see our gallery section for photos of Longford’s outstanding performance.
ROI have very close links with APRAT since our inception and hope to continue to develop this relationship further, we would like to personally thank Rafael Márquez Iglesias and Roger Llinàs Puente for their continued support and invite you check out APRAT website http://www.aprat.es/ for further information.
LONGFORD RTC TEAM 20 MIN STANDARD SCENARIO
ROI Assess in Luxembourg
Anthony Tynan, Laois Fire & Rescue Service (ROI) joined forces with Steve Barrow, Steve North and Mark Bryer (UKRO) and shadow assessed at this year’s Luxembourg Rescue Challenge held at Mamer on the outskirts of Luxembourg City.
The event was headed up by Joel Biever, Deputy Chief of the Civil Protection Department at Mamer. Who did an excellent job, not just organising the challenge but the event was being held in parallel with an open day at the station to mark the 125th anniversary of the fire department and the 50th anniversary of the civil protection department at Mamer, along with the inauguration of a new multi-purpose rescue appliance at the station. The entire event was very well attended and the experiences gained by Anthony will be of huge benefit to us all.
ROI would like to recognise the commitment involved not just by the teams but each and every assessor gives up their time freely to attend, participate, assess, and network all multiple challenges and workshops both here and abroad to keep up to date with new techniques and to develop relationships with our colleagues for mutual benefit. We would also like to sincerely thank Joel Biever and Rafael Márquez Iglesias for their support in affording us this opportunity to participate in Luxembourg and for the fantastic hospitality shown to Anthony during his stay. This is truly an organisation we will be working with into the future and hopefully we can see a Luxembourg team participate at our next nationals.
Please use the following links to find morning information:
http://www.protexpetange.lu/8-neuigkeiten/42-fotos-rescue-challenge-mamer-21-09-2013
http://www.feuerwehr-zirl.at/new/index.php/aktuelles/news/98-21-09-2013-rescue-challenge-mamer-lu
ROI Assessors in Alberta, Canada
During the weekend of 20th to 22nd September, Mick Gahan and Declan Cassidy travelled across to Canada and assessed at the Alberta Vehicle Extrication Challenge hosted by Sundre Fire and Rescue Society. The event kicked off on Friday 20th September in Sundre Fire Hall with a very educational and interactive workshop lead by Randy Schmitz, chair of Alberta Vehicle Extrication Association with the assistance of Marty Butts, Fire Chief of Sundre. This paved the way for the Captain and Medic’s briefing lead by Jeff Fallow, Fire Chief of Cold Lake and Head Assessor for the event.
With the leading and briefing complete, each team set to work competing on Saturday in 20 minute limited and 20 minute unlimited scenarios. The event was held outdoors adjacent to the curling hall and was truly one of the most community spirited events our assessors have ever been involved in. The entire town turned out to cheer on and support their fire service and offered the same support and encouragement to their competitors. The atmosphere was electric and the Irish assessors were welcomed with both arms and managed to receive several announcements during the day on the public address system and each time receiving the a loud cheer from the crowd. The locals cooked and fed the crowd as well as all the teams, the organisers and assessors. Many exhibitors provided equipment and displayed and demonstrated their wares during the day.
The closing ceremony again saw the community come together for an excellent serving of food, music and entertainment. Calgary took the top trophy closely followed by Cold Lake in second and the local heroes Sundre a very well deserved third place. On Sunday the teams togged out again for a more informal training session on dealing with 10 minute rapid scenarios, and finished off with an excellent display of innovation by the Sundre in the use of a homemade devise to aid the dashroll technique.
Declan and Mick were very fortunate to be approached by AVEA and asked to assess at their challenge, this experience further enhance our knowledge and has given us a different approach to how we may conduct future workshops to promote best practice.
This unique opportunity has afforded us many new possibilities including the future development of ROI and AVEA working together in partnership to bring new ideas and learning to achieve;
- Continued development of the Rescue Challenge Concept at local, regional, national and international level
- Training and developing responders using recognised international best practice for dealing with Road Traffic Collisions including Trauma.
- Development of enhanced proficiency in rescue techniques, incident management and medical care.
- Further growth of the systematic and team approach.
- Development of partnerships at national and international levels
We would like to express our appreciation and gratitude to Jeff Fallow, Fire Chief of Cold Lake who took the initiate and invited both of us not only to assess at their challenge but who took the time out with his wife Kathy to show us their beautiful country, it was an exceptional experience which both of us will not forget. We would also like to thank the very many people involved in the organising and running of the event and for all the assessors who worked with us in the pits it was a pleasure to meet such genuine people and we hope to continue working together. Please visit the Alberta Vehicle Extrication Association’s website http://www.albertavx.com/ for further information on their activities and knowledge base.
Please visit our Gallery and Links Section for event photos and Information on the respective Organisations