Twin training

Smoke billowed from the burning vehicle on the concrete drive of the truck bay as volunteer fire fighters drenched the deliberately set flames on Saturday morning.

The training exercise began an hour earlier with six Moorcroft and four Pine Haven fire fighters joining together to learn how to properly use their own extraction tools to remove doors, rooves and windshields in their efforts to save victims within vehicles.

Fire Chief Jeff Holberg later talked about their efforts to prepare the volunteers for better responses to these types of scenes.

"We practiced with each of our own department's tools as individual departments and then cross trained so that we're familiar with each other's equipment. There are many different reasons we practice with our extrication equipment; open doors into buildings, a vehicle – it doesn't matter if it's a car, pickup or truck, these skills we learn are useable on all those things."

Pine Haven's Fire Chief TJ Gideon advocated the experience, "Three of the gentlemen we had there are new. This was their first time doing automobile extrication. They can't wait for the next one, they really enjoyed it, but they're also training and preparing for whatever might come at us this summer with car accidents."

Moorcroft and Pine Haven are autonomous departments, training independently for the most part. Gideon spoke to his department's usual classes this season, "There's usually something going on at least two times a month, 12 hours a month. There is always training available, we try to do it as often as we can and work around everybody's schedules. This stuff with Moorcroft, we schedule it as we can. We try to do it on the weekends and we really appreciate Moorcroft inviting us to these training events."

Holberg said of the joint training, "Pine Haven is our neighbor and we work very well with each other...I'm really proud to be part of this team between Moorcroft and Pine Haven and anywhere in the county as far as that goes. We all work professionally together and it's rewarding for me to see that."

Moorcroft's fire chief talked about the reason for the sacrifice these individuals make to learn to be better at this work.

"I'm sure the reasons we do this are different for each of us; for myself, it's to help the community in an area that needs help; we can work as a team and the comradery we get from working with our trained group," he said.

"We recognize that if one of us has their head down, focused, someone else has our back... we're all aware. That's really important to know somebody's watching out for you while you're trying to do something. That also pertains to when we're assisting EMS; they're always focused on the patient, we're always focused on the scene. To keep all of us safe – at the end of the day, we've all got to go home."

He explained the procedure if this were a real situation with a victim in the vehicle.

"We try to communicate with the people who need help. We try to tell them what we're doing. If we're going to be breaking glass near them, we cover them with a blanket to protect them from the glass, all the while, explaining to them what we're doing," he said.

Holberg continued, "It also helps us to verbalize it because the rest of the team hears what we're doing, too, whether it's EMS or just fire. Typically, EMS is there and they're the driving force for the best method to move the patient from the situation, how much extrication is required."

He said that if the vehicle were on fire, "It's grab and go. We've got to grab and go because the danger is exponentially higher if there's a fire so they have to be removed as fast as we possibly can get them away from there. Again, it's all direction from the EMS. They understand our limitations and we know theirs."

When asked about he expects to see from these classes, Holberg said, "We never know what our response is going to be with our volunteers. We all have jobs elsewhere so all our training is hoping that each individual can make informed decisions and lead if they need to."

"If anyone has questions," he continued, "we always coach that they need to ask those questions [for instance], if you see something, say something. If someone notices the fuel tank's dripping and it's puddling right underneath our feet and there's a passer-by walking around with a cigarette, that's scene safety where we say please step back away."

These simulations are also imperative for the experienced, according to the chief.

"We can become complacent, forgetting the danger because we run the interstate often for incidents. There was a time, years ago when Hulett came over and was training with us on an EMS project we were doing and we got a call," he says.

"The interstate was slick, snowy and miserable and Hulett responded with us to the scene. They were in the back of the ambulance and could feel the ambulance wiggle when trucks went past from the air moving them. They were fearful and until they said that, I was confident in myself, but I had become fairly complacent... the fact is they were correct in being fearful and I was becoming complacent so now we teach that."

He recalled happenings that demonstrate the mentality of some passers-by when faced with a scene.

"I've witnessed people stop a vehicle near a crash scene, get out with their little dog on a leash and just come walking over and ask, 'what's going on, what happened?' We ask, 'are you with these people, sir?' And he says, 'No, I was just curious'," he said.

"We say, 'Sir, please get back in your vehicle...' It is so dangerous to be stopped on a highway, especially an interstate... the worst can happen and that expands the scene exponentially. In my 30 years assisting, I witnessed near misses often."

All of these situations are covered in the training. Holberg said the ratio of training to time on a live scene is probably three to four hours to one, "That's to make us effective so we don't have to spend any more time on the road than we have to."

Gideon and Holberg are veterans of the volunteer fire departments and Holberg spoke to their reasons for staying.

"We volunteer our time, we don't get paid for it and we don't expect to be paid for it," he said.

"Oftentimes, the thanks are the only thing we get and that goes a long way. Everyone sacrifices in order to be here, but the rewarding part must be what keeps us coming back."

The cars involved in this exercise were donated by Cy Stewart's towing and repair.