Activities started off with a tour of the Clinton County Central Dispatch facility. Director Rene Crick and her staff explained to the students all the different things that her staff has to deal with 24 hours a day 7 days a week. She then went into a little more depth on the things that are most relevant to firefighters. Some of the radio etiquette and procedures as well as when and how fire departments get dispatched. She also covered what happens at the dispatch center when a firefighter is in danger and calls a MAYDAY. Bells and alarms start going off in the dispatch center and her staff jumps into action including a dedicated dispatcher just for the MAYDAY.
They explained and demonstrated some of the procedures that they have in place so they can help the firefighter to get out of the situation quickly and safely.
The day then continued for the students with 8 hours of hands on training for auto extrication. Although the students covered this subject in the classroom, the skills they must learn have to be done hands on.
There are a lot of different techniques on removing patients quickly and safely. The students were divided up into six groups. Each group was given a car to practice on, a set of extrication tools (jaws-of-life) and at least one instructor to show them how to go about removing the car from the victims.
They removed windows and windshields, cut and pried doors off the cars, and removed the roof as well. They also learned how to move the dashboard for a victim trapped in the pedals or under a smashed dash.
Clinton County EMS ambulance staff spent time with the students working with them on how to safely move injured victims without aggravating any injuries.
After a quick lunch of Bruno’s Pizza – the instructors put the students new found knowledge and skills to the test. They took several cars and ‘crashed’ them together into a multiple vehicle pile up. The students were divided into three groups, one group was to be the rescuers coming to save the day while another group of students became victims in the crashed cars.
The squad of rescuers worked under the supervision of the instructors to make their own decisions on such things as scene and firefighter safety, patient priority as well as the technical steps needed to cut their classmates out of the vehicles. These mock crashes were repeated several times until all the students were both the victims and the rescuers.
The students then cleaned up their mess and called it a day. They learned a lot in a short amount of time that will help them to do their jobs safely and effectively.
Special thanks goes out to all the instructors that came out to help, Frankfort Fire A crew, Clinton County EMS, Clinton County EMA and Barry Rayburn. Cars were donated by Paddocks Wrecker Service, Dave’s Body Shop and Jerry Body Shop.
Photos sent to CCDN by Jeremy Payne , Story contribution Jeff Rustin.
