No one can forget the sagging shoulders and soot covered faces of many fire fighters, police officers, EMS personnel and other professionals walking away from the devastating rubble of September 11.
The disaster, like all tragedies, highlighted the importance of adequate training to save lives.
Last week, fire fighters and medical professionals from around Oakland County picked up key skills at a training session hosted by the Independence Township Fire Department.
The course provided a medical aspect to Michigan Urban Search And Rescue training. On the training course, behind Independence Township’s Department of Public Works, 24 emergency responders learned how to treat victims injured in confined places from experienced professionals.
Independence Township fire fighter and co-coordinator of the event, Gary Sharp, discussed the unique nature of the training.
‘This is the first of its kind in Michigan. This is highly specialized training demonstrating how to treat people while trapped. Usually, we train to remove the victim. This is the first time we’ve trained them to do what’s normally done in the back of an ambulance in a confined space,? said Sharp.
‘We have people from eight different Oakland County departments being trained by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The instructors have been to some type of disaster, like Oklahoma City, September 11 or earthquakes in California.?
The course, built by the Independence Township Fire Department, was meant to recreate the atmosphere of collapsed buildings and underground caves.
The training involved coordinating simulated rescue efforts of injured victims from three underground tubes.
Students communicated by radio in the dark narrow tubes as they wiggled through debris to dummy victims. After securing them and treating hypothetical injuries, they coordinated efforts to remove the victims.
Assistant Independence Township Fire Chief Bob Elizondo said the week long course was part of the Department of Homeland Security’s push for regional efforts to train fire and medical personnel.
‘They knew this was a component of Urban Search and Rescue that was lacking. You needed the medical aspect,? said Elizondo. ‘There’s not many training environments like this.?