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Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue Workers Trained on Advanced Rescue Techniques

The Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue Department recently traveled to Indianapolis to prepare for emergencies in an entire new way.

Five members of the county’s Fire-Rescue team attended the Fire Department Instructor’s Conference (FDIC), which drew an impressive 31,000 rescue personnel from around the world. 

The FDIC has 80 years of experience training fire and rescue service workers. There are hundreds of classroom sessions, hands-on training, workshops, and over 900 companies participating in showcasing the latest products, technology and services.

One highlight was the on-site training that Lt. J. Craig Stanfield and firefighter-paramedic Joe Sekula received at a simulated building collapse. The mission was to find and retrieve six rescue mannequins in the rubble of a two-story, old farmhouse with a basement.  Each mannequin weighed 225 lbs.

Lt. Stanfield told the Palm Beach Daily News, “You go into this thing and something can actually happen.  The structure is unstable.  Walls, beams, joists are reconfigured where it can shift at any second.”

The site is 40 miles outside of the city of Indianapolis; a long way from the homes in Palm Beach County, but the scenario provided an excellent realistic training opportunity.

The training includes federal standards for securing buildings before sifting through wreckage.  Other teams would follow for post-catastrophe rescues.  Chief Bill Amador advises the response expertise is crucial.

Lt. Stanfield coordinates the county’s specialized rescue team and has assembled technical rescue crew of 12 to 15 personnel.  His goal is to have six trained technical rescuers on each shift.

In addition to collapsed buildings, the team learns about rescues from confined spaces like sewer drains, how to deal with trench rescues that could involve utility workers and rope rescues where members of the team rappel down the side of a building.  There is also training for vehicle rescues, such as cutting open a vehicle to rescue a driver or passenger.

This advanced training is part of what makes cities like Boca Raton, Palm Beach and Delray Beach great places to live.  Palm Beach County’s public safety officials are some of the best in the business and the county continuously works to further their education and experience to help citizens in times of need.

Lt. Stanfield said the training was the most realistic and well put-together training in his career.  Everyone who attended will be sharing their experiences and training with colleagues at the Palm Beach Fire- Rescue when they return home.

Posted by: Mit Tressler

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