Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Search and Rescue


I am a little behind with this post:
I was looking forward to this class, what I wanted to be when I grew up was a forest ranger not the one that takes your money as you enter the park but in search and rescue. I know this is a different type of S&R but really all the principles are the same.

In an event we would be required to first see to our family then our neighbors.

We looked at all the different forms of structures found in our fair town… being a lot of it has been around for quite a while some of it would not even make it through a large event. We were shown pictures of buildings and houses around town that may look good on the outside but since they were build 70+ years ago chances are they are not reinforced for earthquakes.

Mostly we were shown what type of things to look for and when it would be safe for someone of our skill level to enter a building and search. What to do after we entered the building, how to search and how to rescue someone trapped. We learned how to ‘crib and lift’ what it would take to get someone out without hurting them more or hurting ourselves. How to mark the buildings so that people would know that we searched it and what we found. When to go for help because the job is too big for us or the building was just too damaged.

We were broken up in to three different groups and each group would ‘rescue’ someone (training dummy) out from underneath rubble. The first group got up and went to work, the second and third groups learned from the first group. I was in the second group while they were setting up our victim we went into the classroom to devise a plan of attack. When we got out there to assess the damage… myself and another classmate looked at the poor victim and how buried he was and pretty much said… “he is too crunched we are black tagging and moving on” we were told no we had to get him free… Of course we were told later on if it had been real life our assessment was correct. Now I didn’t have physics in school, but I understand the basics. We had to stabilize the debris in order to lift it and free the victim. I had my corner to deal with making sure that it was shored up enough to make the lift safe for all involved. It was like stacking blocks to build a tower that wouldn’t fall over. It was good to be hands on about the whole thing I found out what would work and what wouldn’t work.

Danni was in the last group and I am not sure how it happened but she was team leader. She blew Capt away… she went out there the team assessed the damage and she put everyone to work and in record time the team had that guy rescued. It was very cool to watch. She was cool and had a plan and executed it and even with her being the youngest NO ONE in her group questioned what she was telling them to do. One of our classmates told me that they could see her as a firefighter or something along those lines, that she has a presence about her. I was very proud of her.

It was a good class.

http://www.timesheraldonline.com//ci_7683149?IADID=Search-www.timesheraldonline.com-www.timesheraldonline.com

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