FIRE & EMS TRAINING

Mock accident scene provides valuable opportunity for first responders to hone their skills in a safe environment

  • Mock scene: Fire crew and EMS rescue victim from car
    Mock scene: Fire crew and EMS rescue victim from car
  • Mock scene: EMT students take the victim to the ambulance to assess
    Mock scene: EMT students take the victim to the ambulance to assess
  • Mock scene: Fire crew prepare to rescue victim
    Mock scene: Fire crew prepare to rescue victim
  • Mock scene: Fire crew assessing the vehicle and victim
    Mock scene: Fire crew assessing the vehicle and victim

    Cordell Fire Department and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) conducted training at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, April 25. This training course consisted of patient packaging, rope rescue, vehicle extrication in a low angle setting, trauma assessment, team dynamics, and vehicle stabilization techniques. It is crucial for firefighters and Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) to train like it’s real, knowing one day it might be.

    “What we do with a lot of this training is reenact scenes that we’ve had in the past. Out of the 18 years that I’ve been here, I’ve had that type of incident three times,” stated Cordell Fire Chief, Seth Slaughterback.

    “There’s a lot on the medical side when you’re dealing with rescue. The firefighters are trained in rescue, but they also have to have some aspect of medical assessment on a patient.”

    Six EMT students were present during the training for a hands-on learning experience.

    “The EMT students were needing to brush up on their skills with patient assessment, what to look for, internal injuries, and external injuries that are visible with a life-threat and how to address it immediately,” mentioned Slaughterback. “This is for both the EMT students and the firemen. The fire crew are the ones who are extricating and doing the cutting of the vehicle and moving parts of the car away from the patient. They need to know how to assess the victim and what to look for.”

    The Cordell Fire Department (CFD) aims to successfully complete training sessions twice a month. “People’s lives matter and [training] is very important. It’s about priority. [Firefighters] lives matter, too and they need to train like their life matters because it does,” expressed Slaughterback. “We appreciate everyone’s time during the training session and Cordell Service Center for donating and placing the car.”