TAMPA, Fla. — Being ready for the unexpected is a big part of the job for both firefighters and paramedics.
On Wednesday, a team of firefighters from Pasco County Fire Rescue boarded the American Victory Ship in Tampa to train in some extreme situations. Their scenario for this training exercise involved a victim falling 60 feet through a shaft in the ship and getting caught below machinery in the hull.
The firefighters divided into groups and creased a rigging system to help hoist the victim back through the 24-inch wide shaft. They also had to get creative in how to stabilize the patient in tight quarters.
Capt. Cary Epperson with @PascoFireRescue explains the process of a difficult rescue like this one. The skills his team is using here, are the same ones they would use during an industrial accident or something similar @BN9 pic.twitter.com/OUTEzRn0WW
— Angie Angers (@angie_angers) April 14, 2021
Capt. Cary Epperson explained that this type of training is used in a number of real-life situations.
“Up in our neck of the woods we have a lot of incinerators, a lot of industry. We could have a work fall cleaning out some shaft somewhere,” he said.
To make the situation more complicated, the firefighters simulated that they had limited access to clean air and were working with masks on oxygen lines.
Watch the video above for an inside look at the training exercises.
Training is going next level for @PascoFireRescue. A number of firefighters boarded the American Victory Ship today and during a simulation worked to free a man who fell 60 feet down a shaft and into the hull. They created a pulley system to get him out @BN9 pic.twitter.com/DSgDyv9WTp
— Angie Angers (@angie_angers) April 14, 2021
