County firefighters receive specialized training

Historic City News has learned that Lieutenant John D’Amour, Lieutenant Andrew O’Quinn, Firefighter Todd Guggisberg, Firefighter Steven Coursey and Engineer Isaac Frazier were among ten St. Johns County firefighters who recently attended a training class on heavy vehicle lifting and stabilization.

The firemen joined with members of departments from across the nation for the specialized training that was held in Sanford, North Carolina.

Five County firefighters attended the first weekend course titled Big Rig Rescue. Five more attended the second weekend course titled Heavy Lift University.

The Big Rig Rescue course is an advanced level program that taught rescue personnel how to effectively and efficiently deal with incidents involving “Big Rigs”. The Big Lift University was an advanced lifting and stabilization course consisting primarily of scenarios with guest instructor Capt. Morris (FDNY Rescue 1).

This multiple weekend class consisted of classroom training mixed with a host of live drills utilizing some very large and heavy vehicles. The practical exercises covered skills such as: stabilization, heavy lifting, five step disciplines for overturns and under-rides, heavy truck anatomy and numerous other rescue and extrication techniques primarily used on heavy vehicles.

In both courses firefighters were faced with very challenging yet realistic scenarios including: a concrete mixer vs. smaller vehicle in ditch, a fully loaded TT trailer overturned onto an automobile, a full size Rail tanker under-ride and a 25,000 pound mixer drum balanced on a vehicle.

With a major interstate running directly through our county, along with numerous state roads, heavy truck and equipment incidents are everyday possibilities. The instructors of this class taught valuable skills that will ultimately help us all do our jobs better. With the new skills learned we hope to reduce our heavy vehicle extrication times and ultimately save civilian lives while increasing the safety of our personnel.

Photo credits: © 2010 Historic City News contributed photograph by Jeremy Robshaw