BY MATT SCHOOLEY
A 30-year-old man bicycling on the driveway surrounding Bow High School unexpectedly hit the guardrail, flew off of his bike and rolled down a grassy embankment before tumbling over a 10-foot-high stone wall.
The man was seriously injured by the fall, but luckily he had one thing going for him – he was made of rubber and plastic.
This scenario is a very realistic one, but on Aug. 1 at Bow High School, it was a planned training session for the Bow Fire Department, who went through the evening’s events as if they were real and tried to save the life of a dummy.
As soon as the call came over the radio, the organized chaos began.
Capt. Mitchell Harrington served as incident commander and remained at the top of the hill near the guardrail, paying close attention to the tasks his crew performed.
A pick-up truck pulled head-first toward the guardrail so a rope pulley system could be anchored to a metal apparatus attached to the grill, then anchored again onto a nearby firetruck.
Meanwhile, down the hill about 50 feet, a team rappelled over the wall to check on the patient, a dummy that was lowered over the wall.
Harrington said although this was only a drill, there were still things that needed to be taken into consideration, and lessons to be learned.
“The safety and accountability of our people is always a priority whether in training or the real thing. In that particular training there were hazards, so we had to take precautions to make sure the rope systems were set up properly and the right checks and balances were in place,” he said. “The number one focus is safety and maintaining a level of competency with the challenges we face.”
Every Wednesday night, Harrington and his fellow firefighters take part in a different kind of training, dealing with everything from hoses to water rescues and extracting patients from vehicles.
Capt. Dana Mosher runs the weekly training sessions, which he said serve a variety of purposes.
“I think familiarization of the hazards and the community and working together as a team are most important,” said Mosher, who also said the goal of the exercise is to make it as real as possible without going overboard. “It’s really there to familiarize us with each other as well, and to see who may need a little more training on what parts of the skills. We have young people who have gone through the fire academy and say they know the skills, but we want to see them exhibit those skills in front of us.”
Harrington demonstrated one of the most important skills when dealing with an emergency situation is communication, as he was constantly in discussions with the different teams to be clear on what needed to be done in order to assure the patient’s well-being. A clear chain of command was in place, a plan was established and that plan was then executed precisely.
Without clear communication, Harrington said chaos can ensue.
“Dealing with any type of emergency, communication between all of the parties involved is paramount.
Especially when it’s spread out. If the people up top have a different plan than the people on the bottom it spells disaster,” he said. “If a person up top ties into a rope that they think is anchored and it isn’t, it could mean somebody falling. Communicating a game plan from the get go and as things are moving certainly ties into safety.”
Days after the training session is over Mosher discusses with those involved areas that went well, and also areas of the rescue that could use improvement.
Should Bow firefighters count on seeing a cyclist fall over a guard rail every day? No, but Mosher said his crew has directly applied its training exercises into real life situations on more than one occasion.
“You just never know what you’re going to get here,” said Mosher.