GFD personnel gain experience in extrication training

Banner Graphic/Jared Jernagan Preparing for the extrication of a “patient” in a recent training exercise, Greencastle Firefighter Elizabeth Adams (center) cuts through a post to remove the top of a car Monday morning. Adams, Firefighter Jonathan Hawkins (left) and Capt. Brian Poole went through two emergency scenarios Monday.

As important as continuing training is for the emergency responders who serve the public every day, sometimes the challenges of real emergencies can delay practice on hypothetical situations.

This was the case earlier this week for a group of Greencastle firefighters and Putnam County Operation Life paramedics and EMTs who worked an extrication training session into their busy schedules late Monday morning.

Having completed a pair of training sessions with the other two shifts at Greencastle Fire Department last Wednesday and Thursday, training officer Lt. Kenny Shepherd found it more challenging getting his own shift trained.

A morning gas leak initially delayed the session at the firefighter training grounds last Friday, initially moving it to after lunch and eventually until Monday.

Even with the firefighters on scene Monday morning, a busy morning for Operation Life kept its responders away until GFD’s second emergency scenario Monday morning.

With both departments pulling onto the scene, they found a car on its side with three patients (dummies, of course) inside — an adult driver, a baby in a carseat in the back and another child ejected through the front window.

While it may seem like a worst-case sort of scenario, Shepherd pointed out that this is exactly what the firefighters need.

“This is the kind of training we need to do,” Shepherd said. “It just makes us better at what we do.”

Making things tougher on this crew of three — Capt. Brian Poole and firefighters Elizabeth Adams and Jonathan Hawkins — is it would normally be a crew of three.

However, Lt. Shepherd is on the same crew, but had set the scenario up himself. Additionally, veteran firefighter Jeff Elkins was not working on Monday.

The trio set to work, first securing the vehicle for their own safety and then beginning the extrication efforts.

With Operation Life on scene, patient care could be turned over to medical personnel.

In this case, the firefighters were able to get to the children, but had to remove the roof in order to get to the driver. At that point, they transferred him onto a backboard from OL and the operation was complete.

While the process had its glitches, Shepherd expressed his overall satisfaction with how all three shifts performed.

Operation Life Assistant Director Eric Pitner was also happy to have his people involved.

“The good thing is to have cooperating among the agencies,” Pitner said. “We like having our folks see what you do. And have you understand what we’re trying to do.”

A total of six cars were used for the three days of training, with two each donated by Mike Johnson Towing, Jerry’s Wrecker Service and Seniour’s Towing.

Shepherd gave special thanks to the wrecker services.

“It’s kind of a pain for them because they have to take the cars back in worse shape than they started,” Shepherd said. “Without them, we couldn’t do the training.”