Those traveling downtown on Second Street Wednesday morning may have been caught a little by surprise if they happened to look up at the new downtown parking garage at Second and Locust Streets. Multiple area firefighters from the Daviess County Fire Department (DCFD) and Owensboro Fire Department (OFD) were repelling off the side of the parking garage in a joint effort to improve technique in high angle rope rescue.
Rope rescue may be required when someone falls, finds themselves trapped in a confined space, has experienced a medical emergency or has incurred a traumatic injury at a high elevation. While these are just some of the many scenarios firefighters may encounter, Wednesday was a day to run through those scenarios and refine different techniques.
DCFD Assistant Fire Chief Eric Coleman said Wednesday’s collaborative training was designed so that the two departments could learn from one another.
“How we do things and how they do things is not the same,” Coleman said. “Some of our techniques are different than what they’re using. We don’t have a ladder truck. We don’t have this equipment, we don’t deal with this equipment — that’s their specialty.”
Although they do not have a ladder truck with the same capability, DCFD has an advanced tripod that can be put into place to create a higher anchor point where everything can be moved away allowing for more room to work beneath it.
OFD Battalion Chief of Training Colter Tate said the County has a ropes team, and the City has a technical rescue team and both are trained in ropes, confined space, trench and building collapse.
While OFD is trained in ropes and does have four ladder trucks, including two that have anchors built in for rope rescue, Tate feels the county uses their training more often.
“We’re trying to hone our skills plus learn new techniques from the County because they use it probably more than we do. We are able to see some of their guys that took some of the advanced training,” Tate said. “They have been through SPRAT (Society of Professional Rope Access Technicians) training — they teach State Fire Rescue’s rope program all over the state. In my professional opinion, they have a lot more expertise in ropes than I do.”
Coleman said it’s not that their skill set is any better, they just do things differently.
Coleman and Tate came together less than six months ago and decided that since both departments were using rope rescue, they might as well learn from one another. So after aligning schedules and ensuring coverage, the two departments spent eight hours atop the parking garage trying various techniques and trading tips.
“We need to see the differences in the way we do things, just so we can learn from each other and what to expect if we were to show up on the same scene together,” Coleman said.
Tate said, although much of the personnel were off duty or on “callback” during the training, they did not seem to mind, as this was a training many of them enjoyed doing “especially being a joint training with the County.”
Currently, DCFD covers Big Rivers Electric Corporation in Centertown, while OFD is responsible for the OMU Plant, Owensboro Grain, the Spencer County, Indiana AUP Power Plant and is considered a state asset which covers eight counties in rope rescue.
“We have to work together — we are limited on personnel, the County’s limited on personnel,” Tate said. “If we get a rope rescue somewhere that is something that we have not seen before, we are probably going to call the County in to assist us. Our mission is to do the best we can for the citizens we’re serving. Calling them would give us that additional expertise that we could use that could better serve the community.”
Coleman added that if either department was called out on a large scale incident, joint response or mutual aid call, it would be beneficial to know how the other group does things.
The parking structure offered the departments a lot of natural anchor points and was easily accessible for vehicles and central for both County and City to work together. Both have utilized the RiverPark Center in the past, but are always looking for new opportunities to train.
The new DCFD station that is near completion at the Owensboro-Daviess County Regional Airport will offer a training tower equipt with built-in anchor points specifically for rope rescue. While Tate said they currently use their drill tower on Daviess Street, he said it does not have any anchor points as it is an older building. Coleman anticipates that the new facility will provide new training opportunities for both departments and said OPD was welcome to utilize the facility at any time.
Tate said the two departments will definitely collaborate again, as they each have already seen some things they would like to change for their future operations.
