Ritzville Fire Department hosts Regional Training seminar

On Monday, Feb. 15, the Ritzville Fire Department hosted a hands on training to practice extracting victims from vehicles.

An estimated 20 members of the Ritzville Department participated along with the Ritzville Volunteer Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT).

The EMT and Fire Departments from surrounding districts were also invited to participate making this a Regional Training event.

Five members of the Washtucna Fire Department attended along with five from the Sprague Department who also brought their fire truck along with them.

There were four vehicles for the departments to practice on, one for the recently joined firefighters and three for the veteran firefighters.

The advanced training vehicles were set up in a three-car collision scenario with one vehicle on its side and as the veteran volunteers went to retrieve the hydraulics they found them not present. This forced them to do the same task using only hand tools such as sawzalls and chains.

There were victims placed in each advanced vehicle needing to be taken from the car, placed on a backboard and transported to the ambulance on scene.

The first victims were removed from the vehicles with no incidents, in the car on its side the removal took longer.

There were five victims who volunteered to have fake wounds placed onto them by Roni Kinney who is the EMS supervisor at East Adams Rural Hospital.

The EMTs transported the victims to the hospital, which allows hospital participants to receive credit for participating in an external training.

The newer firefighters and those with less experience using the hydraulics were able to learn how to extricate victims from a car on all four wheels.

This training taught them where to find this equipment on the trucks and also how to properly use it. They performed various scenarios to learn how to deal with real life situations.

During the training the new members of the Ritzville Fire Department along with a few members from the visiting departments broke out the windows on the vehicle and cut the roof off. They had no victim to rescue and were able to take their time to see how the best way to rescue a potential victim would be.

Training Officer Jim Bostic stated their goal is always safety: safety for the victims and safety for the fire fighters and EMTs.

Bostic said the regional training is beneficial because of the four communities’ proximity to major highways where larger scale crashes typically occur and the departments are required to work together.

Ultimately, the training lasted approximately 45 minutes and the last victim was removed from the vehicle placed on its side after 40 minutes.

The victim was removed using only hand tools and Incident Commander Scott Kembel stated this was an appropriate amount of time for the situation.

Once a month the volunteers participate in a structural rescue, live fire training or vehicle collision style training. The restrictions on the items that are okay to be burned within a home have been tightened so much Bostic stated it feels like they have no house left to burn once everything is removed.

Due to tighter restrictions from the Department of Ecology, trainings have been more limited for the department.

Because of this, the department has asked the planning committee to approve the purchase of a 40-foot shipping container to place on the lot at the Volunteer Emergency Responders building.

This would allow the trainings to include the burning of clean materials inside the container. This would simulate a real fire where the firefighters would feel the heat and learn to deal with the smoke.

Bostic explained the harder the department trains the easier the real situations become. The recent house fire in Ritzville proved just that, the department was able to work together and understood their responsibilities.

These trainings also allow the fire department to earn a high quality rating from the Washington State Rating Bureau. In this last year the department went from a seven to a six, this helped to keep the insurance rates low for residents in Ritzville.