On Thursday 2nd October we reported on the I.S.A.C. Training Course, held at Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service HQ and Training School, Winsford, attended by team members David Crawford and David Cook.
There follows a personal report on this great training day by Team Call Out list member David Crawford ;
“On Thursday October 2nd, team call-out members David Crawford and Dave Cook (Equipment Officer – Water) attended the Incident Safety Assessment and Control (ISAC) course at Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service Headquarters in Winsford. This is a one-day practically-based, scene safety course run with a Fire and Rescue Road Safety Unit for doctors, nurses, paramedics and others working in the pre-hospital domain.
The day started with two informative and interesting talks by Dr Mark Forrest, Medical Director for Cheshire Fire and Rescue Services, one on Kinematics (otherwise known as the mechanism of injury) and the second on the importance of making a safe approach to any accident scene.
The course then moved outside into the glorious sunshine for a short talk on Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) followed by practical exercises dealing in rotation with three scenarios. The first was assessing the hazards involved in dealing with a disturbed female who had run over her philandering husband; the second required the removal of a casualty from a car; and the third the casualty care and extrication of a person who has fallen down metal stairs. In each case a debrief highlighted important learning points.
After lunch, the group reconvened inside for two short presentations on dealing with the other emergency services at the scene of an incident and on the challenges posed by the ever more sophisticated safety features found on modern cars. These make life safer for occupants and pedestrians, but can pose hazards for rescuers.
It was then outside for further practical exercises and demonstrations. It started with the fire service cutting the roof off a car with two trapped occupants inside and then three further exercise scenarios in rotation. The first involved a woman and her young baby knocked down and seriously injured at a bus stop. Dave Cook was responsible for performing CPR on the baby, the task fortuitously practiced only the previous evening at our regular Wednesday evening training session! The second scenario was treating an injured rider of a scooter; and the third involved extricating a person from some distance along a sewer pipe.
The course closed with the presentation of certificates to all who had attended. The whole day was extremely useful and well-organised with much useful information for supporting the work of our team when dealing with potentially hazardous accidents and for liaising with the other emergency services.
Besides our two members present, there were also five team members from Cheshire Search and Rescue Team and eight 4th Year Medical Students from Liverpool.
We are most grateful to Dr Mark Forrest and all the other people involved on the course as either trainers or as exercise casualties.”
Please also see website ‘news’ reports, dated 19th November 2009, 22nd April 2010, 15th July 2010, 25th November 2010, 12th May 2011, 23rd February 2012, 20th September 2012, Thursday 20th June 2013 and Thursday 2nd October 2014.
