Rescue team trains

[five_alarm]

BRANDON, MB - Manitoba's Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) team has left the concrete jungle for Westman's wilderness to test their skills during its largest and most intense session to date.

"We wanted to test their ability to work through the night," said Manitoba Fire Commissioner Doug Popowich. Nearly 60 RCMP, Winnipeg Police Canine Unit, Manitoba Hydro employees, volunteer firefighters, paramedics and Office of the Fire Commissioner personnel worked around the clock during Manitoba USAR's largest exercise this week.

Crew members from communities including Brandon were under final evaluation yesterday in their efforts to make the team.


Source: brandonsun.com (http://www.firehall.com/refer.php?url=http://www.brandonsun.com/displayad.cgi?adnum=1022&linkid=1469&parent=news(headlines)&)

[FFWannabe]

Hey, that's where our man from Melita has been this week! Hey, iamvff, if you read this, can't wait to hear all about it! Sounds like a great week!!!

Sue :)

[bestcoast]

He sounded pretty pumped to go too......He'll have a few stories i'm sure....BC.....

[DFCSmash]

Ahhh, he likely bribed false_alarm just to get the story on here.

I went by there yesterday, and they were all living in fancy RVs and there was a HUGE beer tent. ;)

Just wait, when iamvff gets back he'll be telling us all how he was roughing it. :D

[FFWannabe]

Originally posted by DFCSmash
Ahhh, he likely bribed false_alarm just to get the story on here.

I went by there yesterday, and they were all living in fancy RVs and there was a HUGE beer tent. ;)

Just wait, when iamvff gets back he'll be telling us all how he was roughing it. :D

hee heee! ;)

[iamvff]

Alright, I am back and here it comes for all you yokals that mock me when I am away:D

We started by setting up the RV's and putting the beer into the coolers........just teasing there smasher:D

This will take a bit...

Started on monday morning at 9 and had briefing at the college, left the college around 1:30 and drove to Spruce Woods Provincial Park. There we set up tents and camp. We had four 15-20 man sleeping tents, one drying tent, one showers/cleanup tent, one mess tent, and an IC tent full of laptop computers. four teams..8/team. 8 hours on/8hours off 24 hours/day.

*4pm monday-1:30 am tuesday (GSAR wilderness/navigation training)- 18 year old partyer, drunk, wandered from camp and hasn't been seen since night before, we were delivered by skidoo 2.5 miles from camp to warming shack, given GPS coordinates to follow. Hiked for approx 5 miles looking for tracks etc. at around 8pm we were given coordinates to go to and told to set up camp for 3 hours. we had to build our shelters and start a fire and feed ourselvses using only what was in our backpacs. This was quite successful, and we had a blast doing it, except for the coordinates were 1/2 mile straight through solid bush and 2 feet of snow to get to where we had to build camp. Our 8 hour shift should have ended at midnight, but they kind of forgot about us and we didn't get back until 1:15am.

*1:30amTues - 8am tues - back to camp, eat supper, then slept

*8am tues - 4pm tues (low level rope rescue training)- Guy drove his skidoo over embankment, skidoo was 30 feet over edge, victim was 200 feet down hill(steep). Traveled by skidoo 5 miles from camp. located victim. set up proper rope system, packaged patient, and raised to top of hill.

*4pm tues - 12 midnight - back to camp, had meal, then slept

*midnight - 8am wed - (USAR training) - partyers went to abandoned farm yard entered house, havent been seen for a while, structural collapse senario. delivered by vehicle and skidoo to within 1 mile of farm yard, had to take skidoo rest of way, including all equipment and personell. Once at scene...initial inspection of old house, engineer told what had to be shored, appropriate shoring was completed, victim was removed. 2nd victim located in upstairs....stairs had collapsed..had to set up temporary stairs, once on second story..victim was removed.

*8am wed - 4pm wed - back to camp, eat/sleep

*4pm wed- 7pm wed - USAR Olympic challange Team a+b vs Teams c+d in variuos timed events. Our Team (a/b) won the olympics and got a bottle of bubbly and OFC travel mugs. Followed by a huge roast beef supper, and some remenising of good time had by all;)

This is of course a real basic look at my week at camp, but I have to say, we had an absolute blast, learned lots, and made some great friends. In our group of 8 we did not have a single personality clash. We all clicked right from day one, and it was just like being on here...the jokes just flowed like champagne, and it was pretty much a permanent smile on everyones face right from day 1. Interesting note...when we arrived back at the college they sent everyone for lunch and the only about 50% showed back up after for the debriefing. after the debriefing they said if anyone could stay and help clean up the gear and stuff it would sure be apprecieated. after about an hour into cleaning up, we stopped and looked around and realized that out of the 50-60 people that were on this course...coincidently...all of group "A", were the only ones that stayed around to help. that was my group!!! What a great bunch of guys!!

be safe
iamvff

[FFWannabe]

iamvff, that sounds like a really great week! Tough work, it sounds! Glad you had a great time and learned lots! I'm envious!!! hahaha!

Thanks for sharing!!! :)

Sue :)