Kelowna Fire Department takes part in ice rescue training – Okanagan | 24CA News
It’s ice rescue coaching week for members of the Kelowna Fire Department.
The coaching consisted of each in-class and hands-on coaching and lasted over the course of every week.
“We have D-shift out on the ice today, this is day 3. I got one more shift to go in a couple of days, so we’ll have it all wrapped up for the year again,” mentioned Capt. Shawn Wudrich, Kelowna Fire Department.
With climate situations considerably altering yearly within the Okanagan, the Fire Department alters its coaching to maintain up with the situations.
“Techniques. tactics, equipment doesn’t seem to change a whole lot, but the conditions change,” mentioned Wudrich.
“Even on Jan. 3, we came out for our first day, we had to physically cut a hole in the ice because it was so thick. I would say now, we’re six days later and we have half the ice we had then.”
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During the coaching interval on Saturday, crews simulated real-life rescues for members to participate in. According to Wudrich, the rescue course of begins with a collection of questions, together with your title and the way you fell into the water to higher perceive your scenario.
“We approach and asked what kind of condition are you in so what we’re trying to determine is your level of consciousness or your ability to self-rescue,” mentioned Wudrich.
If somebody is unable to get out on their very own, the fireplace division will use no matter approach suits the scenario.
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“If they’ve been in the ice for 10 to 15 minutes, they’re going to lose the ability to hang on to something, so now we can go into a throwing technique where we throw them a rope,” mentioned Wudrich.
“Most likely, based on response times and the time we actually get to somebody, we do a ‘go rescue,’ where we have one of our rescuers tethered onto a rope. The rope is safely back far enough from the hole that we can have someone pull on it and we can go in and physically attach our patient to that and drag them from the ice.”
According to the fireplace division, some of the essential components to remember earlier than heading out on the ice is how shortly the climate can change and the impacts it’ll have on the ice.
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