Training for a rescue
Posted on Monday, September 1, 2008
FORUM — Like ants stealing a Cheeto from a picnic, 17 pairs of hands shuttled an orange plastic stretcher from underneath a rock ledge.
Trudging up and down a leaf-slick Madison County hillside, the volunteers attached to those hands worked last month to stay between the orange rope lines of the course laid out for them by instructors with the National Cave Rescue Commission. The course wound around trees, over large rocks and into the midst of a rock overhang. Strapped to the stretcher, Haskell firefighter Deanne Redman often kept her eyes shut as the team pulled, dragged and squeezed her between the rocks. Redman was one of two “patients” that were hauled over the obstacle course last week. Her husband, Ron, was among those carrying her through the course.
The exercise was part of a two-day cave rescue orientation course put on by Madison County Search and Rescue. The course is designed to introduce cavers to rescue work, rescue workers to caving and both groups to each other.
“It’s geared toward people like me who don’t have a lot of caving experience,” said Monte Fuller, the Devil’s Den State Park superintendent.
Fuller said he took the course to increase his confidence in tight spaces, like those found at Devil’s Den.
He also wanted to increase his knowledge of cave rescue tactics after a recent rescue at the park.
The scenario during the course was different than the rescue which unfolded at the park earlier this summer when 17-year old Bianca Calloway slipped and became trapped in a section of the cave known as Satan’s Maze. Calloway was freed after 17 hours and after rescuers cut away the rock that trapped her.
Fuller said that until you are in a cave trying to rescue someone, it’s impossible to understand how difficult it is. Especially if the victim is injured and has to be carried out.
“Luckily at Devil’s Den, the young lady was able to walk out on her own,” he said. “She was not injured but stuck.” During the obstacle course, two teams entered from opposite sides, each group navigating a patient through the natural obstacles.
It took about three hours to complete the course while instructors offered advice.
The patients had been “packaged” and cared for as directed by instructors DJ Walker and Monty Strange, both of Austin, Texas, and Chris Jenkins of Cedar Park, Texas.
An Austin firefighter, Walker serves as South Central Region coordinator for the National Cave Rescue Commission. He and his fellow instructors volunteer their time and pay their own way to such events.
Walker gave volunteers a brief demonstration on how to prepare patients to be carried out of a cave. The presentation covered types of stretchers and methods for limiting movement in case of spinal injury.
The demonstration came after a four-hour classroom session, all of which led up to a mock cave rescue the following day. Teams had to find and retrieve two lost cavers, one of whom had to be carried out.
Springdale firefighter Chris Main served as cave coordinator during the mock rescue and managed to stay in the middle of the action during the obstacle course.
Main has trained in several different rescue techniques, such as trench and high angle rescue.
He enjoys the training because it’s physically and mentally challenging.
A volunteer for the Tontitown Fire Department and member of the Washington County Search and Rescue, Main said that he has yet to test his specialized skills in the areas they were designed for.
“I’m always on duty when Washington County [Search and Rescue ] tones out,” said Main, who had to go back to Station 6 after the obstacle course.
There are many overlaps between the cave training and what firefighters do on a regular basis, said Lt. Jeff Haak of the Bentonville Fire Department.
Haak also attended the course, for fun and to help augment his skills as a firefighter. There are caves and sinkholes in the area that the department could have to perform a rescue from, he said, though he’s not seen one.
“We definitely came away with a better idea of what they do,” he said. “We came away with a better idea of how they approach the situation.” Walker noted that just as there are similarities between how firefighters perform rescues, there are general applications shared in all search and rescue environments. Rescuers need to prepare for the environment in which they will be working, which includes being self-sufficient for long periods of time.
Cave rescuers need to be selfsufficient for 12 hours, Walker said. Rescuers in wilderness searches need to be able to take care of themselves for 48 hours, maybe longer.
Walker rattled off the list of seven things rescuers need before deploying, “food, water, shelter, heat, light, weapons, como [communications ].” Obviously, one wouldn’t take a shotgun into a cave, he said, but a knife could come in handy.
A gun would be more useful in a wilderness deployment, where a rescuer may need to harvest an animal for food, Walker said.
It was a similar course in 1991 that got course coordinator and lead instructor Susan Thrasher hooked on cave rescues.
“I just thought that was slicker than cave mud,” Thrasher said about the two-day course.
Not quite two decades later, Thrasher travels the country and into Central and South American countries teaching cave rescue techniques. She is certified by the National Cave Rescue Commission, National Search and Rescue and is a fire instructor for the fire service in Costa Rica and Panama.
The average search and rescue team member may not get to train in Puerto Rico, Argentina and Cuba, but the average team wouldn’t exist without volunteers.
Jayne Christensen, coordinator for Benton County Search and Rescue, has been committed to her team for 10 years.
Search and rescue requires a minimum of 30 hours a month, a significant commitment, Christensen said. Its not unusual for people join the team while they’re in college and drop out when they have a family.
“It’s not something for your whole life,” she said. “Or you have to have a very understanding husband, which I have.” Christensen said the group spends much of its time trying to prepare people for outdoors activities so that they won’t have to be rescued. The team is working to reinstate the K-9 unit, she said, and has plans to add a mounted unit in the future. Thrasher and Christensen shared the sentiment teams can find a job for anyone willing to volunteer, they don’t all have to go into the field. “If you’re breathing and walking, we need you — let’s face it, if you’re not walking, I still need you,” Thrasher said. “I had a paraplegic that did paperwork.... I’ve got a job for just about everybody.” To contact this reporter: awallworth@arkansasonline. com ON THE WEB More information about county search and rescue teams is available on the Web: Madison County: www. mcsar. com Benton County: co. benton. ar. us Washington County: co. washington. ar. us
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