(Will Mandzuk/650 CKOM)

By Will Mandzuk, CKOM News Staff

40 volunteer firefighters complete heavy rescue training in Langham

Aug 28, 2023 | 10:05 AM

A three-day vehicle extrication and heavy rescue training course in Langham has wrapped up for volunteer firefighters from small towns all over Saskatchewan.

The course, presented by Trans Care Rescue, aimed to help train volunteer firefighters in heavy rescues that could occur on the highway.

The course has been offered for a couple of decades to help better prepare these firefighters for when they will be needed.

“Trans Care has been doing this for quite a few years now. Bill, one of the instructors, has been in the training industry since 1987,” said Zach Miller, instructor for Trans Care Rescue.

There were more than 40 volunteer firefighters learning all the skills they will need. They completed time in a classroom and by completing pits, which are their drills in removing victims from an accident.

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“Each one of our pits is based on prior accidents that we have seen or noticed multiple kinds of these accidents,” said Miller.

Some of the pits were rescuing two mannequins from a crash that had a car in the side of a city bus, removing a mannequin from a school bus that was tipped over on its side, and a six-vehicle accident involving three cars and three buses.

“As equipment in vehicles has started to change, we have started to push more for these heavy rescue courses,” said Miller.

Miller explained the course is offered to volunteers from not only in Saskatchewan, but in Alberta and Manitoba too.

“We’ve seen a lack of training and equipment in the volunteer departments,” said Miller. “So that’s why we’ve been putting on the course here to educate and train volunteer departments throughout Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba.”

Courses get updated every year based on what new technology or materials vehicles are being built with.

“We’re always updating them, especially with the newer technology in vehicles, ” said Miller.

Miller explained the importance of this course and why they are really pushing this course to smaller communities, so their volunteer firefighters can be given the option to come and go through the training.

“It’s really important to get these departments and get them trained,” said Miller. “We are, unfortunately, seeing a lot more of these larger mass casualties accidents, like the Humboldt crash and the one in Manitoba earlier this year.”

Trans Care Rescue also offers a bunch of other training courses that range from tower rescue to surface water rescue to farm equipment accident rescue.