Jackson firefighters participate in rescue training
JACKSON, Tenn. — Local firefighters received much needed knowledge today pertaining to saving a life.
The Jackson Fire Department firefighters learned some useful techniques on how to properly rescue those in a wreck.
For the first time, the Jackson Fire Department held a two day heavy rescue class this weekend.
“It allows our folks that do vehicle extrication an opportunity to work on big rig extractions, and some unusual styles and types of extrication that we may encounter while we’re out in the field,” said Deputy Chief of Jackson Fire Department, Don Friddle.
There were cars, trucks, and other props donated for firefighters to work with.
Friddle says this is a community training event that brought many emergency service providers together.
“We were able to partner with Tennessee Association of Rescue Squads, and we had some community partners that came together, Privitt’s Wrecker Service and also Dale’s Recycling has pitched in to help us,” Friddle said.
State Training Coordinator at TN Association Rescue Squads, Brian Robinson says this training is especially important in this area, having much commercial traffic on I-40.
“This is very crucial training and it’s something that doesn’t happen a lot but when it does, usually it’s a pretty big scale,” Robinson said.
Robinson says he appreciates how much each firefighter in attendance is willing to learn.
“Everybody is working very diligently. They’ve asked a lot of questions and we’ve had a lot of great support from the students,” Robinson said.
Robinson says the best thing about the weekend is being able to teach vehicle extrication.
“That’s kind of one of my passions so any time I get to be on the drill field, not only as a teacher, it’s just a great day,” said Robinson.
Something even more interesting about today is, these firefighters, most of them aren’t even on duty so they’re taking their free time to learn this essential knowledge.
“Our job here is to provide life safety and to get people out of bad situations and that’s what we’re training to do here today is to help people when they need it the most,” Fluck said.
Deputy Chief Friddle says this is something the Jackson Fire Department will have again in the future, as it’s such an important skill that all firefighters need to know.
