A collaboration between the Upper Yarra SES and the Wandin CFA saw crucial skills shared and emergency service relations bolstered.
Wandin CFA shared its expertise on high-angle rescues with the Upper Yarra SES to allow for a higher level of cooperation during rescue callouts.
Upper Yarra SES unit controller Hannah Brunton said it was important to have a basic understanding of high-angle rescues due to a number of factors.
“They [Wandin CFA] are one of our closest high-angle rescue providers, so if we have somebody within our response area that requires a high-angle rescue, it’s them that will come in,” Ms Brunton said.
“We have worked alongside them at quite a lot of jobs so this training session is really about making sure that all of our members understand when we call them, why we call them and how we call them.”
Alongside Monbulk CFA, Wandin CFA are a part of the District 13 Rope Rescue Team, whose members are trained in to perform steep and high-angle rescues.
A high-angle rescue is when a responder has to access a patient who’s on a vertical or slippery slope above a 45 degree angle.
Wandin CFA captain Darryn Gross said these types of rescues were crucial for the safety of both the patient and responder.
“It’s extremely important for both the responder as well as the patient for safety. At the end of the day we all are entitled to go home to our loved ones and make sure that we can access a patient on a vertical or slippery slope anywhere from generally 45 degrees upwards.”
Ms Brunton said the newly opened Warburton Bike Park has a lot of steep and hilly terrain where a rider may require a high-angle rescue and therefore it was essential Upper Yarra SES members have the knowledge on when these rescues will need to be deployed.
“Because of the bike tracks, there’s a lot of drop-off points that we may have to respond to with [high-angle rescues], so that’s why we want to do that familiarisation training.”
While Upper Yarra SES members weren’t trained to perform the rescues themselves, the training exercise would equip them with the information to know when these rescues would be performed.
Mr Gross said training alongside other emergency services was critical as collaboration meant better outcomes for those being rescued.
“Interagency training is absolutely critical in all scenarios, be it health, be it fire, flood, road crash rescue or patient outcomes.
“We need to understand that each emergency service in their own right has a skill. By appreciating what we can do to help another agency… and the capabilities [of that] alternate agency, it makes both you as an emergency service responder better as well as the patient outcomes better,” Mr Gross said.
It would also provide a good chance to socialise with other emergency service volunteers.
“We see each other at emergency jobs, we pass each other in the streets, we go to shopping centers and we pass each other – it’s good to be able to just have that social interaction,” Mr Gross said.
Ms Brunton said interacting with the CFA in an informal setting gave them the chance to connect more as mates.
“It was good to be able to see them in not a life or death circumstance.
“We see them at jobs, we know their faces, but we don’t really get a chance to get to know them… So being able to see them in a less formal environment where we’re… able to have less stressful conversations and some friendliness, it’s much nicer,” Ms Brunton said.
In the end, these emergency service responders are all volunteers who give up their spare time to ensure the protection of the public.
Collaborative training sessions like these ensure these emergency service volunteers have the ability to rely on each other when they need it.
“The area that we have is so mountainous, and there’s so many drops, so there’s a lot of times and opportunities where we’re going to need them,” Ms Brunton said.
“It’s good to be able to work together.”
