Highland-Pierron firefighters participate in advanced training

Three Highland-Pierron Fire Department firefighters attended a vehicle machinery technician course in Effingham Nov. 6-10.

Steve Durbin, Dan Hochuli and Zack Jenny participated in the 40-hour course, taught by Illinois Fire Science Institute based at the University of Illinois. The 40 hours is spent mostly with hands-on training using semi-trucks, (large/heavy vehicles), buses, automobiles and various types of machinery.

Each student has hands-on training in stabilization devices, creating additional openings in vehicles for proper patient removal, extrication processes with vehicles and machinery on their side and upside down, practicing on disentanglement of victims in equipment, plus establishing landing zones all the while using the Incident Command System. This class builds on additional certifications which are prerequisites, combining for over 80 hours of intense, hands-on training.

Highland-Pierron Fire Department now has five firefighters who have completed this level of technical knowledge regarding large vehicles and automobiles in unexpected situations.

The firefighters brought that knowledge back home for an HPFD training session on Nov. 28 that about lifting heavy objects and cribbing to capture the load as it’s being lifted. The training started out by lifting a slab of concrete that weighed 1.5 tons. Next, firefighters lifted an overturned car off a “patient’s” (a dummy) pinned arm during a simulated rollover into a creek. Lastly, a scenario required members to lift a large concrete culvert off a victim who was pinned after the culvert rolled off a trailer.

This story was originally published December 8, 2017 at 10:13 AM with the headline "Highland-Pierron firefighters participate in advanced training."