Surface Water Rescue Technician

The Surface Water Rescue Technician class was held over two weekends. The first weekend was hosted by Midland Fire Department, the second by Apex Fire Department.

Lead instructors were Tom Billig (Charlotte FD) and Bruce Butner (Thomasville Rescue). Brian Honeycutt (Charlotte FD) and Kevin Lewis (Midland FD) also assisted. Over 30 firefighters from Allen, Flowes Store, Georgeville, Midland, and Apex Fire Departments, Wake County Emergency Management and the Cabarrus County Fire Marshal's Office participated in this intense, rigorous, and COLD training.

The second weekend was swiftwater operations. After reviewing the basics in the classroom on Friday night, we spent all of Saturday and Sunday bobbing up and down in the Haw River. With water temps in the 50's at best, it was quite the invigorating experience. We learned how to navigate currents using defensive and offensive swimming techniques, how to ride the rapids without a boat (and thus locate all of the underwater boulders with our posteriors), and how not to get caught in a strainer - the right way (and the wrong way!) to fall out of a boat, and how to get back in once you do. We also got hands-on experience with a variety of other skills including rope bag throws (a.k.a. "squirrel hunting" for some of us) and tethered boat operations.

Many thanks to Sherry who played photographer the whole weekend, and took all of these photos. Click the thumbnails to view a larger photo in a separate browser window.

Charlie Orlowski, Shannon Davis, Glenn Clapp, Jeff Harrison (not pictured) and I were the participants from Wake County.	We played in the waters of the Haw River right below the Highway 64 overpass.	Here's a picture of Tom's eddy (guess you had to be there)
	Apex's SR1 served as dressing room, heater, and cafeteria all weekend	We brought all of our rubber duckies too
All geared up and ready for a swim!	Huggy and friends	Oars and more
Everyone had to catch Tom's eddy. It took some of us more tries than others.	Tom explains our next scenario	One group floated down the river while the other took turns throwing rope bags.
Just a-floatin' around....	Navigating the rapids
Hey, watch out for that..... ROCK!	Navigating the strainer	Glenn (Wake County EM) takes a turn
Instructors challenged us to try to overcome the force of the water once caught on a strainer. Though some came close, no one succeeded.	Since we could not overcome the force, we ended up having to go underneath the strainer - definitely not an altogether pleasant experience!	Next was boat operations...
Not so much to learn how to operate the boat,...	...but rather, to learn how to get back into it once dumped - a high probability in swift water - WITHOUT losing any oars!	Getting ready to flip the boat back upright
Helping everyone back in...	And last, but definitely not least... Huggy!	Chief Haraway saw to it that neither instructors nor Apex firefighters went hungry all weekend.
The last operation was a tethered boat rescue.	The team leader on the boat directed shore crews to take in or let out slack on the lines, in order to position the boat for the rescue	Once in position, rescuers had to load the patients onto the boat. Of course, somehow they always seemed to have a broken leg or something that prevented them from being of any help!

Copyright 2005 NCFirewolf