Rescuers kept on their toes

A 12-strong team of St John Rescue Corps volunteer members spent a week with the Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service's Training and Development Academy for training that included simulations of various emergencies.

The academy is fully equipped with facilities and buildings that allow the instructors to realistically recreate all the stages of fire development in order for fire-fighters to understand the fire behaviour and effectively extinguish fires in a safe and controlled environment.

The training also gave the rescuers the opportunity to undertake a refresher course on the use of breathing apparatus. The volunteers were able to get an understanding of the equipment used by the fire and rescue crews, often dismantling the tools and appliances, learning how these work and why they are used.

During their visit, the St John Rescue Corps volunteers were stationed with the urban search and rescue team and were occasionally dispatched on call-outs with the team as observers. This gave them an excellent opportunity to get first-hand experience of actual accidents and learn how different units like the police, medics and fire services work together.

Although Malta does not experience many instances of flash flooding, swift water first responder training was carried out in a fast-moving river in North Wales. The volunteers from Malta were taught techniques on how to rescue casualties trapped or swept away by a fast-moving flash flood.

The exercises also involved the use of boards and throw lines to retrieve casualties and learning how to approach a casualty stuck against debris or rocks.

A refresher training course on how to manage road traffic collisions was undertaken, using equipment already available to the St John Rescue Corps. The equipment was donated by the Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service. Various accident scenarios were simulated, seeing volunteers safely extract injured casualties trapped in vehicles.

The volunteers were introduced to new equipment being used and were given useful tips on new dangers that can be expected from the ever-changing technology used in the automotive industry. These include fuel lines that pass through the car roof and high tension cables for hybrid or electric cars.

Being equipped with a number of vehicles, most of which donated by the Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service, members of the motor transport and technical section undertook the emergency fire appliance blue light driver course, consisting of lectures on legislation, driver's responsibilities, skid control and effective braking. The volunteers trained in response driving and systems of control, using fire appliances with blue lights through the streets and highways of Merseyside.

St John Rescue Corps will be hosting a search and rescue team from Merseyside in the coming months in order to train in various skills, such as high-angle rescue and urban search and rescue, giving the opportunity to those who could not make it to Merseyside to undergo training too.

St John Rescue Corps commissioner and corps commander, Capt. Reuben Lanfranco noted that while the corps did get "some sort of subsidy" from the government, this was not enough to maintain its increasing motor transport fleet of rescue vehicles. The fleet, combined with the expertise of its volunteers, made it the only non-governmental voluntary rescue unit on the island fully equipped to deploy on any kind of situation whenever required to do so, Capt. Lanfranco said.

St. John Rescue Corps was set up in 1986 to carry out rescue operations as a support unit to the constituted authorities. It is made up of adult volunteers, fully trained in fire fighting, rescue techniques and first aid, who undergo training courses on a regular basis throughout the year ensuring they are fully qualified to assist in national or international emergencies.

www.stjohnrescuecorps.org

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