It was Drill Night last night and, for once, we spent most of the evening outside in the drill yard.
We were to be assessed on our RTC skills by two of our resident RTCI’s – Ian Pettitt and Gary Smart.
I was driving the PRT and we were first in to the single vehicle RTC with Ladder 2 following close behind. Pete Brown was our OIC so his every move and decision was under the spotlight.
The RTC was a simulation of a car going under the rear of an HGV. The car, with two casualties, was also towing a trailer. The car was being driven by Rachael ‘Princess’ O’Connell (I’ll not make any cheap jokes about female drivers…) and her front seat passenger was Al ‘I didn’t touch it’ Soards. Knowing how Al can break anything, he should really have been in the driving seat…
So casualty care was started, stabilisation, glass and plastics management too. At the same time an equipment dump was made of all the gear we would need to extricate our two casualties. And with it being a dark and dank night we needed to supplement the PRT’s stem light and scene lights with our fluorescent lights.
Steady progress was made through removing the glass, cutting all the posts, removing the roof and eventually getting Rachael and Al out on longboards.
Overall the assessment was very good, a few learning points for everyone and just the make-up to do in double-quick time. It always amazes me how quickly a mountain of equipment can be cleaned, dried and stowed when there are plenty of hands about (and when the clock is advancing to 9pm!).