County of Vermilion River completes Advanced Vehicle Extrication Heavy Rescue Course

They are a lifeline on our local highways when tragedy strikes. Our first responders.

Over the weekend, first responders from the County of Vermilion River completed their final day of an Advanced Vehicle Extrication Heavy Rescue Course.

“The County of Vermilion River has numerous major highways dissecting it – from the Yellowhead Highway running East to West, to the Number 41 and 893 that service the oil/gas industry – there is a lot of heavy traffic that utilizes these corridors every day,” County of Vermilion River Fire Chief Kirk Hughes told Lakeland Connect. “Our goal is to be prepared to deal with any type of vehicle collision that may result from all that traffic.”

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On Sunday, November 21, teams of firefighters were assigned complex scenarios based on the actual previous experiences of the instructors. Firefighters worked together to stabilize the scene, access patients, and perform intricate rescues.

“By working with our regional partners, we get a better understanding of what is out there in our region should an incident like this occur, because truly, no one fire service could deal with this type of accident alone,” Fire Chief Hughes said.

The final testing portion of the course went into the evening which added the extra stressor of darkness to the course which had a main focus for first responders taking part.

“The course was geared towards the heavier vehicle category, such as transport trucks, buses, and fuel carriers,” Fire Chief Hughes said. “Our departments are well versed and equipped to deal with the passenger vehicle accidents, such as cars, minivans, and pickup trucks, but the heavy vehicles always present unique challenges which is the main focus of this course”.

The County of Vermilion River would like to say special thanks to Action Towing & Recovery Service for the use of their yard and to the facilitators at Trans Care.