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Lucknow Sentinel, 2009-08-12, Page 9• • • • • • Lucknow Sentinel, Wednesday, August 12, 2009 - Page 9 Lucknow volunteer firefighters keeping their skills sharp BY GARIT REID Sentinel Staff The volunteers of the Lucknow and District Fire Department were keeping their skills fresh as they had a training session Aug. 4 just outside Lucknow on Bruce County Road 1 (former Cross County building). The. training ses- sion consisted of groups going into a building filled with smoke to search and rescue bodies and once outside determine the nec- essary emergency medical procedure. Many of the volun- teer firefighters performed CPR on the practice dummy • and assessed if the defibrillator was needed. Many of the vol- unteer firefighters alsohadahandin proper operation f the , pumper- . truck, which is important for keeping the water flowing. This also allowed for others to prac- tice their water hose skills as they shot water in a des- ignated area. Lucknow Fire Chief Peter Steer believes -it's impor- tant for any volun- teer fire depart-. ment to keep their skills up to date especially in a rural setting because a lot of the time they are the first to respond to the. many calls they receive. "If .there was a work related injury at an actual work - ng fire, I have to show that the -par- ticular firefighter has been trained," said ` Steer. "Any rural fire depart- ment is all volun- teers, so we,work mutuallywith other emergency roups and fire dents, boy we. have to be as ready as they are.'; The firefighters had a lot of dense smoke to deal with coming from a smoke machine during the search and rescue, so they had to rely on their team, their equip- ment and the abili- ty to stay in con- stant contact through their radios. It's a total tearn effort for Steer and his fire- fighters as they have to rely on each other in an emergency situa- tion. Steer believes any time they can build experience through training, it's a good thing. "We respond to everything. We're a tiered response department, we do first aid and we respond to all med- ical calls,. said Steer. We're required to, if there's .a victim trapped in a car it's our job to gegen out or just make them *accessible. So it's important that our skills are there through train- ing." Working with other emergency groups like the OPP is important to handle a scene carefully as it could be a crimirtM scene, where the OPP would need the scene pre- served to a certain degree so they can investigate. `My job would be to make sure that if the scene was suspicious that we should contact the OPP," Said Steer. "It's impor- tant because we work with a lot of different groups, that we do out jobs to the best of our ability.", .ity" For anyone who drove by on Tuesday night they would have seen quite the demon- stration of fire- fighters honing their search and rescue skills. 1116 Submitted photo Steve McEwan operates the pumper truck to keep the Water flowing during tho t ucknow and District Fire search and rescue training Sheep & Cattle Manure Reg Pride $3.99 Sale Price $2.60 • Peat Mots Reg s P rice $8.99 Sate Prig $7.49 •Black Beauty, Cypress Gold, Rustle; Mocha Brown, Red Devil Mulches Reg Price $6.29 Safe Pri+ a $4.99 • Mini Bark Nuggets & Bark Nuggets Reg Price 9.59 Sate Price $7:29. 16-4=8 25% slow release lawn fertilizer 25 kg bag used for mid May to end of season $20.o1/bag • 17.5hp 42" deck Poulan B&S Reg Price $1549.99 Sale Price $1499.99 • 21" Paulan B&S Mulch Reg Price $299.99. Sale Price $279.99 ' • 21" Poulan. Pro Honda. reg $379.99 Sale Price $369.99 • 20" MTD Gold Honda reg 349.99 Sale Price $329.99 *TILLERS, AERATORS, AND SWEEPERS ALSO ON'SALE* WSW Photo by Garet Reid The volunteers for the Lucknow and District Fire Department were Ice ,ping their skids fresh as they had a training session Aug. 4 just outside Lucknow on Bruk.0 County Road 1 (former Cross County building). Mike Humphrey and Clint Hamilton are seen here apphringyCPR rill ce dur»Ti, durinA their trilininA sessidr . ILLUSTRATION ONLY arm Trademarks of AIR MILES International Trading B.V. Used under licence,by Loyalty Management Group Canada, Inc. and GROW - MARK, Inc. tQT191CT CO�PEE*4rIVE INCII• South of Lucknow �ni iow Une • 519-5294953 •1.80Q4TA•li825