MINERSVILLE - While many took part in Halloween activities Sunday, a group of volunteers spent most of the day honing their skills on heavy rescue operations.
Four Pennsylvania State Fire Academy instructors taught the Special Vehicle Rescue class, which included scenarios of a tractor-trailer rolled over onto a passenger car and a heavy truck on top of a passenger car.
Eric J. Rickenbach headed the group of state-certified instructors that included Kurt Shelhamer of the Pottsville Fire Department and Pottsville-Schuylkill Haven Area EMS, Chad Mundell and Brad Silcox.
Rickenbach said firefighters taking the class already had training in basic vehicle rescue and wanted to take the next step and learn how they can help victims when the incident involves large machines such as tractor-trailers and construction vehicles.
"What we're doing here is having them enhance the skills they already have by adapting them to situations involving larger vehicles," he said.
Offered through Bucks County Community College, the Special Vehicle Rescue class gave participants hands-on experience on how to stabilize and lift a large tractor-trailer to gain access to a passenger car that was crushed beneath it.
Firefighters were also able to use hydraulic air bags to learn how to lift a piece of heavy equipment, in this case a large cement mixer truck.
They also used various tools used for cribbing and stabilizing vehicles and the Jaws of Life rescue tool to access the passenger compartments of the cars after the larger vehicles were lifted, allowing access to the areas where patients would be found.
A large wrecker owned by Hammer's Towing, Duncott, was used to show participants the proper and safe way to stabilize the tractor-trailer, allowing access to victims.
Eric Eichenberg, chief of Minersville Fire Rescue, which sponsored the class, said that company volunteers from Ravine, Tremont and Summit Station also participated.
While Minersville has up to 28 members trained in basic vehicle rescue, Sunday's class resulted in 15 to 20 of those members now being trained in heavy rescue situations.
Eichenberg said such preparation is important for Minersville because its rescue squad covers a 10-mile section of nearby Interstate 81, from mile markers 113 through 123.
"These types of vehicles travel that road every day and now with construction the changes of a heavy rescue situation increase," he said.
Eichenberg also said crashes involving larger vehicles are not only isolated to interstate highways.
Routes 61, 901 and 209 have truck traffic including tractor-trailers, tri-axle dump trucks and similar vehicles.
"We have people trained in basic rescue and this is just taking them to the next level of preparedness," Eichenberg said which manning the heavy-duty wrecker used in Sunday's class.
