Urban fire/rescue vs. Mountain/farmland fire/rescue

[the_rogueEMT]

I am moving to the Appalachian Mountains this sunday and am wondering how different because I know there is a difference. We briefly went over mtn. fire/rescue in the book but did no scenarios. So my question is what should I expect with farmland/Mountain fire/rescue. I welcome any and all advice.

[Timmy]

Really depends on your geographic local, weather and terrain.

I live in a rural farming community next to a river, its heavily irrigated via water channels.

You get your normal urban (in town) fire incidents like direct alarms, minor structure fires, smoke issuing from buildings ect.

We get get a few barn fires, house fires that are quiet some distance away and everything is almost over upon arrival, grass and scrub fires, brushfires, river rescue, body recovery during summer when the campers flock in and water skiing goes wrong, remote MVAs, assisting paramedics with extracting patients who fall off there dirt bikes or crash there cars deep in the bush, drunken emergency calls to camp fires, drunks lighting fires on total fire band days, grain silo rescue, farm machinery rescue, farm machinery on fire, farmers lighting a fire near the barn and a field of dry grass and having the whole place go up, car fires along the remote highway, ATV accidents, HAZMAT – mainly farm type chemicals and orchard chemicals, kids lighting massive bon fires down the bush having a big party and things like this...

I guess if your on a mountain you'll be doing search and rescue, remote patient extracting, snow rescue etc...

It takes a long time for backup to arrive so sometimes you have to be creative and strategic in the way you attack a fire. We also have a real problem with water, were in a drought here and sometimes it might be a 20 minute drive to the next lake or access to river before your re filling the tanker so make sure you always have extra trucks on the road, you can always call them off.

[Richard B the EMT]

It takes a long time for backup to arrive so sometimes you have to be creative and strategic in the way you attack a fire. We also have a real problem with water, were in a drought here and sometimes it might be a 20 minute drive to the next lake or access to river before your re filling the tanker so make sure you always have extra trucks on the road, you can always call them off.

(Italics are mine)

That point is good, no matter if the response is Midtown, or middle of nowhere, because it is always harder to start out any type backup than to cancel them. Make that inclusive to the LEOs, FD, EMS, power/gas/water/phone companies.

[Chief1C]

Farming isn't that big of an industry in the Appalachian Region any more. A lot more likely to have common calls, the only true difference is time and distance between equipment and the scene. Like in a city, in the country, you can't train for everything. There will always be calls that you have to apply skills learned through education, with ideas you dream up on a whim. Your best tool, is your mind. You need to be able to think fast, lead, and know how to improvise. Also; farm accidents. You need other farmers. Barn fires, esp. in fresh hay season, you can be on scene for a day or two. They have a lot of really nasty shit in there, that can kill you very quickly.

We stock heavier on items like rope, climbing gear, heavy duty jacks, rescue baskets, medical kits made specifically for wilderness EMS, the ability to run several rescue tools at once. We have so much on our rescue, that we need to bring a trailer along just to get everything to the scene. Typical rural accident; two cars, or trucks, bunch of kids, unrestrained; dirt road, going fast, betting on a sharp curve that nobody else is coming.. and losing the bet. You see more Rescue mixed in with EMS. Cross training is key, basically, so someone is able to provide initial care, quickly. There are a lot of special pieces of equipment for emergencies off the beaten path; ATV's that can transport like a small ambulance, etc. We have members that own dogs for K-9 SAR; and Search and Rescue itself is broken down into specialties. In fact, we have several people that ONLY do SAR, because they spent a lot of time learning how to do it right. Uninformed, poorly trained rescuers; and poorly planned SAR operations delay rescue and endanger lives.

http://www.brmrg.org/

Edited May 23, 2009 by 4c6

[Richard B the EMT]

Uninformed, poorly trained rescuers; and poorly planned SAR operations delay rescue and endanger lives.

So true.

I always follow a simple rule concerning rescue:

If possible, never do anything that risks you also needing rescuing.