Showing His Knowledge Of The Descender Golden Valley Fire District (GVFD) Engineer-EMT Weber demonstrates his knowledge of using the “No Worries” descender which is used in a single rope technique. More than 20 members of the GVFD, Mohave County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue and Department of Public Safety Air Rescue participated in the day-long training that included techniques of rappelling from a hovering helicopter, rescuing a victim trapped or hanging from a structure such as a power-line, and techniques available to execute a pick-off maneuver from a cliff or other tall structure.
Six members of the Golden Valley Fire District Technical Rope Team, (from left) Engineer-Paramedics Kevin Gifford, Gustavo Alvarez and Chad Lewis, Firefighter-EMTs Morgan Rosencrans and Luke Weber, and Engineer-Paramedic James Childers, strike a pose prior to beginning the day-long training with Mohave County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue and Department of Public Safety Air Rescue personnel. The participants practiced and honed their technical skills of the proper procedures needed during rescues at the training held at the Nucor Steel plant in Golden Valley. It included techniques of rappelling from a hovering helicopter, rescuing a victim trapped or hanging from a structure such as a power-line, and techniques available to execute a pick-off maneuver from a cliff or other tall structure.
Hooking Up The Rescue Randy Practice Dummy
Members of the Golden Valley Fire District Technical Rope Team and members of the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue (SAR), watch as a SAR member prepares to use a Prusik (a friction hitch or knot used to put a loop or cord around a rope) and webbing to take the weight off the victim’s cable or rope in order to hook “the victim” up to the rescuer’s rope. This procedure is utilized to be able to descend a victim safely to the ground.
Golden Valley Fire District (GVFD) firefighters watch as one of their own rappels off a 50-foot-high structure during rope training
Golden Valley Fire District (GVFD) Engineer-Paramedic Gustavo Alvarez concentrates as he rappels off a 50-foot-high structure
By Butch Meriwether Photographer/Public Information Officer