For the first time, the North West Regions rehab units met at Golden Square this week to share learnings and ideas.
Crews from Golden Square, Mernda and Rochester Fire Brigades spent several hours reviewing each other’s rehab equipment, sharing learning’s from recent incidents, and planning future improvements.
Golden Square’s 1st Lieutenant Tim McNeilly said, “The night was a fantastic opportunity for rehab brigades to share ideas and information on a role that is becoming more and more important for the safety of our firefighters”.
Rehab units provide a critical role at incidents by employing active cooling techniques to firefighters in order to prevent the onset of heat stress. These Units also work closely with the CFA Health Monitoring Team in the field, providing a higher level of healthcare, as they have the ability to monitor a firefighters vital signs in real-time, at an incident.
RDO’s and Incident Controllers should consider responding a Rehab Unit under the following circumstances:
• Any fire or incident involving multiple BA crews, undertaking multiple shifts, or operating in strenuous working conditions.
• Any structure fire on a day of high temperature, with a likely duration of greater than one hour or with crews operating in strenuous working conditions.
• Any incident involving crews wearing gas or splash suits.
• Any large protracted bushfire event in extreme heat conditions, as part of a staging area setup
The North West Region rehab units will continue to meet regularly in order to ensure they are continuously improving their operation, to better service the North West.
Author: Shane Clinch