More disaster readiness: Seattle Fire Department rescue training

In the wake of the Chile quake, we’ve been talking more about preparedness (have you memorized your West Seattle Emergency Communications Hub yet? and have you joined the West Seattle Be Prepared group on Facebook yet?). Public-safety personnel, of course, are training all the time – and this month, coincidentally, a particularly quake-relevant type of rescue training is under way at the Joint Training Facility (right) on the far southeastern edge of West Seattle: They’re practicing rescued trapped victims from the rubble of a structural collapse. Media crews have been invited to photograph some of the training tomorrow (we’ll be there) – the SFD advisory says, “During each session, 16 firefighters will work together in teams to search for and rescue patients using rope rescue equipment, airbags, hydraulic rescue tools, saws, bars, cribbing, rescue baskets and aerial ladders.” More than 1,000 firefighters will go through this training before the month’s out.

MargL March 2, 2010 (6:38 pm)

What time is the training? Some of the structures are pretty visible from the park and ride lot next to the training facility. Might be a kick to drag the kid down there to watch the firefighters crawling around.

WSB March 2, 2010 (8:02 pm)

10 am. I don’t know what part of the grounds, though.

MargL March 2, 2010 (8:13 pm)

If they’re gonna practice crawling around in collapsed buildings and rubble it’ll probably be the structure right next to the south end of the park and ride lot.
There’s a fake ‘house’, I imagine for practicing smoke rescues, and next to that is a large structure that looks, well, like a collapsed building that had a couple burnt-out cars next to it.

ltfd March 2, 2010 (11:15 pm)

Try the SW corner of the Park and Ride lot. That will put you right next to the Collapse prop, where most of the evolutions should be occurring for this training class.

The training will be occurring for approximately one month, with AM & PM sessions.