BOCA FIRE RESCUE NET - City of Boca Raton

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BOCA FIRE RESCUE
Special Operations
By: Scott Johnston
Division Chief
The next few months will be busy for
our Special Ops Division. Here is a
summary of what to look for:
February Training
On February 16 th and 17 th , we will be
conducting our annual Rope Operations
Refresher training. Safety Solutions
will be the vendor who provides this
training for us while familiarizing our
personnel with some of the new equipment
purchased recently. This training
will be geared towards those personnel
who took the Rope Ops Class last year,
although if you are interested in rope
rescue, come on out. I am sure you will
learn something.
March Training
The first 2 weeks of March will be Haz
Mat Tech Refresher training. All 4 regional
Haz Mat Teams will be coming
together to accomplish this and work
together. We will be sending EN6,
HM6, and a Medic unit while on duty.
If you are not assigned on duty, you are
welcome to attend on one of your off
duty days. Just let me know so I can
place you on the day’s roster.
March 9 th , 10 th , and 11 th will be the start
dates for the 160 hour Haz Mat Tech
Class being held at Coral Springs Fire
Academy. We had 19 personnel express
interest in this class and presently we
have approx 8 out of the 19 personnel
signed up. If you have received the registration
information from me, please
act soon, seating will be limited. If you
are interested in becoming a Haz Mat
Tech and did not inquire yet, please
contact me and I will send you the registration
information. If class seats are
available, you will be able to register.
April Training
Over 4 consecutive Mondays, we will be
conducting Confined Space Rescue Refresher
training at our training facility or
possibly off site in a “live” Con-Space. I
will be scheduling this with the BC’s in
order to assign our on duty techs to the
training so we have enough bodies to
complete the evolutions. If you are interested
in Con-Space Rescue and have not
yet received this training, come on out
on your off time anyway. We can always
use some extra hands, and I am
sure you will learn something at the
same time.
Other Upcoming Training
I have been in contact with Boca Raton
Ocean Rescue, and we will be scheduling
a class to develop “Rescue Swimmers”
to be assigned to Boat 3. This
class will be a combination of Red Cross
and USLA criteria and will cover basic
and open water “surface” rescue techniques.
You will be required to pass a
swim test, which will consist of a minimum
500 meter swim in less then 10
minutes, so a strong swim background
will be needed on your part. You can
look for an announcement soon as to
when the class will be held -- possibly
April or May.
Also on the horizon will be some boat
handling training for the personnel assigned
to Fire Station 3 and responsible
as the “Boat Operator”. Our plan here
will be to train the present personnel and
then develop a program to teach other
personnel looking to be boat operators
in the future. The details are being
worked out, and the dates will be released
at a later time.
I recently went on Broward Fire Academy’s
website to look at the FLUSAR
list of classes. Starting in February, they
have a list of classes with dates and
times for you to register at a reasonable
cost to you. If you are interested in any
of these classes, I suggest you act
quickly to reserve your seat.
Stay Safe.
By: Frank Correggio, PIO
Two Injured While
Snorkeling Off Boca Beach
On January 11, 2009, at approximately
2:00 pm, Boca Raton Fire
Rescue crews responded to a report
of two people struck by a boat in the
ocean, south of Boca Raton Inlet.
Both females were initially treated
by Ocean Rescue Lifeguards and
brought by boat to Silver Palm Park
Boat Ramp, where they were transferred
to Boca Raton Fire Rescue
Paramedics for continued care. The
victims were transported in stable
condition by Fire Rescue to Boca
Raton Community Hospital for further
treatment and evaluation.
There were no other injuries reported.
The incident is being investigated
by Boca Raton Police Services
and the U.S. Coast Guard.
Training To Save Lives
During the month of January, employees
at St. Andrew Estates North took
advantage of specialized training that
was offered to them. Boca Raton Fire
Rescue was on hand teaching a class on
Photo by F. Correggio
John Botero handles extinguisher while
Vince Salerno (blue shirt) acts as back