International success for Fire Service team in rescue challenge

GREATER Manchester Fire and Rescue Service’s (GMFRS) Road Traffic Collision (RTC) Extrication Team has been named ‘Best International Team’ at the Ireland’s National Rescue Challenge.

The Challenge was organised by Rescue Organisation Ireland and saw all the best Irish teams compete against each other for a chance to attend the World Rescue Challenge later this year in Lanzarote. The Greater Manchester team was invited to attend and take part as one of the guest International Teams, and they have now brought home their first trophy of the year.

The event took place at Newbridge Fire Station, County Kildare, Ireland and saw Gorton Station Manager Ian Melville, Blackley and Philips Park Station Manager Tom Weate, Philips Park Firefighter David Nelson, Wythenshawe Firefighter Ashley Capper, Gorton Firefighter Simon Moore and Operational Assurance Watch Manager Mark Palin form the GMFRS team.

The team were faced with a complex scenario in the competition with two casualties suffering from catastrophic haemorrhages, once of whom had a chest impalement. It required the team to work incredibly closely and use the expertise of their medical leads, Mark Palin and Ashley Capper, in order to prevail.

Working together the team successfully extricated both casualties within 22 minutes, a full eight minutes before the 30 minute time limit expired. The feedback from the assessors was very positive for all elements including the command, technical, and medical elements, with some good learning points for the team to take on board.

Station Manager Tom Weate said:

"The event in Ireland was the start of the competition season for the team, following on from our first place at the UK National last year, and being defending United Kingdom Champions the pressure was on.

"We are proud to have our skills recognised and it demonstrates to the people of Greater Manchester that their fire service is working hard to offer the best skills and response to a variety of rescue situations we face day in, day out.”

The team also work hard to train other staff across the service on new techniques and approaches to ensure that our response to road traffic collisions is informed by the good practices that the team learns in national and international competitions.

Following on from their successful 2022, where they were named UK champions in RTC Extrication, the team have recently been involved in feeding back to the National Fire Chiefs Council on their National Occupational Guidance on Road Traffic Collisions.

This competition win puts them in a good position for the National and World competitions later this year.

Article Published: 03/05/2023 11:04 AM