Oldcastle firemen take part in World Rescue Challenge

A team of firefighters from Oldcastle will take part in the annual World Rescue Challenge in Cork city this weekend, where fire and emergency personnel from around the world will compete in road traffic collision challenges over three days. This is the 12th year of the event but the first time it will ever be held in Ireland. Last year, the World Rescue Challenge took place in Germany and next year it will be in New Zealand. Senior assistant chief fire officer of Meath County and Fire Rescue Service, Pádraig " Longaigh is secretary of Rescue Organisation Ireland, which is bringing the event to Cork in association with the World Rescue Organisation. The aim of Rescue Organisation Ireland is to promote best practice and improve the overall performance/technical response of fire rescue crews when dealing with road traffic collisions. Oldcastle will represent Meath and Rescue Organisation Ireland for the first time after finishing third in the Irish National Challenge in Sligo earlier this year. A team from Ashbourne finished fourth and narrowly missed out on also attending. The Oldcastle team members are sub officer Paul Colleran, firefighters Val Reilly, John Hetherton, Nicky Brunton and Dary Farrelly, and Ashbourne firefighter David Snowe. Their team manager is senior assistant chief fire officer Barry Quinn. Other Meath Fire Service personnel will also be involved. Ashbourne Fire Brigade sub officer Declan Cassidy will be a challenge assessor/judge and five local firefighters will be part of the 'pit crews' at the event: Paul Foley (Dunshaughlin station officer), Richie Faulkner (Navan firefighter), Brian Rogers (Navan firefighter), Dermot McCormack (Nobber firefighter), and Brian Byrne (Ashbourne firefighter). "The World Rescue Challenge sees the top national rescue teams compete annually in an event designed to challenge emergency service personnel and raise awareness of the global problem of road death and injury," said Mr "'Longaigh. Firefighters train for these events in order to improve fire and rescue service response to incidents on our roads." The challenge typically comprises of an extrication event and a trauma event. Some 50 teams from USA, Spain, England, Scotland, Wales, France, Luxemburg, South Africa, Hungary, Poland, Ghana, Russia, Germany, Australia, Malta and Ireland will take part over the three days. There will also be three days of workshops to tap into the skills and knowledge of the international fire and rescue personnel attending. Mr "'Longaigh explained that each extrication team consists of five members, plus a sub: the incident commander, medic, two technical rescue personnel and one person responsible for operational support. All the teams will have to compete in three evolutions over the three days: Standard, where a casualty must be freed from the vehicle within a 20-minute time limit; Complex, where two casualties must be freed from vehicles within a 30-minute time limit; Rapid, where a casualty whose condition has deteriorated must be freed from the vehicle within a 10-minute time limit. Each day there will be three 'pits' running concurrently within which each team strives to achieve their challenge within the allocated time. Three international WRO (World Rescue Organisation) assessors at each 'pit' observe and mark the team to standardised format/marking sheets on: the incident commander, the medic and the technical team. The top three teams in each discipline and then overall for the event are announced at the closing ceremony which will be held on Sunday night, 5th September. The aim of the 'Trauma Challenge' is to assess the EMT skills of professional firefighters in trauma situations. Some 20 international teams will participate in this event which allows a team of two personnel to deal with a simulation of a trauma incident using live casualties, critiqued by World Rescue Organisation assessors. Firefighters are assessed on their life saving skill during each 10 minute, trauma based scenario which focuses on developing and promoting the life support skills of rescue personnel who must fill the therapeutic vacuum until further medical help arrives. There will be two evolutions per team over two days. The top three teams will then be announced at the closing ceremony.