By BECKY THOMAS
Staff Reporter
It's not often in Cheney that someone falls down a manhole or gets stuck atop a grain elevator.
When it does happen, a rescue requires special equipment to do it right. Thanks to grants, the Cheney Fire Department has the equipment and the training to rescue someone trapped in a space that is small or hard to access.
Lt. Ken Johnson said there were three incidents over the last 15 years when rescuers could have used a rescue basket to lower someone from a height or a tripod and pulley system to pull a victim from a tunnel. Johnson said firefighters were lucky to complete a rescue in those tricky episodes.
“They could have used it and there were more incidences where it could have helped but we ended up muscling things, just making it work,” he said.
“Muscling” a rescue can open up the victim to further injury if things go wrong, Johnson said, and it leaves the city vulnerable to lawsuits.
“It benefits the community and the people we're going to be rescuing because we are well-trained, we have the proper equipment and we know what we're doing,” Fire Chief Mike Winters said. “We're not taking unnecessary risks with their lives.”
Johnson, the fire department's resident grant wizard, was successful in two grant applications to obtain the equipment and training. A $20,000 life safety grant from the USDA, with a 50 percent match from the city, paid for the equipment, including a rescue basket, roll up stretcher, harnesses and numerous ropes, pulleys and carabiners. A training grant from the International Association of Fire Fighters paid for three instructors to travel to Cheney to teach them confined spaces rescue techniques.
The training took place in areas where a tight rescue could occur, including the wastewater treatment facility, ADM grain towers, sewer manholes and the miles of tunnels beneath Eastern Washington University.
“The instructors were amazed at all the places in Cheney (for confined spaces rescue),” Winters said.
Winters said the training wasn't mandatory, but about 80 percent of the Cheney squad participated and were paid for their time. He said Cheney's public safety committee deemed the training worth the overtime paid to those who participated.
Following the severe injury of city employee Cory Janssen in July, Winters said city officials are more aware of the possibility of uncommon accidents and the demand of the Fire Department to do more than fight fires.
“That sort of opened people's eyes to the potential threats we have around here,” he said.
Johnson pointed out that grants are often the only way for the department to fund new equipment. Shrinking budgets have forced the department to get creative with funding and sometimes making do with outdated equipment.
“Like everybody else, we do more with less,” he said.
But thanks to the recent grants, the Cheney Fire Department's tightening budget hasn't stopped the department from being prepared to rescue someone in a tight spot.
Becky Thomas can be reached at [email protected].
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