Sunday, June 2, 2024

Nature:  Water Rescue Training Curriculum – Course Completions

Over the past month, various first responders of the Indian River Volunteer Fire Company pursued their additional training aspirations to become familiar and certified with the Delaware State Fire School (DSFS) Water Rescue Training Curriculum as well as Rescue Boat Operations.

The water rescue operations included both classroom and live training evolutions in the Dagsboro-Millsboro (Cupola Park – Sussex County) area and the rescue boat operations were conducted Minquadale (Delaware River – New Castle County) area.

The Water Rescue 1 is a land-based course is the beginning of a sequential Water Rescue Training Program to make all interested emergency service per­sonnel aware of problems and solutions regarding water rescue operations. This course covers safety, self-survival, communications, support groups, equipment and tech­niques, the dive rescue team, knots and shore-based rescue.  In-water evolutions will be held on the second day of course.

The Water Rescue II is a water-based course is designed to enhance what was learned in Water Rescue I and to continue offering information regarding water rescue techniques. Incident evaluation, towing, legal requirements, rules of the road, navigational aids, trailering and search and rescue response are covered in this course.

The Rescue Boat is a course designed for emergency service personnel who maintain and operate rescue boats to ensure they are familiar with the various bodies of water, access points, marinas and shore points within their assigned area of responsibility allow­ing the safest and most timely response during an emergency situation. This course covers area familiarization, preplanning, boat handling, understanding weather and tide, hydrodynamics, charting and plotting, victim retrieval, towing and medical conditions that pertain to water rescues.

Illustrated herewith are various photographs of the course participants and their efforts to become certified with water rescue operations.

The Indian River Volunteer Fire Company acknowledges the host companies for conducting such courses as well as the Delaware State Fire School for their instructional program.