Monday, June 26, 2017

Jetty Rescue Drill 2017


The third Thursday of June is always the Jetty drill run by the Point Pleasant First aids dive team. Along with the first aid we also have the life guards from Jenkinsons beach patrol. With the official start of the summer just days away this drill helps coordinates the response of both the life guards and first aid to any emergencies on the jetty.

    With fishermen and bathers walking and fishing from the concrete jacks at the end of the jetty they don’t know how dangerous they can be. They can be very slippery and with the gaps between the jacks you can fall pretty far down in between the openings and some of the opening go down pretty far.

    The drill started out with the guards finding out how to move someone down the rocks on a back board. The back board is passed down a line of rescuers who are set in place down the rocks. This is done with a full size person on the board so they get a feeling for the real thing.



   After a few times moving the victim up and down the rocks. One of the squad’s instructors run through how a person is put on a backboard and how to lift and carry them. The dive team then shows everyone how to search the rocks, then the guards and first aiders are put in teams and sent out to find the victims who are hidden in the rocks.

  

 Once found the life guards and the first aiders work to recover the victim and get them up and out of the rocks and it’s not that easy. There is never enough room to work in and it’s never just a lift out. Here they get to use what they first learned, moving a victim across the rocks and in one case using lines to lift a victim strait up and then across the rocks.
 
 
victim found

 
 
 
last minute instruction before a victim lift

victim is up


 

and moved across the rocks   
A head count to make to sure everyone is accounted for

Point Pleasant First Aid and Dive Team and Jenkinsons Beach Patrol