A PERSON has fallen off a cliff and requires emergency medical attention. Paramedics are unable to access the patient. This is a scenario when a specialised rope rescue crew from Ballarat City Fire Brigade would perform a high angle rescue, using up to 200 metres of rope.
Senior Station Officer Scott Gambino led a training exercise with staff from Ballarat City on Saturday.
Crews from the station respond to rope rescues across the state as far as the South Australian border.
“This is a high angle technical rescue using rope systems to respond to patients in hard to reach areas, such as cliffs,” Mr Gambino said.
“We are simulating the rescue down a steep embankment that ambulance crews can’t get to.
“(Once we reach the patient) we load them up in a stretcher and haul them up.”
“A team of nine firefighters set up the ropes … responding to this is quite rare so we get out and train as much as we can.”
Firefighters from Ballarat City support Geelong City, Warrnambool and volunteers from Hamilton Fire Brigade with rope rescue.
