Hi everyone,
The last week or two have been fairly orange-heavy. As that’s one of the more exciting parts of
my life I’m doing a recap (it’ll be embed-heavy I’m afraid).
The other Monday one of the unit’s Deputy Controllers and I
borrowed a truck from the SES’s regional office and drove up to Wagga
Wagga. There was a furniture dealer
there who was selling some second-hand office furniture which would be ideal
for the unit’s overhauled Operations Room.
He was keen to be rid of it and we bought about $3,000.00 worth of
material for about $600.00. It felt kind
of surreal to be in a delivery truck with lights and sirens fitted; we spent
part of the drive hoping we’d come across a road crash so we could turn up on
scene in the most unlikely of vehicles!
On Thursday two of the Deputy Controllers and I went to do
some community education for the pre-schoolers at a daycare in Mooroopna. So, we explained (very basically – the way
you do for 3-4 year olds) what SES does, and how you can be safe near floodwater,
and so on. It went pretty well, although
I think the nicest part was when the kiddies went out to have a look at the
truck and all the things on it. There
was one little girl, maybe 3 years old, who was shy and didn’t want to be
involved and cuddling up to one of the daycare workers. I smiled at her and tried to show her some
brightly coloured e-flares, but she wasn’t interested. Then one of the DC’s fired up the lights and
sirens on the truck and her face absolutely lit up in the biggest smile you’ve
ever seen. After that she wanted to
climb up into the cabin and look at what was in all the lockers. Who’d have thought that a howling siren would
be what she’d love?!
The Unit itself is doing well. We had a sensational attendance at last week’s
training – about 15 people which is basically our entire active
membership. The exercise that night was
cribbing-and-lifting, a technique for extricating a casualty from underneath a
collapse. Whatever is crushing the
casualty has to be lifted without overbalancing or tipping (dangerous for both
the casualty and rescuers). It’s lifted
at three different points with some combination of a high-lift jack, an
inflatable airbag and a hydraulic spreader.
Further, cribbing (blocks) have to be put in underneath the load so that
if it falls it only drops a minute distance (also for the safety of the
casualty and the rescuers). Managing a
safe lift and effective cribbing requires very strong co-operation and
communication between the 6+ members of the crew. The team did a great job in training and it
was sensational to see everyone from the newer members to the veterans working
as one.
The weather’s been crummy lately and the low ground near the
road at the farm is underwater – the other day it was nearly over the road as
well -
On Friday the weather got even crummier and resulted in a
couple of callouts at about 2200. The
three Deputy Controllers and I turned out.
The first job was to tarp a leaking roof in Tatura for an elderly lady
(she was surprisingly happy that we dug up part of her garden to fill sandbags
– she said we’d weeded it for her!). The
second was to go out to Byrneside and cut up a tree that had fallen across part
of the path of the Midland Highway. The
tree itself was old and dry and pretty hard – I understand that a truck had it
hit and kept going; he must have been pretty keen because I think he hit it
hard. It was a satisfying job to attend
though – solved with chainsaw and muscle.
I got home that night at about 0100 on Saturday morning.
On Sunday I had a really satisfying piece of community
education to do. A Unit member’s son was
having a 9th birthday party.
The lad is obsessed with SES, and he’d specifically asked if the truck
could come over. So, come over we
did. I gave him one of our plastic
helmets – the ones that are issued to probationary members – and he was
stoked. We gave him and his mates a tour
of the truck and let them climb through the cabin and sit in the driver’s
seat. They were good kids and well
behaved – they didn’t touch the radio or the sirens, and the only mishap was
one of them accidentally bumping the siren button when he was moving
around. I discovered that you can keep
kids entranced for an hour-plus with casualty-handling drills. I showed them how to log-roll a casualty and
move them onto a spineboard, and then to put them into a stokes litter and
carry it, with one person controlling the head and neck and giving the orders. The kids were super excited to take turns
playing at being the casualty and controlling the neck and everything. I wish I could get our members that excited
about casualty-handling drills!
Today was perhaps the sharper end of SES life. My pager went off at about 0430 to advise of
a person trapped following a road accident.
As the accident turned out to be a fatality, I don’t think I should go
blathering on about my personal view of it.
The summary released by Victoria Police sums it up well enough -
Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding a fatal collision which occurred in Harston. It is believed the two cars collided on Tatura-Rushworth Road just before 4.30am. The male driver of the ute has been transported to hospital with serious injuries. The male driver of the light truck was transported to hospital but died a short time later. Major Collision Investigation Unit detectives are investigating the cause of the collision.
The Shepparton News has shared some footage of the scene
about daybreak, which is about when we left the scene.
The only personal comment I’ll make is that I’m very sorry
the chap died. I hope, perhaps, that it
was some comfort to him in those terrible moments to know that as soon as
things went bad, people really, really wanted to help him.
So there you have it: my life in orange. Sometimes you do things that are awesome,
like teaching children or helping the elderly.
Sometimes you do go out to jobs that are sad. But everytime you do something, you know
you’ve got a good chance of making a difference when someone is having the
worst day of their life.
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