Pictured above is an extrication staged by Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service's firefighters as part of a public road safety event.
19 August 2008
A team from Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service is travelling to Scotland on Thursday to take part in a national event designed to showcase and improve firefighters’ skills at crash scenes.
It will be competing with colleagues from more than 40 other brigades in the annual United Kingdom Rescue Organisation Extrication Challenge at the University of Stirling.
On Friday, firefighters will use cutting equipment and specialised techniques to rescue a casualty from a road traffic collision scenario. The top 20 teams will compete in a more difficult challenge on Saturday.
The BFRS team comprises Steven King and Neil Hosier from Amersham Fire Station, Kevin Brown and Sam Barton from Chesham Fire Station and Craig Atkins from the Urban Search and Rescue team at Beaconsfield Fire Station.
Chief Fire Officer Damian Smith, who will be addressing a conference during the event, said: “The challenge brings together teams of rescue personnel who are committed both to displaying their ability and to expanding their practical skills by learning from and teaching others."
"The ethos is not merely to win the event - it is more about improving skills and being able to deliver an even better service to the public."
Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service finished 26th out of the 46 teams at last year’s event in Cardiff.
Watch Manager Dave Miller from Amersham Fire Station, who organises Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service’s participation in the event, said: “Although they just missed out on the final cut in 2007, the team represented our organisation in a very professional manner. The assessors were very impressed, not only by the standards demonstrated, but also by the massive steps forward our team has made since previous challenges.”
The Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 places a duty on fire and rescue services to train and respond to road traffic collisions, and to work in partnership with other organisations to reduce death on our roads.
Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service attends around 10,000 emergency incidents every year, of which about 500 are road traffic collisions. Of these, about 300 involve people who need to be released from a vehicle because they are trapped in it.
Firefighters also stage a number of public extrication displays every year to help reinforce road safety messages.