Always striving to provide Lamar County and Paris residents with the best team possible, the Paris Fire Department recently sent six-team members to a Swift Water Rescue class earlier this month.
Up until recently, the closest taskforce for Swift Water Rescue was Gainsville. They did, however, stress that this process to become a Tech 1 team can take upwards of two years.
“From what we have been able to find about the process of becoming a tech team and also talking with other teams around the state, it is a two-year process to be state-certified as a tech 1 team,” said Deputy Chief Randy Crawford.
Driver Engineer Colt Holbert, along with firefighters, Monty Middleton, Caleb Michael, Darren Lane, Jordan Blackshear, Brian Ford, all attended the specialized training held in New Braunfels from Nov. 11-14.
“There is a need for the team here,” said Middleton.
“It’s not just lakes or rivers we can be called to; it could be flooded roads we see here in the city or swollen creeks that cross a road in the county. After this training, we know more about what we can do to help people and get them to safety if we are called out,” said Lane.
This newly formed team will work in the same manner of response as the Hazmat or Dive teams. The department mostly took two guys from each shift to go to the class. This enables the department to have at least two members of the team in a shift at any one time that has the ability to respond if a call comes in for Swift Water Rescue.
The team trained with Texas A&M Engineering TEEX Extension Service, and are well on their way to becoming tech certified.
Now having completed the course, which involved a lot of time in the water running simulated scenarios, the team said they would continue to train out of water skills such as knot tieing until they can get to another water training.
From knowing how to travel through water to understanding how best to catch a victim that has been swept away to a better understanding of water hydrology, the team said they are ready for any call that may come through and are looking forward to furthering their training.
“This course was very comprehensive in the training,” said Middleton.
The whole team said that even though they trained during the cold weather that presented the other week, they are confident in their abilities to respond in all kinds of situations.
“After training during the cold front, we are definitely aiming to get the team dry suites sooner rather than later,” said Ford.
Looking forward, the team is hoping to get six more guys certified, so the department will have two teams ready to launch at any time if required.
