On Saturday and Sunday April 22 & 23, 2023 Boyertown Area Fire & Rescue Special Operations Division hosted the Trench Rescue I class through Bucks County Public Safety. Bob Zoltewicz, Captain Scranton Fire Department and Scranton Fire Chief John Judge were the instructors for the class. There was a mixture of BAF&R members, Firefighters from Eastern Berks Fire and a Lieutenant from Western Berks Fire in attendance. Several seasoned BAF&R Special Operations members also attended both to assist and refresh skills.
The weekend started with several hours of classroom followed by an afternoon of two groups switching between patient packaging in trench emergencies and strut building and placement outside the trench preparing for practical work the next day.
The second day was all work in a live open trench. Crews worked all day setting trench panels and installing pneumatic, wood, and screw jack shoring methods. After lunch the crews installed the Paratech Whaler system and were able to remove some of the previously installed struts to be able to package and remove a victim that was in the bottom of the trench.
The weekend was very labor intensive and all personnel were able to participate and went away from the class with the knowledge of basic sheeting and shoring in the event of a trench emergency. Some of the personnel attending are taking the first steps in training to become a Special Operations Member with B.A.F. & R. and respond to tech rescue emergencies. The Special Operations Division is already planning additional trench classes along with structural collapse classes in the future.
All the equipment utilized in the class is carried on Collapse 95 and Collapse 95-1 from the Special Operations Division. All lunch and refreshments were supplied through Support Trailer 95 which is also listed as an asset on our Special Operations Division. This was the first test to see how self supportive our group can be in a deployment and we are pleased with the outcome.
A special thanks for all attendees and persons and organizations involved for permissions, inspections, and Sacks & Son Excavating for digging and filling in the trench for the class.
