Skills competition prepares first responders for disaster
Rescue skills competition is action-packed, but no one forgets what’s really at stake, explains Nadia Moharib.
Emergency rescue crews will sit anxiously in lock-up waiting for “disaster” to unfold. And when it does, the games begin.
Teams of emergency responders from mines all over Saskatchewan showcase and practise their lifesaving talents in Saskatoon for one dynamic day on June 3 in the 49th Emergency Response and Mine Rescue Skills Competition.
As spectators arrive at the Prairieland Park grounds, teams will be isolated from each other to ensure the competition is fair. Teams will go into each emergency scenario with only sketchy details and just moments to prepare.
It’s a whole lot like real life, only no one gets hurt.
“There are no cellphones, just you and everybody else sitting in a room waiting to be called out,” says past competitor Cole Bellefeuille, now a safety specialist/security supervisor with the Mosaic Company Belle Plaine potash mine.
“It’s pretty competitive, so the adrenalin is going. It’s the calm before the storm.”
This year Mosaic Belle Plaine is sending a seven-member surface rescue team to the competition, which has both mock underground and surface rescue scenarios.
The seven individuals are part of the 25-person emergency response team that is prepared year-round to protect workers at the job site just west of Regina. It is an exceptionally capable crew that trains two days a month to maintain its status.
Two weeks before competition, however, they will put aside the daily grind to train nine hours a day so they can gear up for the action-packed event.
Jeff Price, environmental, health and safety manager at Mosaic Belle Plaine, says the competition is an opportunity to demonstrate skills related to potential on-the-job dangers in a pressure-packed, but safe, environment.
“It’s a very well-run competition,” Price says. “The people who set it up are very passionate about it. The judges are very involved and give lots of feedback.”
Teams can expect to be confronted with everything from having to pull a patient from a burning building (there’s a smoke machine at the event) to roping rescue workers out of confined spaces and administering first aid to patients suffering from simulated head injuries and bleeding.
Although each emergency is make-believe, spectators can be sure that every effort is made to make it look like the real deal.
“It’s the closest thing we can simulate to an emergency without having an emergency,” Bellefeuille says. “Last year, they had severed fingers in the trash can. Obviously, it’s fake, but there are props that go into it.”
Key to the event’s success is the fact planning begins a year in advance, says Tracey Irwin, Saskatchewan Mining Association communications manager.
And the dramatic, lifelike demonstrations speak to the passion behind the organizers, including volunteers, who make the annual attraction happen.
“St. John Ambulance works with us and they do a fantastic job with casualties,” Irwin says. “They definitely don’t take it lightheartedly at all.”
Unlike real life, however, many of the events are timed, ramping up the rush of rivalry to take home the win for top rescue teams.
“It’s like a football or hockey team — you do all this training and you want to be the best,” Bellefeuille says. “There are bragging rights on the line.”
While competition is fun, many say being on the emergency response team at their workplace is an honour.
“It sounds cheesy, but I joined because of the sense of wanting to help in an emergency situation and working with like-minded people,” says Bellefeuille who has been on his job-site team for four years.
As for the Emergency Response/ Mine Rescue Skills Competition, Bellefeuille says the only thing better than being there as a spectator is being a participant.
“It’s like getting to do really cool things with really great guys,” he says. “And when you are done, you are very proud of all the training and showcasing all the work we put in throughout the year.”
Last year, the Belle Plaine site was runner-up in the surface category.
The winners were PotashCorp Patience Lake in the surface category and PotashCorp Lanigan in the underground category.
While safety in the mining industry is serious stuff, the free event is about fun for the whole family, with lots of activities from face-painting to a computerized, simulated firefighting event for youngsters.
The competition is the final event for Saskatchewan Mining Week, which runs May 28 to June 3, 2017.
It’s the closest thing we can simulate to an emergency without having an emergency. Last year, they had severed fingers in the trash can ...