Firefighters bring home back-to-back second-place finishes from North American Vehicle Rescue Challenge
A team of firefighters from the Woods Harbour/Shag Harbour Fire Department brought home second- place finishes in two of the three competitions at the North American Vehicle Rescue Challenge in East Patchogue, New York.
Billy Kenney, Jody Goreham, Scott Bubar, Gordie Ross, Shannon Newell and Ricky Banks claimed second spot in Limited and Unlimited Pits’ challenges last month. The defining factor between the pits is the availability of rescue tools. The Limited Pit presents only hand and pneumatic tools, and the Unlimited pit makes available all rescue tools, including heavy hydraulic rescue equipment. The teams have 20 minutes to safely extricate an entrapped patient (mannequin) from a simulated vehicle collision.
“All-in-all it was a good tournament. The best that we’ve had,” said Ross, who is the fire chief.
“We thought we’d done well maybe third or an honorable mention - but two second places back-to-back that was a surprise to some. We’ve put a lot into it, so I
guess it’s starting to come around for us.”
Twelve teams from Canada and the U.S. participated in the vehicle rescue challenge, which is
a Transportation Emergency Rescue Committee (TERC) USA and TERC Canada sanctioned event. The third pit challenge was Rapid Pit. It is open to all tools, but the
teams only have 10 minutes to safely extricate the patient from the scenario. Ross said the team did fairly well in that challenge too.