Crews test response – SES volunteer John Halls prepares to extract a victim from the wreckage. 55036

By Mara Pattison-Sowden
UPPER YARRA’S emergency services took part in a combined training day to test their rescue skills and leadership.
The road crash scenario played out at the Upper Yarra SES headquarters, where CFA volunteers played crash victims to test and obstruct rescuers.
Upper Yarra SES liaison officer Russell Wulf said the SES and CFA used to operate separately.
“Now we work together so well, even debriefing about jobs together,” he said.
“This really shows what every agency does – no one knows what’s going on until we get there.”
And a reporter from the Mail was also on hand at the Sunday 3 October exercise to portray an obtrusive journalist fighting for an exclusive story.
Members of Hillcrest CFA, Upper Yarra SES, Yarra Junction’s ambulance crew, and Red Cross first aiders attended the scene.
The volunteers had to await a triple zero call, before firing up their lights and sirens to arrive on the scene. There they found two crashed cars, a distraught bride on the way from her wedding, with an unconscious husband in the driver’s seat, two unconscious passengers in a second car, and three other victims wandering around aimlessly.
Volunteers were required to arrive at the scene, find people affected by the incident, extract crash victims from the wreckage and get them into an ambulance during the critical so-called ‘golden hour’.
The volunteers were debriefed afterwards at which they said that having to deal with distraught family members and the crash victims could be emotionally as well as physically exhausting.
One of the first volunteers on the scene said he found the situation stressful and chaotic until back up had arrived.
Hillcrest CFA captain Rick Shaw said each new unit on the scene should be actively liaising with the first-on-scene.
“Once an incident controller is named for each service, volunteers should be constantly going back to them for further instruction,” he said.
The volunteers spoke about how to deal with victims known to them, not being fearful of taking control of a situation, having a designated first aid area when there were a large number of patients and using the radio for back up.