OCFRD conducts water rescue training in Windermere

Through the end of September, the Orange County Fire Rescue Department is conducting water rescue training for the entire department Monday through Friday on Lake Bessie in the town of Windermere.

With the busy summer season in full swing, Brandon Allen, lieutenant of Water Rescue Programs for the OCFRD, said the department wants to make sure everyone is properly trained to respond to any type of water rescue emergency. 

Allen said the department tries to get in large-scale training such as this every two years, but when it comes to rescue divers, those individuals train with him throughout the year, because they have to complete 24 hours of in-water training a year.

Allen said there are 87 square miles of water in Orange County alone, and the department tries to utilize different locations for training so rescuers can have experience with a wide range of areas to which they could be responding. He said the team gets called to three to four water rescue calls a month in the county.

“It’s quite a lot when you think about us being a landlocked county; it’s not like we’re on the ocean,” he said. “We’re trying to impress upon our firefighters that these calls can happen anytime and anywhere. This training saves lives.”

ADDING TOOLS TO THE TOOL KIT  

The OCFRD alone includes more than 1,500 members. 

Allen, who knew he wanted to be a firefighter since he was young, has been with the department for almost 21 years, although he grew up in southern California. 

As he was preparing to enter the field, he said, being hired as a firefighter in the area was very competitive, and he decided to make the move to Orlando to pursue his career.

“I didn’t really think about Orange County as a department at the time, but now being here for close to 21 years, I have been able to see the benefits of being with such a large department,” he said. “Here at OCFRD, we like to say we’re an all-hazards department, so when you call 911 it doesn’t matter what your emergency is, because we’ve got people who are going to be able to take care of it. A lot of small departments, while they’re great departments, don’t have the ability to have a 200-person dive-rescue team. They don’t have the ability to have a team that’s specialized to rescue people off the Orlando Eye. Those are only things you get with a big department, and I think that’s one of the things that has kept me here and kept my interest for so long. You can specialize in so many different things, and there’s lots of opportunities to learn. I couldn’t have picked a better spot to fall into.”

Skills taught during the training include rescue boat operations, response to drowning emergencies and a simulated car in the water. 

Firefighters also are learning how to use side-scan sonar for detecting and imaging objects in the water, practicing using a LUCAS device to provide mechanical chest compressions on manikins, and learning about different types of tourniquets used to apply pressure to a limb or extremity to create ischemia or stop the flow of blood.

In addition, Allen said the training team has been focusing on educating the firefighters on seven new marine tandem units, which the county invested in this year to increase its fleet of boats.

“In years past, we would mostly just focus on the practical skills, and EMS would be a side component that we wouldn’t really address,” he said. “We realized that every call, no matter if it’s a fire call or water rescue call, it’s an EMS call, because there’s usually a patient involved. We’ve now incorporated EMS into every single one of our drills. It doesn’t matter if we’ve got the best divers and the best rescuers in the world and we make all these efforts to get the victims out onto the land if our EMS and our patient care isn’t where it needs to be.”

Juan Rodriguez, who has been with the OCFRD for 22 years, said the biggest lesson he learned was the many different tactics that can be used on a water rescue call, such as passing command, if needed, for a rescue attempt. 

“It was also great to have an EMS component in the mix, and the setup of practice stations was also helpful,” he said. “Great class, and I feel that it can be beneficial to have this training more often.”

Amber Lugo, who has been with the OCFRD for 10 years, agreed the training is essential. 

“Training scenarios like this emphasize the importance of readiness and quick rescue efforts,” she said. “Orange County has an abundance of resources and equipment available, and it’s our job to utilize them efficiently.”

Although Allen said the department is throwing a lot of information at the firefighters in a series of long and hot hours on the lake, the skills being taught are invaluable when it comes to emergency situations.

“Even if they just take away two or three things to add to their tool box, then I feel like we’ve done our job here,” he said. “I trust that when they get these calls that they’ll remember and be more confident in their abilities to do the job that people trust us to do.”