Ekurhuleni firefighter selected to judge at World Rescue Competition
Based at Leon Ferreira Fire Station in Boksburg, Phillip Jacobus “PJ” Reid has been appointed a judge for the 2018 World Rescue Challenge to be held in Cape Town from October 21 to 26.
Ekurhuleni Disaster and Emergency Management Services (DEMS) crew commander, based at Leon Ferreira Fire Station in Boksburg, Phillip Jacobus “PJ” Reid has been appointed a judge for the 2018 World Rescue Challenge to be held in Cape Town from October 21 to 26.
The World Rescue Challenge is an international firefighters competition.
Reid will be one of five South Africans who will join 21 other assessors from around the globe for the challenge.
The World Rescue Challenge is the premier global rescue event and is hosted by World Rescue Organisation in a different country each year.
The 2018 edition will be co-hosted in conjunction with the South African Medical Rescue Organisation (SAMRO).
Teams compete in extricating a patient from a wreck of a vehicle at a staged accident scene and are assessed in three safety categories: incident commanding, technical rescue (using of tools to remove the patient from the vehicle) and on the medical techniques they use.
They will also be assessed on professionalism, speed and care.
The categories include general approach to the scene, survey of the scene, casualty care and assessment and communication among the team and the patient, and also the assessors.
The test is a timed event.
Reid stresses that although the main aim in an emergency is to extract the patient from danger, safety for emergency personnel involved is also key.
He says being selected as an assessor is the highlight of his career spanning 26 years, adding these kinds of competitions are good for training and having a readily deployable team of emergency personnel.
“My shift is already benefiting from it as we are currently doing training on how to extricate a patient from a motor vehicle accident safely and on time,” Reid says.
He adds mastering communication on the scene is one of the key things in emergency situations.
“Sometimes you get to a vehicle accident scene and find there is no one trapped but there is a person still sitting in the wrecked car.
“We constantly train our crew to know how to talk the patient out of such situations,” he says.
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