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Lakes of the Four Seasons Volunteer Fire Force, Inc.

Proudly Serving Winfield Township, Town of Winfield in Lake County, and West Porter Township Fire Protection District in Porter County Indiana.

July 16, 2005: Several EMT students participated in the annual LOFS Water Rescue and Extrication class held at Station 1
on Saturday. The event is coordinated by Asst. Chief Kevin Radtke in cooperation with St. Anthony Medical Center. It's
goal is to prepare EMT students for water emergencies and auto extrications.

	The day begins in the classroom where students view several movies and a power-point presentation from the class coordinator Asst. Chief Kevin Radtke. This was the first class to be held in the technically advanced classroom of our new station.

	The students are taught the best techniques for rescuing a victim from a body of water. Here a victim is treated as though a head/neck injury is probable. The class also received hands-on training on assisting a scuba diver to the surface.

	Following water rescue training the class moved to the parking area of Station 1 for automobile crash and extrication training. Several identical stations were set up where victims were trapped and/or hidden in vehicles. The EMT students were then invited to evaluate the scene and treat patients appropriately.

	To make things interesting fire departments from around the area were invited to participate in the extrication. Each group of EMTs got their own fire department to aid in the treatment or extrication of victims.

	Treatment included treatment to victims inside the vehicle and after extrication in "real time". The idea is to give the students a sense of an actually accident with injuries and how these scenes require good communication and safe actions. Here a victim is extricated from a vehicle and prepared for transport to a hospital. For this victim the student chose to call a medical helicopter for transport.

	Here a medical helicopter lands at station 1 after being requested by a student to transport a critically injured patient to a trauma center for treatment.

	Following the hands-on training the helicopter staff lectures the class on proper techniques for requesting a helicopter transport, preparing the landing zone, assisting the staff, and loading for transport.