Training for the uncommon: River rescue practice at Tolt | Slideshow

To do this job, you need not only the physical strength and ability to get someone out of danger, you need the creativity to think up the various ways people get themselves into trouble all the time. Members of the Eastside Fire & Rescue technical rescue teams spent a week recently honing all of these skills, at Tolt MacDonald Park in Carnation. Working in shifts, all 33 team members spent a day learning the ropes of the team’s new rescue raft, a two-man inflatable designed to allow rescuers to float (on water) or slide (on ice or snow) right up to a victim, and an afternoon practicing climbing skills at Carnation’s Tolt MacDonald Park.

By Carol Ladwig • December 18, 2012 5:42 pm
A rescuer with the Eastside Fire & Rescue technical rescue team supports his 'patient' with his legs as fellow rescue team members haul him to the top of the footbridge at Tolt MacDonald Park Friday
A rescuer with the Eastside Fire & Rescue technical rescue team supports his 'patient' with his legs as fellow rescue team members haul him to the top of the footbridge at Tolt MacDonald Park Friday

To do this job, you need not only the physical strength and ability to get someone out of danger, you need the creativity to think up the various ways people get themselves into trouble all the time.

Members of the Eastside Fire & Rescue technical rescue teams spent a week recently honing all of these skills, at Tolt MacDonald Park in Carnation. Working in shifts, all 33 team members spent a day learning the ropes of the team’s new rescue raft, a two-man inflatable designed to allow rescuers to float (on water) or slide (on ice or snow) right up to a victim, and an afternoon practicing climbing skills at Carnation’s Tolt MacDonald Park.

“A lot of the guys do this for fun, too,” said Kyle Houston, a North-Bend-based lieutenant and one of the officers in charge of the afternoon’s training exercise, rescuing a man whose bungee jump off the park’s footbridge didn’t go as planned.

“We train for the uncommon stuff.”