KAUFMAN COUNTY, Texas — Firefighters from the Terrell Volunteer Fire Department and the College Mound Volunteer Fire Department participated in a three-day Large Animal Rescue Operations training course in Cat Spring, Texas, over the weekend.
KAUFMAN COUNTY, Texas — Firefighters from the Terrell Volunteer Fire Department and the College Mound Volunteer Fire Department participated in a three-day Large Animal Rescue Operations training course in Cat Spring, Texas, over the weekend.
The course, which began as a partnership between the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, the Texas A&M Veterinary Emergency Team, and the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service (TEEX), focuses on large animal rescue incidents to better prepare front-line fire departments with the often challenging and potentially dangerous rescue operations.
Large animal rescue is considered a low frequency but high risk incident, according to TVFD Firefighter Terry Van Sickle Jr., who spoke with inForney.com following the course.
“The training is necessary to ensure the safety of the animal and emergency responders when dealing with large animals usually in precarious circumstances where special equipment and lifting systems are required,” Van Sickle said.
“It’s necessary to be prepared for these types of incidents and training is critical,” he said.
Although the frequency of a large animal rescue is considered low, Van Sickle says a livestock trailer rollover incident is a very real concern in Kaufman County where livestock-related activities remain high.
Following the 2013 U.S. Team Roping Championships in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, a truck hauling a horse trailer overturned on Interstate 20 in Terrell, Texas, which resulted in three team-roping horses being killed and another being injured.
Emergency personnel spent nearly three hours on rescue and recovery efforts during that incident.
Oftentimes, veterinarians will respond alongside firefighters in a large animal rescue incident — which was the case in the 2013 incident. Van Sickle says Kaufman County is lucky in that it has several well-trained veterinarians.
During the training course, firefighters underwent several training scenarios which involved the use of a specially-designed, life-like, 600-pound horse dummy. Scenarios included, among others, an entrapped horse in a pen, a horse hung up on a fence, and an entrapped horse under a cattle guard.
“Responder safety is of key importance during a rescue,” TEEX instructor David Rosier stated following a 2015 training course. “These animals may be aggressive, fearful, and even under the best of circumstances can accidentally injure an untrained rescuer.”
“And likewise, an untrained, would-be rescuer can unintentionally cause further injury or death to the animal,” stated Rosier.
“Individuals who have been trained to work safely around animals in emergency situations and who have the technical capabilities to perform complicated rescue procedures are less likely to sustain injuries themselves, and more likely to perform a successful rescue,” stated TEEX Instructor Dallas Renfrew.
Following the 20-hour course, the firefighters, five from TVFD and one from CMVFD, received a certificate of completion from the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service office.
Van Sickle says the firefighters who underwent training will likely respond as mutual aid to large animal rescue incidents throughout Kaufman County.
