By Katie Humphrey
Austin American-Statesman (Texas)
Copyright 2006 The Austin American-Statesman
All Rights Reserved
They could hear him, but they couldn’t see him.
When a 39-year-old man fell off a cliff into Blue Hole Park in March, Georgetown firefighters had to rappel down the bluff face to find the victim and then get help from STAR Flight to hoist the man to the surface.
The rescue was successful; the man escaped with a fractured leg. But it underscored a training area where Georgetown firefighters say they need to beef up: finding and rescuing people along the hike-and-bike trails that snake along the bluffs of the San Gabriel River and Lake Georgetown.
“With the terrain that we have, the wilderness rescues are something we need,” said firefighter Craig Owen, who assisted in the March rescue at Blue Hole.
At the time, there were only three firefighters trained to do rappelling rescues. To be better prepared, 12 firefighters from Station No. 2 took to the cliffs behind Georgetown Hospital last week to learn how to use a web of ropes, knots and pulleys to help victims in hard-to-reach places.
Rappelling rescues aren’t particularly common, but the firefighters said they have responded to at least two calls at parks this summer that required wilderness rescue skills.
In one scenario, the firefighters rappelled down the approximately 60-foot rock face, strapped a 175-pound dummy to a gurney and raised the victim to the surface.
In another, the firefighters rigged a pulley system that allowed them to support the gurney as they walked it up the rocky trail and others pulled from above.
In a real emergency, it’s more likely that firefighters would access a victim by trail because it is faster than setting up rappelling equipment, said Lt. Mike Williams of the Austin Fire Department, who led the five-day training. But in a city like Georgetown with many river bluffs and parks, rappelling skills are essential, he said.
“We tell them to keep it simple,” Williams said. “But if they ever have to use the complex system, they can.”
Lt. Carl Boatright of the Georgetown Fire Department said the firefighters plan to practice their newly acquired rope rescue skills about once a month. That’s in addition to the department’s required firefighting, medical and hazardous materials training. But firefighters such as Owen say it’s worth the extra training because rope rescues allow them to reach people in isolated areas.
“It’s something you have to want to do,” Owen said. “There’s not a whole lot of people who want to do rescues and dangle off ropes.”