On Monday afternoon the Lubbock Fire Rescue team beat the heat by doing some swift water rescue training exercises at the Lubbock Water Park Rampage wave pool.
Lt. Michael Eberle with the Lubbock Fire Dept. says the facility provides a great environment to put his men to the test.
“With the wave pool, we’re able to simulate some rescues and rescue victims from water. It’s not quite ‘swift’ water, but with the waves it’s still a challenge,” said Lt. Eberle. “It all requires teamwork, half our guys have to be on one side of the river, of the wave pool, and the others on the other side have to be tying their knots and then building a system one side of the other using a haul bag to throw it to the other side.”
It’s all apart of the team’s quarterly training, but LFR says there’s always something new for the crew to learn.
“It’s great to see our guys you know, constantly training getting better at their job. They’re always enthusiastic about learning new skills and just making themselves better at what they do so we can provide a better service to the citizens. So, it’s just fulfilling to see our guys out here really taking this to heart and working on it hard,” said Chief Steve Holland, the Lubbock Fire Department public information officer.
For some of the firefighters, it was their first time doing this type of training, but even then, that didn’t slow their instincts down from kicking in quick.
“We’ve learned a lot of good stuff, we train like we’re going in tomorrow,” said Evan Foxworth, an LFR Firefighter Paramedic.
Foxworth says while the training is fun, he and his fellow firefighters remember to focus in on the ultimate goal at the end of the day.
“You always take training very seriously because obviously one day, you’re going to have to actually do it with something else. While it is a lot of fun again we take it very seriously. When we’re on the little raft out there yes ma’am we pretend like it’s a victim in the water.”
The LFR will continue its swift water rescue training through Tuesday, June 21 at the park.
