CRASH responders will bring decades of direct emergency response experience and a deep commitment to the fire-rescue service. As local residents and first responders, they will already be intimately familiar with the region’s terrain, hazards, challenges, and emergency responses. Guided by their passion for saving lives and protecting public safety, they will bring the highest level of professional response capabilities and knowledge to scene and participate however they can to improve the response or where their specialized capabilities are most needed and beneficial. They are only present to add depth of capacity, capabilities, and expertise to a response situation, not to replace other agencies.
CRASH intends to provide this service to all of the region and its existing first response agencies at NO COST. The CRASH Team is registering as a non-profit organization and its crew will use donations only to provide their services.
Our Services
Specialized Emergency Response Assistance
Local Preparedness & Hazard Monitoring
Specialized Response Training
The CRASH Team Specialist Responders
What is a “Specialist”?
A specialist in the world of first response is someone who has completed all general professional level certifications within their service (fire, ambulance, emergency management, etc.) and then taken on a specific discipline to become more proficient in and developed advanced capabilities.
They dedicate hundreds or thousands of hours to training and learning more of their chosen skillset to become highly specialized and achieve an expertise in said discipline. They attend courses and responses that they can apply their skills to frequently and acquire unique experience that sets them apart from other responders.
*they also often have hobbies that involve aspects of their specialty to get even more experience informally (ex. whitewater paddlers may gravitate to swiftwater rescues and flood response)
For example, much like a doctor completes medical school, they can then focus on general medicine, or choose a specialty to focus on and training more in, becoming a specific type of medical doctor. The same approach applies to first responders and their options for focusing on the traditional skillsets, or focusing in on a specific skillset and response type.
CRASH TEAM SPECIALTY CAPABILITIES
Collapse zone & unstable terrain rescue & response
Swiftwater, flood and whitewater rescue & response
Mass casualty and large area impact event response
Technical terrain, rope and vertical rescue & response
Complex extrication response
Wildland urban interface response
The CRASH team will maintain skillsets in both professional firefighting and more technical fire-rescue disciplines that will target specific hazards in the region. More and more frequently, responses complexities and severe hazards require capabilities beyond those currently readily available in the region - these are the skills the CRASH Team targets specifically retain for use in the region.
Advanced capabilities will include:
Advanced flood and swiftwater rescues (including night and canyon operations, extreme whitewater and class IV rapid rescue swimming and rescue boat operations, submersed vehicle stabilization, access, and rescues in extreme waterways).
Complex extrications including vertical terrain, collapse zones, and in unstable vehicles, rubble and slide debris using heavy rescue equipment, lifting and extrication tools.
Wildland urban interface fire tactics - to provincial task force leader level, involving rapid evacuations, fire suppression and mitigation tactics, and wildfire command skills.
Vertical, confined space, and mountain-terrain rope rescue technician skills and tactical operations, to operate in unstable terrain, toxic environments, and move casualties and equipment.
Large scale multi-casualty incident response, triage, coordination and command.
Advanced field medicine and custom skills (penetrating wounds, crush injuries, environmental injuries, etc.) with medical director control and focus on advanced interventions in extreme environments.
Shoring, navigating and operating in unstable structures and environments for extrication and rescues.
Mountain terrain navigation and access including rock and ice climbing, boat, ground and air access.
These are skills that are imperative when needed, but are not always practical for local agencies to obtain and maintain. The CRASH Team will be able to offer these capabilities for free to local resources when they are needed most to improve patient outcomes and responder safety.
The CRASH Team will be specially trained and equipped to respond to uniquely challenging emergency situations that can be especially complex and/or dangerous for all first responders. These situations often involve:
Rescues and patient extrications in highly technical and challenging environments including rapidly flowing remote rivers, debris-filled swift water flood waters, narrow vertical canyons experiencing flash flooding.
Rescues, medical interventions, and extrications from deep ravines and vertical cliffs (often requiring rope access and involving vehicles with trapped people and/or large animals)
Rescues and response interventions during inclement weather events, at night in darkness, with limited or no additional support available, and with unknown complicating factors.
Stabilization, rapid location, and rescues/extrications from collapsed buildings, debris slides or rock falls, or unstable tornado impact zones.
Rapid fire interventions and evacuation of people from fast moving wildland fires and wildland urban interface fires.
Responses involving dangerous wildlife such as bear attacks
Responses into remote and complex terrain including mountainous backcountry during inclement weather
Responses requiring advanced medical interventions in the field without EMS/STARS support
Mass Casualty Incidents including tornadoes, floods, fires, vehicle accidents, intentional acts, other accidents, etc.
These types of emergency situations, and many others, are occurring with greater frequency in the remote west-central region of Alberta. This is why this team of fire-rescue professionals will be tactfully located in the heart of this high-hazard region, ready to respond immediately and assist with their unique and targeted skillsets 24/7.
Emergency Response Assistance
The CRASH Team will also be fully qualified, prepared and available to potentially assist in routine fire-rescue emergency responses such as:
structure and vehicle fires
ice and swiftwater rescues
medical first responses
wildland fires
motor vehicle accidents
rescues
all other fire-service calls
This would depend on the request and require formal arrangement, but could benefit fire departments and other emergency response agencies when local they are over-extended (which can happen on busy days, staffing challenges, or large-scale incidents) by:
providing additional personnel resources, fully trained in all NFPA and fire service courses.
improving response times (the Team can deploy within 60 seconds from station; compared to 8 minutes average for volunteer responders; or 1 - 6 hours for specialty responders)
The small team of fully qualified firefighters and rescue specialists aims to be available full-time to assist local emergency response agencies including Fire Departments, RCMP, EMS and other agencies including STARS, SAR, Parks Canada, COs and Wildlife Officers whenever their expertise and skillsets could be useful.
Additional CRASH Activities
When not assisting with emergency responses and conducting training, the CRASH Team would be undertaking local hazards monitoring and preparedness activities within the region.
-
Working with agencies to ensure capabilities compliment and support one another’s and gaps in response are identified and addressed to ensure improved overall emergency response.
-
Work with local residents and resources, towns and municipalities to address existing and emerging regional hazards and ensure response plans are holistic, up to date, and adequate.
-
The Team will continuously monitor local conditions to raise and maintain public and responder awareness of developing situations. This would help all area users and resources be prepared and ready prior to hazard-related emergencies developing.
-
By hosting a variety of training opportunities with responders, residents, and area users, the Team can help improve local preparedness - shifting from reactive responses to proactive activities and local empowerment.
Activities will include:
The CRASH Team intends to be available full-time to assist in empowering the region’s public on how they can also help and protect themselves.
The CRASH Team aims to:
conduct drills and exercises such as evacuations, with residents and area users and existing response agencies.
host awareness training to educate local public regarding the existing and emerging hazards they face in the region, how they can protect themselves.
Cross-train and exercise with existing response agencies to improve response coordination and collaboration - as well as offer training opportunities in CRASH specialist skillsets to share knowledge, expertise, and expand first responder opportunities.
Specialized Response Training
First response training courses are expensive and time consuming, making them less attainable or inaccessible for all responders to obtain and maintain. Additionally, because some of the more advanced skills are not always used or required on routine responses, they can be difficult to justify investing in. This is especially true amoungst response agencies who may have a high turn over rate and rely on random availability of individuals to be able to respond to calls.
By being able to maintain and continue specialist training, the CRASH Team members can then also begin to teach, share and show local responders some of these skills and techniques that may be especially practical and useful to know during even routine responses - such as improved water-rescue techniques specifically catered to their local river characteristics, and basic shoring tactics to allow for safer access and stabilization during building collapse rescues. CRASH members may also be able to create custom training for hazards and skills that currently do not get addressed in existing courses - such as tornado and mass casualty responses.
As a charity, the CRASH Team would offer this training at no cost to local resources - allowing for more people to learn valuable skills and build more capable and robust local response resources. These training initiatives would help improve overall first responder safety throughout the region and ultimately, improve patient outcomes and public protection.
