Quick its quiet.....!

Wednesday 27th May 2009

 

Yes, i have noticed my blogs are lagging behind a little. Exam time turns me into abit of a space cadet. But i think the title of my blog says it all. The Footscray Unit is definitely embracing the quiet months to madly train train train and prepare ourselves for the next extreme weather event. There are some awesome training courses coming up for VICSES vols, which i have had the pleasure of attending in the past. This Sunday i finally fulfil my goal of doing USAR Cat 1! For those of you who don’t know USAR stands for Urban Search & Rescue Category 1. These courses are not run too often and are part of advance skills for vols.

THEN there are the lucky ones who get to do USAR Cat 2 which is searching in confined spaces, building cribbing the size of a house etc! If you watch the rescue of Steward Diver, thats the USAR Cat 2 operators. There are only about 30 VICSES vols who are trained in this. You can understand why when its a 3 1/2 week run course with a 48hr exercise. Hopefully i have my hours correct =/ please correct me if i am wrong =) 

 

BIG NEWS!!!The Footscray Unit put forward 12 members to be assessed in General Rescue, which is the training required by all operational members for call outs. They all were deemed competent, and i must say they KICKED ARSE! They were all consistent in each 3 stand scenarios that were set up. The first stand involves a person who has been electrocuted and fallen off his ladder. Second stand is constructing a Z-pulley rig and bringing casualty in a stretcher up a slight incline. The third stand involves lifting a heavy object using hydraulic equipment; hi lift jack and cribbing as you go. They all trained hard for weeks, and it paid off. Well done Sean Lonergan, David Dhu, Chris Varley, Sarah Haouchar, Marion Petersen, Nick Tait, Marty O'Hely, Jayant Baliga, Peter Prodromos, Sharon Nelson, Sathie Shanmuganathan and Chris Delaland.  

 

12 down, another 11 to go through assessment in June/July. That will result in ALL operational members at the Unit trained in GR. The first time in UNIT HISTORY!!!! Its also the first time that the Unit has put through so many members through assessment at once.  

 

BIG BIG NEWS!!!The Governor General has invited the Extreme Weather Heroes to Canberra to attend a cocktail function this Friday, very excited and nervous. We will be decked out in our uniform & all!! Plenty of photos to be taken and i will definitely be posting them soon on my blog so watch this space. A fellow Unit member from Malvern informed me of a great initiative that he is getting involved in called Run For a Safe Climate, the crux of which is a 7000km, month long run around Oz to raise awareness of the climate change and the front line effects it will have. It's open to emergency services personnel and its a relay so it's really only 1000km per runner if that helps ;). Personally i haven’t run the tan in about 3 months, so i have no hope of running 2km without having a heart attack. Support the cause if your an avid runner!!! Get you off the couch and meeting people also. 

 

BIG BIG BIG NEWS!! (last one i promise)

I was asked to attend the latest AAMI commercial shooting at State HQ. Some other vols were also asked and it proved to be a FAB day! I met some other great volunteers from Benella, Essendon & Knox Units & on top of being caked with make-up the day was actually fun! My buddy for the EWH project David Tucek was the star in the commercial....with his face up first!!!!

 

Check it out on my YouTube:

 

 

 

Ciao for now.
Ruby

 

 

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