Five from Nauvoo attend female firefighter training

Nauvoo Fire Protection District sent five of its members to the Illinois Fire Service Institute in Champaign for a female firefighters training weekend. Vicki Gallaher, Kate Evans, Betty Ralph, Karla Pilkington and Janette Glass joined other female firefighters from Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and from as far away as Canada for the October training sessions.

Ralph and Pilkington attended an auto extrication class. They learned the basic construction of the different cars and how to safely remove the wrecked car from around patients. They used a power cutter, spreader, chisel, and power ram to completely disassemble four cars.

“We had a great time learning extrication. This not only helped us gain confidence, it helped increase our skills which we will use in vehicle accidents when there is occupant entrapment,” Ralph said. They also learned about the problems associated with airbags in most vehicles. While they may protect the occupants, they pose a threat to rescuers should they explode during extrication operations. The students learned to be aware of the hazards but not afraid of them.

Gallaher, Evans and Glass attended a class called Remembering the Tools in your Firefighters Toolbox, and Adding Some New Ones. This course tested their SCBA (self-contained breathing appa-ratus) skills, hooking up to a fire hydrant, pulling a hand line (hose), ventilation, basic search, and forcible entry.

Gallaher has had firefighter training in the past, but she had more hands-on training with this course. Evans and Glass experienced wearing SCBA for the first time and going into smoke and fire filled buildings. All three worked in teams with other female firefighters conducting searches through dark and smoke filled rooms, taking hose up stairs and ladders, and helping fight actual fires.

All five women are volunteer Emergency Medical Technicians with the Nauvoo Fire Protection District Ambulance Service.