Rescue readiness, downstream and high aboveground

Students in paramedic majors were led through a variety of hands-on rescue operations and tactical paramedic activities to wrap up the summer. The two-week training, led by the Central Area Fire Chiefs Association, included vehicle rescue and ropes rescue operations at the CAFCA training facility, confined-space rescue at Frito-Lay, and water rescue on Lycoming Creek and the Susquehanna River. “The goal of these sessions is to make these future paramedics more aware of the challenges and intricacies associated with the many aspects of vehicle rescue in an effort to make them better prepared to treat both the patient being rescued and the rescuers who may be injured during these often-dangerous activities,” said Christopher T. Boyer, director of Penn College's paramedic technology programs.

– Photos by Jennifer A. Cline, writer/magazine editor,
and Christopher J. Leigh, video production coordinator

Firefighter/Paramedic Mark Taluba, of Anne Arundel County (Md.) Fire Department, leads students through a vehicle rescue at the CAFCA training site. Taluba is a 1999 graduate of Penn College’s environmental technology major.

Paramedic students with their fire department mentors – and a newly rescued “patient.”

Carly R. Stahl, a paramedic technician student from Lewisburg, tosses a rescue line to Bambi A. Hawkins, learning laboratory coordinator for the paramedic program.

Aboard a Williamsport Bureau of Fire rescue boat, piloted by the bureau’s Kenny Smith, fire engineer, students pull classmate Marissa L. Davis from the water. Davis is from Trafford.

Sarah C. Gagnon, a paramedic technician student from Morris, shares a laugh with her peers at the CAFCA site.

Anchored by staff from the Williamsport Bureau of Fire, Stahl descends from the fourth floor of the training mock-up.

Matthew C. Larock, an emergency medical services student from Chemung, N.Y., begins his descent.

Emergency medical services student Jared A. Stewart, of Waverly, N.Y., gains real-world perspective on high-angle rescues.

Davis secures herself before rappelling from the fourth floor.

Stewart “learns the ropes.”