By Jena Carr
It was a day of female camaraderie and skill sharing as Women in Rescue (WIR) wrapped up in the Barwon Southwest region.
Female Victoria State Emergency Service (VICSES) and Country Fire Authority (CFA) volunteers attended the training event at 90 Furner Avenue, Bell Park, on Saturday, March 16.
VICSES Bellarine Unit volunteer Rachel Vella said she enjoyed seeing everyone attempting real-world scenarios while sharing experiences and skills at the WIR event.
“You get to try something and then if that doesn’t work, you can try something else, whereas on a job you don’t have as much flexibility,” she said.
“It’s really about getting that time on the tools to get some practice with that, build some confidence in those skills and work with people from a range of different skill sets.
“There was some really fantastic teamwork between people that have never even met each other before, but they’re in their troubleshooting and working out how to resolve an issue.”
Ms Vella said close to 20 female volunteers participated in the day’s activities, surrounded by a safe and positive environment.
“The first stand we did was how to get a casualty off a bus and trying the logistics of getting a casualty off a bus that has potential spinal injuries,” she said.
“The second looked at incident management and how we manage incidents, triage jobs, and how we look at allocating crews and resources when we’re operating during large events.
“The third one looked at the app we use, Snap Send Solve, for gathering real time intelligence during events that feedback into the incident command centre.”
Visit ses.vic.gov.au for more information about VICSES and how to become a volunteer.
