In today’s world, in which the fire department gets called to almost everything and anything, its members must be prepared to handle any kind of rescue scenario. Selected by an application process, Lufkin Fire Department Chief Ted Lovett and Capt. Dustin Ledford recently participated in a week-long course on special operations program management at the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, Md. Funded by FEMA through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the course consisted of various team management skills of special operations disciplines including hazardous materials, swift water,...

Toledo fire Lt. Doug Palicki flipped upside down, hanging from a sturdy orange rope, about 40 feet above the ground. He slid down the rope before righting himself and landing with both feet firmly on the floor of Huntington Center. “Basic techniques,” he said as he stood. The lieutenant was one of 12 firefighters from the Toledo Fire and Rescue Department who spent several hours Monday morning doing technical rope and high angle training — rappelling from rafters nearly 100 feet from the ground. The members of the department’s regional Technical Rope Rescue Team, from...

Talk about being in the right place at the right time.    When Cowichan photographer Cim MacDonald showed up for a Cowichan Valley Camera Club outing on the wrong day, Sunday, it certainly seemed like the right place at the wrong time.  But when she saw a group of Juan de Fuca Search and Rescue volunteers assembled on the shoreline near Skutz Falls, she decided to tag along and spend the day shooting anyway.  ”Members of the group took turns jumping in farther up stream so they could be ‘rope rescued’ as the rushing river swept them by,” MacDonald said.  And she...

Derrick Thorman and Macy, one of his daughters dogs, who fell through the ice on one of the ponds on Herrington Country Park which had to be rescued by the fire brigade. A DOG-LOVER is delighted as his faithful friend is recovering after plunging through ice into a frozen lake.  Macy the whippet had to be plucked to safety by firefighters from the water at Herrington Country Park.  Husband and wife Derrick and Patricia Thorman were walking the four-year-old dog when she ran on to the smaller of the park’s two ponds.  The couple, from Washington, were taking Macy and pal Blue for a...

Robert George said the ice has been thin this mild winter on the pond near his house off Third Lake, where children are normally able to skate and play hockey in a normal February. But on Thursday, that ice gave way when four young people ventured out, and George was among the Mariner’s Cove residents who suddenly found themselves in rescue mode. In fact, George ended up taking an unscheduled swim. “I was working on the computer and my kids came in yelling that someone fell through the ice,” George said. “So I ran out, dressed in a T-shirt and sweatpants, and saw that two of them were...

REHOBOTH – The last time Bree Krasnianski performed a water rescue, it was under training conditions in a heated pool. Saturday, the 10-year veteran of the town’s police force didn’t hesitate to put those skills to work as she helped rescue a man whose car went off the road into the Palmer River. Krasnianski was on routine patrol on Plain Street Saturday night when a call came in that there was a car in the water. After turning onto Route 6, she was flagged down by a number of bystanders and quickly noticed Scott MacDougall, 46, of Warren, R.I., trying to get out of his...