Norman Fire Department recruits used the Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium at OU as their training base to practice rope rescue techniques.   BY JANE GLENN CANNON jcannon@opubco.com Oklahoman    0 Published: March 6, 2012 NORMAN — Norman Fire Department recruits used Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium as their training base to practice rope rescue techniques Fourteen recruits took turns last week rappelling down the side of the stadium as part of academy exercises designed to prepare them for real-life rescue situations. The recruits have been in training since December....

The Chester First Aid squad had another busy year in 2011 and plan to add programs and equipment to ensure they are ready for whatever 2012 has to throw at them. The squad’s team of volunteers, on call around the clock, responded to a record 845 calls within Chester Bourough and Chester Township. In addition, the squad responded to 21 mutual aid calls in surrounding towns.   CFAS EMTs responded to diverse emergencies, including traumatic injuries, medical emergencies, and fire-related emergencies servicing both patients and emergency fire personnel.  For some emergency calls, CFAS...

Kern county firefighters plucked a freezing fisherman from an aqueduct early this morning. The accident happened here just north of the intersection of Highway 166 and Old River Road. Fire crews say the man had fallen through some grating around 3:30 a.m. and was trapped in the aqueduct.  The man was partially in the water and was being helped by his friend who he had been fishing with prior to the accident. “I was in there for about an hour and a half, fighting for my life. I have never been here before and I’m never coming back.” Within five minutes of arriving on...

ST. CATHARINES, ONT, Canada - St. Catharines firefighters were once again called out to a routine for them — a high angle rescue along the DeCew gorge. And while the fire department handles ongoing incidents in the DeCew, as in Monday’s rescue, they can be technical and tiring affairs. Emergency high angle rescue crews were dispatched to the scene shortly before 11 a.m. near Morningstar Mill, and hundreds of metres along the St. Catharines gorge. Fire department deputy chief Larry Jones said the woman, who likely broke her leg, was walking with her son and his wife. The senior woman...

  Photo courtesy of Alan HughesLewis and Clark County Sheriff’s Office Rescue workers haul injured hiker Sheri Onstott up an embankment by means of a rope rescue system on Sunday below Hauser Dam.    HELENA — Authorities from many agencies worked together on Sunday evening to help a Helena woman who broke her ankle while fishing near Hauser Dam. While her husband walked a half-hour in order to gain cellphone service to call 911, Sheri Onstott, 41, was taken care of by a member of Lewis and Clark Search and Rescue who just happened to be in the area at the time.  ...

Saying he was lost, hurt and under the influence of drugs, a man who had been wandering in heavy brush for hours called for help Sunday, launching a difficult rescue by rope. The 32-year-old man called 911 from his cellphone at about 6:15 p.m. He told the dispatcher he had entered a trail system off Charter Oak Street 24 hours before, according to a news release from Manchester Fire-Rescue-EMS. Topics Hypothermia The man continued speaking with a dispatcher, saying he could not walk and was drinking water from a brook. He said he was seeing double and believed he was hallucinating, the...