North Shore firefighters practice specialized lifesaving technique

PEABODY – Twenty-six individuals were rescued from the roof of 18 Walnut St. Tuesday afternoon and again on Wednesday, but there wasn’t an emergency. In fact, the victims and rescuers were actually firefighters from across the North Shore participating in a Special Technical Rescue training program offered by the Massachusetts Fire Academy.Roughly 20 cities and towns, from Lynn to North Reading, signed up to join the new regionalized training session, an idea that began with the Essex County Fire Chiefs Association.”They noticed a void in technical services,” said Eric Pepper, a firefighter in North Reading and the director of Essex County Technical Rescue. “Local departments just couldn’t afford to keep up the training.”About a year ago, a steering committee was formed to discuss combining resources and efforts from across the North Shore in order to maintain necessary training in life-saving techniques. With the help of $200,000 in grants from the Northeast Homeland Security Regional Advisory Council, roughly $3,000 raised through local businesses and a $10,000 donation from the Essex County Fire Chiefs Association, teachers from the Academy were hired to hold three different training sessions on site throughout the next year.This week, 45 firefighters, six of whom are from Peabody, are learning in great detail how to successfully complete a rope rescue, which entails ascending and descending from the side of a building and properly removing victims from harm using a stokes basket. Each firefighter will have the opportunity to both rescue and be rescued to ensure the most well-rounded experience.According to Russ Lewis, a Peabody firefighter and assistant director of Essex County Technical Rescue, the Leather City once had trained professionals in the department who were capable of such practices, as well as the equipment to successfully do so, but with cuts in funding, he said much of what they know is outdated.The same instance occurred in North Reading, said Pepper, explaining that it’s a low-frequency, high-intensity program. He said it’s very expensive for departments to maintain and not often used, which makes for it to be first placed on the chopping block when cuts come around.”The benefit for us as firefighters is when we show up on scene, there are certain expectations that we’ll perform at some level,” said Pepper. “If we didn’t have this training, it puts us in a tough position.”And, said Lewis, it’s also a safety factor.”It’s a real benefit to the public to have this service available,” said Pepper.This is the first time for a regionalized program like this to exist on the North Shore, and both Lewis and Pepper hope it makes a great impression.”So far, it’s going very well,” said Lewis.”We’ve got some of the best technical training in the country here,” said Pepper.Training will continue through the rest of the week, then again Tuesday through Friday from 9-4 p.m. The next training session will focus on trench rescues, which is scheduled to occur in May, then confined space rescues in September.