Dublin Civil Defence undertook a Swim Assessment in the Blessington Lakes recently with twenty-two volunteers qualifying for the Rescue3 flood responder course.
Seventy-five volunteers from the Civil Defence will have trained to Rescue3 flood responder level and above by December while fifteen volunteers will be trained at SRT level.
Pic: Volunteers at Blessington Lakes. Photo Courtesy Dublin Civil Defence
James McConnell, Dublin Civil Defence Officer told EmergencyTimes.ie that the swim test is the prequalifying assessment for his members. “Participants must have a minimum of OFA level. This is all part of our preparation training or responding to floods. The swim test at Blessington Lakes is the prequalifying assessment for DCD volunteers to participate on the Rescue 3 Flood Responder course”.
“We expect that by early December, we will have 75 volunteers trained at R3 flood responder level and above” he said.
Pic: Volunteers at Blessington Lakes. Photo Courtesy Dublin Civil Defence
Rescue 3 has a long history in water rescue, developing the original Swiftwater Rescue Technician courses over 30 years ago.
The courses offered by Rescue 3 Europe are suitable for a wide range of people and organisations. Courses include water and flood awareness, basic water rescuer, swiftwater and flood first responder, and various levels of swiftwater and flood rescue technician courses.
The SRT (Swiftwater and Flood Rescue Technician) course complies with Defra Module 3 content requirements, and is regarded as the benchmark training course for swiftwater and flood rescue teams. This Rescue3 training course is intended for personnel who may be required to carry out rescues in a swiftwater and flood environment, including emergency and voluntary services personnel and mountain rescue teams.
Pic: SRT Training. Photo: Rescue3
The Civil Defence College in Roscrea is a provider of R3.
Three city fire brigades also currently provide the training courses; Dublin, Cork City and Limerick. Both Dublin Fire Brigade and Cork City Fire Brigade were the first two fire services in Ireland to train and equip firefighters to the required standard. Additional fire services and other organisations, including those in the private sector later joined as training providers.
Over the past fifteen years or so, and particularly during the ‘crash’ and in the face of cut-backs and austerity, these fire service authority’s took the initiative, and invested their time and resources in providing the training programme which enabled them to delver an NFPA adopted standard of training to personnel, a standard which is recognised by Rescue3.
