THEY may not have brought a trophy home, however the Mount Gambier State Emergency Service (SES) rescue challenge team has returned to the South East with experience far more valuable than any accolade.
A group of six volunteers travelled to Adelaide over the weekend and completed eight intense rescue scenarios over two days.
The State Rescue Challenge tested the local unit’s ability to handle high-pressure situations and SES South East district officer Brad Flew said the crew applied itself well.
“I was very proud of the team’s effort, they really knuckled down and put in the hard yards to accomplish the rescue scenarios,” Mr Flew said.
“The team really learnt how to work as a cohesive team when under intense pressure.”
In true volunteer style, the eight members of the challenge team gave up several hours of their own time to train for the event.
Mr Flew said the hard work in preparing and training was on show for all to see over the weekend.
“For the team to give up more of their time to train and participate was great to see and I can’t thank them enough for that,” he said.
“The time and effort that these six volunteers put into the challenge was fantastic and they really did their unit and district proud.”
While the group finished in seventh place, the challenge was about much more than ultimately winning.
Mr Flew said the challenges volunteers were faced with will hold them in good stead in real-life rescue situations.
“The challenges were designed to test the team’s ability to develop a flexible and efficient plan and execute it seamlessly in order to achieve it with in the timeframe stipulated,” he said.
“The team really learnt how to work as a cohesive team when under intense pressure.”
While Mr Flew did not compete in the challenge, he was faced with the strenuous job of judging and scoring the competing teams.
He said he came away with a number of new strategies after watching how different teams implemented plans in rescue situations.
“Being a judge was a great way to see eight teams approach the same problem in different ways,” he said.
“Whilst the basic plans were similar, a number of different strategies were used to achieve the same outcome.”
He hoped to try and re-create some of the rescue situations for training purposes in the South East district.
“The heavy lift and restricted space rescue stands and the complexities that were incorporated into them, I would like to replicate and use as training and development opportunities across the South East,” he said.
Ultimately the event was a huge success for the Mount Gambier team and Mr Flew encouraged their participation again in the future.
“The unique experience the rescue challenge provides is hard to beat as the level of effort and thought that has gone into developing the challenges to be as realistic as possible is phenomenal,” Mr Flew said.
“The resources and sites that are used are great and provide simulated rescue scenes as close to real as you can get.
“I would love to see a team form the South East compete again in the future.”
