aerial rescue

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I run the aerial rescue training at a large tree company in the midwest. We run a simulation rescue every month, with about 20 people participating in this. I love to switch it up, running different scenarios to keep everyone thinking. Anybody have some new scenarios to share to keep it fresh and interesting?
 
Have the victim slouched down in a branch union. This would require the rescuer to setup a lift to get them up and out.

How skilled are your climbers in doing victim assessments? What would they do if the victim could not be moved because of a head/neck/spine trauma? Can they install a neck brace and then prep the victim for backboarding?

Charley Wagner and I put together a session on AR practice. At one of the stations the rescuers were instructed to setup a system to hoist an EMT up to the victim so that the EMT could do their work in the tree. The EMT was not a climber. Instead of having a person act as an EMT use a log that weighs 200# or a rescue dummy.

What would the rescuers do if the tree were electrically charged?

what if the victims rope were damaged?
 
How many here incorporate local EMT in their aerial rescue training, Im trying to get ours involved with us here, that may be a good way of figuring out things like what tom posted above.
We (most) are not EMT's and EMT's (most) are not climbers
 
Good point to get the EMS folks involved. I am fortunate in that two of the other people in the safety department with me are firefighters and EMT's and climbers.
 
If the victim can be lowered, assuming that a proper assessment is made to determine that, then the victim can stay in their harness and be lowered by the rescuer. This is the basic scenario that is in the TCC AR event. If the victim damaged their rope they would need to go into another rope.

When Charly and I did the workshop there were 3-4 guys from the local fire rescue crew. Their input and observations were valuable for all of the climbers. Everyone learned a lot.

Jeff Jepson did a workshop for a fire department in a Minnapolis suburb a few years ago. A few weeks later some of the crew attended the TCC and parked their chairs in the shade of the AR event. They were really switched on by the event and learned a lot.
 
Granted I don't have near the experience you all have but I have a good amount of experience in the Fire Service. I put together an 8 hour drill with our regional technical rescue team. There was a 60 minute power point and several practical stations. 1. Introduction to arborist equip, techniques. 2. Pinned victim under a felled tree. 3. Aerial rescue of a concious climber using his own system to get him down. The final practical was an unconcious climber in the tree. They had to get a rescuer into the tree to get me down. Best time 27 minutes. They used the throw bag and a haul sustem to get the rescuer into the tree and then used another haul system to lift me off my lanyard and married me to the rescuer and lowered us both to the ground switching the haul to a lowering system. Worked great. They all want gaffs and throw bags on their trucks. There were no ladders used and I was about 40 fet off the ground. There was a huge emphasis on how the arborist is best suited to rescue another arborist and how we should incorporate the arborist systems, and tools into our rescue. We are so used to getting on scene and kicking all the subject matter experts away because they aren't Fire Department persnnel. I was trying to emphasize how we(FD) should use or get advice from the tree guys on what climbing systems the victim uses and what would work out best for the rescue. All our personnel are medically trained so there was no emphasis on medical evaluation. I got great feed back. We did 3 drills for 3 different shifts involving 4 cities.
 
I've decided the next aerial rescue we do will be run in teams, or crews. One person is responsible for the climbing, the other three or four will be expected to help out in whatever way is needed, be it setting a rope or hauling the ladder to the tree. We normally have every climber in the company footlock a preset ascent line and perform the rescue, which is great practice. But I'm determined to switch things up, make it interesting, and also keep it realistic to day to day work. Tom D gave some good suggestions on aerial rescue, especially about pinned tree climbers. Anybody else want to throw some ideas around?
 
I am a registered EMT, so I can offer advise on first aid. So I guess I am after different scenarios in getting people to think about getting a co-worker, who is aloft in a tree and in need of medical help, taken care of.
 
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We normally have every climber in the company footlock a preset ascent line and perform the rescue, which is great practice. But I'm determined to switch things up,

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Do your crews always have an ascent line installed when they work a tree in their day to day jobs?

Eliminating the ascent line from the AR would really change things. Everyone would have to take the time to set their own line and you would probably see several different ideas about where to set the line and how to access the tree to get to the victim.

Have you done any AR's on a spar? From a bucket? Just getting the victim out of the bucket (without causing the victim any further injury) can be challenging.
 
We've run bucket rescues, which are crucial to keeping everyone in the field able to safely maneuver the bucket in an emergency situation. Having every climber set their own rope is definitely a good way to keep people thinking and practicing an ascent into a tree. We have not done a spar rescue since I have been working there, though.
 
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