Tough fire and rescue training produces more skilled fire and rescue personnel and safer communities.

By Mark D. Harris

Work has pulled me to the DC area during the week and home has pulled me to West Virginia on weekends and holidays. One of my tasks around DC is to provide medical support for a group of rescuers specially trained in structural collapse, confined space, trench, and ropes.  Simultaneously, I remain on the Beaver Volunteer Fire Department and dive team. It is the best of all worlds.

My primary field is medicine, and while I have helped pull victims from fires and entrapments, my primary usefulness comes once the patient is out. I admire people who risk themselves to rescue people and keep them alive until they get to people like me. Such work requires imagination, skill, intelligence, and courage, which was demonstrated at an exercise in northern Virginia in September of 2020.

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