In early August, electric line crews from Colorado Springs Utilities continued a long-standing partnership with the Colorado Springs Fire Department to complete the fifth annual, two-day Electric Trauma Training program.
For the first time in the program’s existence, a Flight for Life team also participated in the training and a mock rescue exercise, Colorado Springs Utilities noted in a blog post.
More than 100 electric line employees attended this year’s event, along with four CSFD firefighters and three members from Flight for Life, the blog post said.
Colorado Springs Utilities said that the two-day training included smaller groups of employees rotating through seven stations -- each one reflecting a different trauma scenario.
This rotation included a “hurt man rescue” exercise where a lineworker must quickly assess an injured colleague while high on a power pole and then bring that colleague safely to the ground.
Beyond the hurt man rescue, the stations provided employees an opportunity to practice emergency medical service notifications, conduct initial injury assessments, perform CPR, apply a tourniquet and pack a wound.
“Due to the nature of line work, our crews can encounter a lot of different trauma cases and rescue situations,” said John Rombeck, Electric Training and Safety Specialist for the public power utility, in the blog post. “It’s important that our training programs provide hands-on experiences that create mental and muscle memory because time is of the essence in a real-life trauma event.”
Rombeck said with each year that passes, the training program continues to improve and evolve, thanks to feedback from both employees and first responders.
