There are many risks associated with being a firefighter, but the Truganina Fire Brigade’s new rehabilitation unit is hoped to enhance recovery and help prevent serious injury.
Specialist response officer Steven Organ said the truck is used mainly to monitor the well-being and health of firefighters.
“This truck isn’t technically a firefighting vehicle, it carries no water, no pump, no hoses, but it has monitoring equipment, it checks your oxygen levels, heart rate, hydration levels and has cool down chairs which help cool down the firefighter’s core temperature,” he said.
“For example, during a house a fire a team of operators who are inside the house and tackling the fire, they’ll come out, get checked, and we’ll make sure they’re healthy enough to go back in.”
Mr Organ said the rehab trucks were a relatively new invention, and there are only approximately 20 units across the state.
“Before this, if we would get a house fire we would call Mernda, who has the closest rehab truck, and before that it was just asking firefighters ‘you OK?’,” he said.
The truck will be used by other Country Fire Authority units within Wyndham, but also statewide, wherever they’re needed.
“We’re not stretch resources further away from [residents], we’re able to utilise the firefighters that we’ve got,” Mr Organ said.
Despite a wet start to the summer, Mr Organ said the brigade had still been busy taking care of grass fires, and encourages residents interested in becoming a firefighter to reach out.
Details: bit.ly/3FvNqSY
