By: Paul Hasenmeier

Phil Burden in the under-ride pit.

Tom Wilcox in the roll-over pit.

This past weekend several of us had the chance to travel to South Carolina for the 3rd Annual Rippin Rescue class.  Retired Westerville (OH) Lt. Phil Burden started the program with a lot of help from local Westminster FD firefighters.  We hope to see the Rippin Rescue class grow bigger and better into the future.

JD  Vasbinder, Tom Wilcox, and I arrived in SC late Thursday and then spent the day on Friday prepping cars.  With any hands-on extrication class it is important to remove gas tanks and batteries.  Towards evening on Friday, we helped with an extrication demo/training for the area Explorers.  Check out the Seneca Fire Explorers Post 107 page.   What are you doing to show the next generation of firefighters the way?

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JD Vasbinder in the semi-tractor pit.

Paul Hasenmeier in the garbage truck rear-ending pit.

We were up before the sun on Saturday morning and quickly realized it was going to be a wet and muddy day.  The pits for the training were:  roll-overs, semi-trailer under-rides, semi-tractor extrication, heavy lifting, and garbage truck rear-end pinning.

More Rippin Rescue Pics Here

I mentioned mud earlier and the Westminster public works crews were on it by bringing backhoe buckets of stone to the pits that needed a little more solid ground.  The rain ended around noon, just as we broke for lunch that was provided by some local sponsors.

Over the next few days, we will get some more extrication training tips up in a post or two.  If you need help getting a Rippin Rescue course going in your area, don’t hesitate to ask for help.

Pass it on!