Three local firefighters who formed part of the only South African team invited to compete in the World Rescue Extrication Challenge clinched overall 15th place, deeming the opportunity to face-off against top international extricaters and fly the flag on a global stage as a proud moment to be a Helderberger.
The basin’s Virgel Cloete, Michael Gardiner and Gershwin Cloete were among City of Cape Town firefighters who teamed up as The Cape Town Destroyers, who jetted off to Lanzarote in Spain to compete in the competition from Monday 16 October to Saturday 21 October (‘Cape Town Destroyers’ in Spain competing in World Rescue Challenge, News24, 20 October).
The team, who are trained in rescuing trapped victims of motor-vehicle accidents, is back on home soil after showing their mettle as highly-skilled extrication specialist firefighters in three scenarios of 25 minutes each, where there are multiple patients to extricate while also rendering patient care.
The nine-person team, which boasted 176 years of experience among them, comprised incident commander Morne Haskell (commander at Goodwood Fire Station), technicians Warren Sam (commander at Goodwood Fire Station), Virgel Cloete (commander at Strand Fire Station with 25 years service) and Michael Gardiner (senior firefighter at Strand Station with 28 years service), reserve technician Alvin Kaliza (senior firefighter at Goodwood Fire Station), reserve medic Robert Stamatiadis (firefighter at Lakeside), main medic Gershwin Cloete (firefighter at Sir Lowry’s Pass Fire Station with 19 years service), medic Keenan Walters (firefighter at Milnerton Fire Station) and team manager Arlene Wehr (District Head Operations).
“While challenging and tough, the competition was excellent, the host nation wonderful and the weather was very nice, which made for an overall great experience,” said Virgel.
“Apart from a few logistical issues, we are grateful for the experience, which afforded us the opportunity to learn and upskill, and bring the knowledge back home where it will be ploughed into the Fire and Rescue Service to better serve the community.”
According to Virgel the local lads have returned to take on the role of trainers and mentor the rest of the firefighters in the latest techniques, which will be offered in workshops in line with their upcoming training programme to benefit vehicle extrications on home turf.
“It was a very proud moment, very rewarding,” added Gardiner. “While standing there among the world’s greatest, you look into yourself and realise the platform you are competing on and are not only representing your country, but the City of Cape Town and the Helderberg and its people, our people, those we serve.
“We achieved what we wanted, which was to gain more experience and knowledge and bring these back home to boost local firefighters to get them on par with the rest of the world. But we are not so behind as we think we are.”
Gershwin gave the local team a pat on the back for the achievement, especially after hurdling challenges which others from first world countries are unlikely to face. Among stumbling blocks navigated are a lack resources, including financial constraints and the inability to break away from their functions to focus solely on training, which meant that they only had two weeks to prepare.
The local team toughed out a gruelling three scenarios, which is divided into three tiers ranging in difficulty, testing their patient-driven extrication skills. During their participation the team is graded by groups of assessors which judge their efforts according to a specific point system. “Our final ranking proves that we championed many key aspects of our rescue efforts, according to the expectation,” said Gershwin.
According to Virgel the team has taken on-board the feedback provided after the competition and have prioritised further development and skills sharing, which is of utmost importance to level-up and improve their service, and is the ultimate goal.
