Amid the sounds of hammering and buzzing saws, and the sight of dust being kicked up as dump trucks and lift trucks came and went, a bright blue tower crane 160 foot tall with a boom of 260 feet provided a unique opportunity for members of Greenville Fire-Rescue to practice high angle rescues on Friday morning at the Campus Edge student housing property on 10th Street and Charles Boulevard.
“For us, this is unique,” said Captain Mervin “Tuggy” Taylor. “Our landscape has changed over the last 10 years, and what I mean by that is were coming from the rural community to a small municipality with a growing scale of elevated platforms in the city.
One of the training drills simulated a crane operator experiencing a medical emergency while climbing the ladder and stairs to access the cab, 125 feet off the ground. More than a dozen firefighters participated in the training, and they began preparations last month.
The training was a collaboration between the city and Taft Development Group.
“We're extremely proud the the Taft-Ward development company was willing to allow us to come out and do this,” Griffin said. “It's not often that we have the availability to a crane, but if we can continue to work with our partners in the community, we will do it as much as possible to make sure all of our personnel are trained and to be able to provide a rescue or to perform a rescue at high angles or in any other type of environment.”
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