In February, Butler Tech Public Safety Education Complex hosted the Ohio Fire Academy for direct delivery of an ice rescue course. The class included Fire Officers from Liberty Township, Turtle Creek, City of Kettering, Lebanon Fire Department, and one police officer from Higginsport Police Department. All participants attended the training at no cost and everyone passed the written exam and field practical.
“The need for ice rescue is always present in the fire service, and specifically here in the state of Ohio,” explained George Schlub, Butler Tech Law Enforcement Institute Coordinator. “The impetus for this class came from a request by Director of Public Safety Education, Jeff Travers, and from his request, I made it my mission to host that class here at Butler Tech.”
The ice rescue course was a two-day class, with up to 18 hours of instruction. Nine hours focused on the knowledge, skills, and abilities, and the second 9 hours focused strictly on job performance requirements and techniques for shore-based, non-entry, and “GO” rescues.
The instructors from the Ohio Fire Academy commented that the pond used for the training was the best that they have had to work within 25 years of training, saying that the ice broke up under their feet and was the best practical obstruction to ice rescue they could have hoped for.
