By Shamsiya Hussainpoor
Monbulk CFA together with a few other rescue services were called to assist an injured woman in Mount Dandenong on Monday afternoon.
A woman injured her knee while hiking on the tracks of Mount Dandenong and was unable to be walked out due to the difficult terrain.
Monbulk CFA along with Wandin Fire Brigade, Lilydale SES, Kalorama Fire Brigade, Montrose Fire Brigade and Victoria Police were called to assist Ambulance Victoria as part of a what they call, ‘rope rescue response’ – which is a speciality that Monbulk and Wandin CFA crews do high training for annually.
Monbulk CFA captain Glenn Hickingbotham said due to the distance of the terrain, it would’ve taken great amount of time to rescue the injured woman to safety on ropes.
“We were there to setup to bring her up in a stretcher, up to a track where she could be then transported to the HEMS Air Ambulance,” Mr Hickingbotham said.
The reason why CFAs are needed in some rescue missions and not others, even in the presences of air ambulance, is because helicopters create excess amount of downwash – when rescuing in areas where there are a lot of trees, rescuers won’t do a winch, because they have to hover overhead for four or five minutes while they do the winch and this causes potential branches and trees to break and fall onto residents that are off ground and cause further harm to casualties.
Plan A is to have the air ambulance present simultaneously ensuring there’s always a back-up plan if the helicopter can’t winch due to nearby trees or high wind.
Plan B is to ensure the ground crews such as CFA and SES are present to rescue a casualty using a litter or stretcher and ropes up to a road ambulance and then off to the hospital.
“Ambulance don’t have any rope rescue type capabilities at all,” Mr Hickingbotham said.
“A standard road ambulance will have the instruction in the back along with all their equipment and medication.”
There are around 1200 CFA brigades across the state, and only around 15 of them are qualified to do road rescue.
“We wish the lady all the very best and congratulate her son for remaining calm and being supportive to his mum and helping communicate for us to find them,” Mr Hickingbotham said.
“He did a really, really good job.”
