Meath firefighters win again this time in germany
A team of firemen representing Meath County Fire and Rescue Service have won the best overall team at the Holmatro Rescue Experience in Hannover, Germany, taking home the top prize of €20,000 worth of equipment.
The team consisting of Keith Russell, Nicky Brunton, Alan Egan, David Snowe, team medic Alan Campbell and incident commander Paul Colleran competed against 29 other teams from 16 countries, with some teams coming from as far away as Brazil.
Over the week-long competition, each team was asked to complete a unique 20-minute extraction in which they had to remove a casualty from realistic car crash scenarios while demonstrating their command, medical and technical skills.
Paul Colleran, who individually won best incident commander for the competition, said: “We felt we had done well, and we were delighted with it.”
Mr Colleran said himself and the team were “stunned” when it was announced that they had won.
“Our team, we just gel very well together, we’re still very hungry for knowledge and we are all willing to learn; we still watch other teams to get tips,” he said.
There was a total of €35,000 worth of equipment up for grabs for the best teams. The prize for best technical team, which was won by the Spanish Granollers, was worth equipment to the value of €10,000 and best team spirit, which was won by German Rescue Ladies, was worth equipment to the value of €5,000.
All the cars the teams were given to work on were brand new 2015 cars from the Opel range which is, according to Mr Colleran, far different to the older cars they are used to cutting apart.
According to Paul Colleran, there is a big difference between the old and new cars. “The new car’s metal doesn’t tear as easily so you have to use different techniques”.
In April, the same Meath team took part in and won the Irish National Rescue Challenge in Cork where they achieved a clean sweep of all the top prizes on offer, including best rapid 10-minute scenario, and best complex 30-minute scenario.
The team will be taking a few months off before heading back into preparations before the World Rescue Championships being held in Portugal in October. “We don’t want to get complacent,” said Mr Colleran.