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SUNY Potsdam's Wilderness Education Program receives new rescue stretcher for EMTs from Brookfield Power

Posted 10/24/11

POTSDAM -- SUNY Potsdam's Wilderness Education Program has a new Ferno rescue stretcher with a wheel system for use by the college and area emergency responders. Thanks to the donation by Brookfield …

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SUNY Potsdam's Wilderness Education Program receives new rescue stretcher for EMTs from Brookfield Power

Posted

POTSDAM -- SUNY Potsdam's Wilderness Education Program has a new Ferno rescue stretcher with a wheel system for use by the college and area emergency responders.

Thanks to the donation by Brookfield Power, the program is better prepared to train students to evacuate an injured person from the backcountry.

The rescue litter system will be stored at the Colton Rescue Squad facility and will be available in the event that someone needs to be rescued on a trail or in the woods in St. Lawrence County.

Dan Parker, Raquette River superintendent at Brookfield, presented the equipment to Trevor Wood, assistant chief of the Colton Fire and Rescue Department, Mark Simon, coordinator of the college's Wilderness Education Program, and field instructors Michael Perry and Ben LaValley.

SUNY Potsdam wilderness education students will train alongside first responders in a joint session this Sunday, Oct. 23 at the Stone Valley Trail in Colton.

According to Simon, "the rescue litter is a great improvement over our current rescue options, which have been to build an improvised litter or to wait until a rescue squad or the Department of Environmental Conservation arrives on the scene."

The issue with an improvised litter, which can be constructed from tree branches, is that it takes time to build, makes it hard to properly stabilize the victim, and is difficult to carry.

"I think the litter will be a strong asset to our department because of the rough and remote terrain we work with in our vicinity," said Wood.

To learn about the Wilderness Education minor offered at SUNY Potsdam's School of Education and Professional Studies, visit www.potsdam.edu/academics/SOEPS/CommunityHealth/minorwildernesseducation.cfm.