30 years ago – May 30, 1986
The three day Memorial Day weekend was a trying time for the Gilpin County Sheriff’s Department and members of the county ambulance service. Flight for Life from St. Anthony Hospital in Denver responded to the county on three separate occasions—two rollover car accidents and for a man that was thrown from a horse and found unconscious.
Ten Gilpin County volunteer firefighters participated in the Fifth Annual Fire & Rescue Field Days on May 17 and 18. The training even was held in Loveland, and was sponsored by the Loveland Volunteer Fire Department and Aims Community College. The seven people that attended from the Central City Volunteer Fire Department were: Gary Allen, Lowell Allen, Bob Dietz, Bob Funston, Cindy Gribble, Doug Mills, and Chuck Wolfe. The three members of the Colorado Sierra Volunteer Fire Department were: John Bertram, Charlie Blanchard, and Ted Scherer. Each person received 16 hours of hands-on and classroom training. Bertram attended the intermediate hazardous material training. That course included a review of recognition and identification of hazardous spills. It also covered pre-planning, protective equipment, railroad equipment, decontamination, river containment, and a simulated incident. Gary and Lowell Allen, Dietz, Mills, and Wolfe enhanced their knowledge in three other aspects of emergency response: vehicle fires, vehicle extrication, and farm accident rescue. The latter topic included exercises in extrication from farm machinery and the medical problems of removing someone from power take-off equipment, concepts which can be applied to mining operations and other heavy equipment use. Blanchard, Funston, Gribble, and Scherer learned and practiced skills in basic areas of firefighting. These volunteers learned procedures for building ventilation and salvage as well as for hose and ladder control. Even more challenging were the exercises covering flammable liquid spills, fires, and the notorious propane tree. The participants learned to extinguish live fires involving flammable liquids surrounding a bulk storage railroad car and a simulated fire in a bulk propane facility. The fifth portion of the class simulated a two-story, smoke-filled, house involving actual search and rescue as well as breathing apparatus.
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