Technical Rescue

Technical Rescue Team Lieutenant Tom Panzica

The Orland Fire Protection District’s Technical Rescue team consists of 22 members, with 18 members trained as Technicians in Trench Rescue, Confined Space Rescue, Collapse, Cell Tower Rescue, Grain Bin Rescue, Heavy Machinery Rescue and Rope Rescue. The other 4 members are on the MABAS training roster, working towards their deployment status. The team has been going through exciting changes as members retire and new members take their place. The Orland Technical Rescue Team is part of the MABAS 19 CART Blue Team, which consists of 10 other departments rostering over 60 members. As a team, we must maintain our skills and continuing education to stay proficient in each discipline—not knowing when a specialized emergency will arise. The team trains at least twice a month for four hours to assure our skills and proficiency. The Orland Fire Technical Rescue Team faced similar challenges in 2021, as COVID played a big part in the frequency of training. We thought training would resume with the regularity of prior years, then a variant arose causing quarantine and isolation. Departments had to make the tough decisions to postpone trainings to keep the positive numbers minimal. This was a challenge for the team, as we had to find in-house and online drills to assign. This wasn’t ideal, but it was all we had, given the fact that specialized emergencies still may occur. I commend every Orland member, as they found ways to review and practice the skills of each discipline in-house. When in-person training for the teams resumed, every member was excited to get back to work to perfect their skills as a team. The Technical Rescue Team faces a new challenge as each certification is going to require continuing education to stay certified with the OSFM. The CART organization has been planning for this day for a few years now. What makes Technical Rescue so unique, is the number of disciplines we must accumulate continuing education hours in so we can renew every four years. The Central Board has a program built to assure every member, so long as they attend drill, will maintain deployable status. This is an exceedingly difficult challenge considering training for any discipline or department is financially driven. Research has proven that individuals lose proficiency in technical skills if not practiced within a 90-day period. We as a team have been creative with our training. It is still a struggle to bring our budget back to where it needs to be to train for these goals. As everything is financially driven, we not only have to budget for training, we must purchase new equipment to replace the expired items to assure the safety of our members. As weather becomes more devastating, the more the need will be for Technical Rescue teams. A well-trained team, means a more efficient rapid search and rescue of a victim. The Orland Fire Protection District's Technical Rescue Team and its members continue to be leaders of technical rescue throughout the State and the Chicagoland area. As a member of the MABAS 19 Cart blue and black, consisting of well over 60 members and growing, we continue to be the only deployable team in the area. We dedicated ourselves to assure the skills of our members remain proficient. We also focus on recruiting more members and getting them trained and deployable in a timely manner. The team remained in a state of readiness and is so excited to be able to train in person in 2022.