STATE Emergency Service crews from around the region battled it out at Mogo last weekend at the biennial State Disaster Rescue Competition.
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Kiama, Shellharbour, Coniston, Batemans Bay and Moruya SES crews competed at the Rural Fire Service Training Centre for two days.
While Batemans Bay and Moruya crews missed out on a top placing – the honours went to competition veterans Kiama – Batemans Bay won an award for the best engineering solution on the day and Moruya placed second overall.
Neither Batemans Bay or Moruya units had participated before.
The crews faced five rescue situations that were judged on teamwork, safety, initiative and use of equipment.
Situations included a woman who fell from a tree and impaled her foot on a stake, six people trapped in a storm-damaged building, a person whose foot was crushed under a container, and a man who became stuck after chasing his dog under a shipping container.
Crews navigated through bushland to find and map 15 pieces of police evidence.
Batemans Bay SES unit controller Danny McDermott said the crew won the engineering award for ingenuity for the “woman with an impaled foot” situation.
“We put in two star pickets and a plank of wood and made a seat, just to take the pressure off the foot,” he said.
“We were really pleased about that award. It was a big confidence boost, considering it’s our first one we’ve ever done together.”
Mr McDermott said the unit entered the games to improve team work.
“We all learned something new,” he said.
“We did well in a
couple of our starts, which we didn’t expect to do.
Moruya SES leader Lloyd Jones said his group had trained two nights every week since January.
“It took a lot of effort from everybody and a lot of interest,” he said.
“We started as utter underdogs and, the amount of skilled training that we had to put in to lift our game . . . it’s good for us and pulled the unit together.
“It was a massive achievement and we were very, very pleased.”
The winner, Kiama, will contest the state final on May 31 at Jamberoo.
The team is familiar with glory; it reached the national competition in 2011.
Kiama SES leader Warren Turner said his team had trained once a week for a month and had undertaken fitness training for the draining tasks.
“It will be a privilege to represent the South Coast,” Mr Turner said.
Danielle Brice, of Moruya SES, said the games were competitive and boosted confidence.
“It’s great to bring together people, be-cause there is always a possibility you could be working with them down the track,” she said.
“It is great to bond as a team. They all put a lot of time and effort in and learn so much – from the feedback from the judges, from working together as a team, and from looking at the different ways other teams have done the jobs.”