EAST LANSING, Mich. — Members of the media are invited to attend upcoming training days performed by the Region 1 Tower Rescue Team.
The first training day will take place at an East Lansing tower site, 716 S. Harrison Road, on Tuesday, Oct. 27 from 7:30 a.m.-4 p.m. This training will allow the team, along with Michigan Public Safety Communication System Steeplejacks, to familiarize and train with specialized tower rescue equipment.
The local training day will be followed by a Tower Rescue Scenario on Wednesday, Oct. 28 from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. The team will be picked up at the Lansing Capital Region International Airport, by a Michigan State Police helicopter between 9:30 and 10:30 a.m. and will be flown to a tower site at 1210 W. Grand River Blvd. in Owosso, Mich., where the rescue scenario will be performed.
“The Tower Rescue Scenario will allow our team to perform a rescue from start to finish – from the transport to the site to the rescue and transport home,” said East Lansing Fire Department Capt. Andrew Swanson. “Our team could be dispatched at anytime to any part of the state of Michigan, so having this type of specialized mock training is helpful in seeing how it would all come together.”
The Region 1 Tower Rescue Team is a specialized team made up of firefighter paramedics from various Region 1 fire departments. The team has been training together for approximately three years and is specialized in performing rescues at taller heights than the typical high-angle rescues performed by local fire departments. In the event of an emergency, the team is trained to rescue employees across the state that climb tall structures, such as communication towers and wind turbines, as part of their jobs.
There will be photo/video and interview opportunities during both training days. If media plan to film and/or take photos at the airport, they are asked to call (517) 335-9900 in advance. The media location at the airport is 2615 Port Lansing Road.