BALTIMORE COUNTY — Firefighters across the state and the Maryland National Guard performed their annual training to help with rescues during natural disasters.
During the training WMAR-2 News trailed along while both organizations demonstrated what it takes to safely perform a water rescue.
Maryland’s Helicopter Aquatic Rescue Team (HART) takes a collaboration between fire fighters across Maryland like Micheal Szczesniakowski, who’s a lieutenant Baltimore County Fire Department, and Will Tobin who’s a Chief Warrant Officer III with Maryland National Guardsman, to safely rescue someone from the water in the event of a hurricane or natural disaster.
“We are surrounded by water, the state of Maryland has a tremendous amount of water bay estuaries ocean this can happen anytime. Anytime a hurricane coming up the Chesapeake Bay could basically require the skills that we’re training on currently,” Szczesniakowski said.
“We have a yearly training schedule that we execute for the HART program, the Helicopter Aquatic Rescue Team. Any swift water event that required a hoist and then a rescue technician that’s where we would come in,” Tobin said.
Tobin told WMAR-2 News what’s going through his mind while flying out there training for an exercise like this.
“A priority for us the air crew is getting the rescuer to the victim safely, getting through that evolution safely, and then recovering, and back to start over," Tobin said.
How the training works is both organizations brief their teams with the plan before demonstrating.
“We start with three victims in the water, three rescuers in the helicopter, and from there it’s we’re simulating, responding to the scene,” Tobin said.
Once they identify victims they go into the actual hoist iteration.
“Where from 100 feet we have a rescuer in the hook flying him into the water getting him hooked up with a survivor, and then from there, recovering him safely back into the aircraft,” Tobin said.
He also mentioned some of the most critical factors to consider during a real incident.
“As aviators where is the wind, how much fuel do we have, and how long is it going to take,” Tobin asked.
They haven’t had to apply this training here in Maryland yet but, it hasn’t stopped them from helping our neighboring states.
“We’ve deployed to South Carolina, I believe twice for hurricane response for emergency activations,” Tobin said.
Organizers said with this practice, in the event Marylanders need the skill set, these rescuers are more than prepared.
“These are skills that are perishable if you don’t use them often and it’s a good teamwork,” Szczesniakowski said.
