About 15 members of the Derby Storm Rescue and Ambulance Corps rappelled down the city’s parking garage on Thompson Place Thursday night.
The crew was training on how to handle rope rescues, said ex-chief Jim Saldamarco.
Click the play button on the video to see part of the training. Also, a slideshow of several photos from the exercise is at the end of this story.
The goal of the training was to learn how to lower emergency personnel down a steep slope, cliff, bridge or building to rescue a person and haul them back to safety.
“We just keep repeating the same evolution to practice,” Saldamarco said.
That type of rescue isn’t common, Saldamarco said — which makes the training that much more important.
“You may have a rope rescue once every five years. But if you just throw the equipment in the truck and never use it, you’ll never be proficient when the times comes when you have to use it.”
