Training Helps Give Back to S.C. Town`s First Responders

Nov. 17--Jelissa Suarez used a reciprocating saw to cut through the steel on an old Buick.

The saw shook her and bounced a few times, but she made it through and her cuts helped others tear the roof off the car.

Suarez, a medical student at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville, was one of at least 50 people who came to a field outside of Townville, with vehicles placed carefully to mimic wrecks.

She came to learn what emergency medical technicians, firefighters and other first responders deal with at wreck scenes.

Dwayne Johnson, who helped organize the extrication training, said it was a way to give back to Townville firefighters and first responders after the Townville Elementary School shooting.

"We can do this and give them something on their own terms," Johnson said.

He pointed to a scar right below his elbow.

A year and a half ago some of those same first responders came to the same property and helped stabilize Johnson before sending him to the hospital. He credits their training, and willingness to help others, for saving the use of his right hand.

The vehicles came from LKQ in Greenville, an auto parts yard where Johnson works.

The fabricated wrecks, including a four-car pileup and an ambulance suspended on top of two cars, including a hybrid, were a lot worse than the most wrecks, said Justin McGill .

Training sessions make it harder on purpose so first responders can simulate the chaos and unpredictability of real wrecks, said McGill, a Taylors firefighter and volunteer with the Homeland Park Fire Department.

He said after 13 years of responding to wrecks, he still picks up new techniques whenever he trains with other departments.

Firefighters, EMTs, other first responders and med students from across the Upstate and northern Georgia came to the training, Johnson said.

The suspended ambulance wasn't the most dangerous part of the training, said instructor Heath Haywood, who works for the Greenville Fire Department and the South Carolina Fire Academy.

The hybrid car that helped support the ambulance was far more likely to injure first responders, Haywood said.

The hybrid battery and power cables on the underside are a big danger and most volunteer first responders don't get a whole lot of training on how to safely cut apart the cars without risking a dangerous shock, he said.

Shannon Alewine, who operates the cafe that overlooks the field just off of Interstate 85, said his life was saved by local firefigthers in 2003 when he was pulled from a burning home.

His son, 7-year-old Deaven, was at Townville Elementary during the shooting and another young relative was outside when it happened, Alewine said.

"We love our first responders here," Alewine said. "The whole community comes together to support them. I know my life is owed to them and I'll do anything I can for them."

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