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About Buncombe
County Rescue |
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Throughout the
State of North Carolina and often times across the country, many county
Rescue agencies are facing a difficult situation. Most Rescue
Squad's, in their youth, were the sole provider of extrication and other
specialized rescue services in their respective county. Today, most
municipal and county fire departments are providing rescue and
extrication, in addition to fire protection, throughout their
district. This leaves traditional Rescue Squad's in a tough
situation. Many of these departments are either merging with fire
departments, dissolving their organization, or providing specialized
services.
Buncombe County Rescue has chosen the latter. Our main focus is providing Emergency Medical Services (EMS) to the citizens of Buncombe County by providing back-up and supplemental service to Buncombe County EMS, the primary ambulance service for our region. It became obvious that extrication had become obsolete within our department, so we donated our rescue truck and all Hurst tools (Jaws of Life, etc.) to Volunteer Fire Departments to better benefit the residents in their protection districts. Our EMS service is comprised of paid staff, consisting of 4 full time, three part time, and a paid Department Chief. In addition to the paid crews, volunteers often assist by working on the ambulances, however the Rescue Squad felt we needed something more to keep our volunteers active and interested. In late 2000, we began the long process of restructuring our department to better serve Western North Carolina. This began with the revamping of our Water Rescue Team. The Water Rescue Team is comprised of Swift water Rescue Technicians and Rescue Divers. In addition, we began to focus more time and training into Search and Rescue and Urban Search and Rescue. In order to work more closely with the surrounding Fire and Rescue Departments, we began providing medical support to them at the scene of working structure fires and other large incidents, so that the firefighters could concentrate on their main goal of controlling the incident, while at the same time remaining safe and in good health. Changing the direction of the Buncombe County Rescue Squad has been difficult and is still in the works, while forming High/Low Angle, Structural Collapse, and Confined Space Rescue teams, however it has proven to be effective allowing our volunteers to utilize their training while providing essential services to Buncombe County as a non-profit organization without duplicating services of other departments.
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