The Tribune

The 15 members of Grand Bahama Shipyard’s (GBS) Emergency Response Team (ERT) passed a week of intense firefighter training in Orlando, Florida, held at the Valencia College (formerly Central Florida Fire Academy).

Apart from the training, the City of Orlando Fire Department allowed the team to meet one of their duty shifts and tour their Fire Station No. 1 in downtown Orlando.

“Our commitment to the safety of our employees, as well as of our sub-contractors and clients/crew, is our first and foremost priority,” said the Shipyard’s chairman and chief executive, Carl Rotkirch.

“We work hard every day to ensure everybody in the yard has the knowledge and training to work safely in every situation.

“As a part of our external training, our ERT team attended an international training course at Valencia Fire College. Thanks to their efforts we can now report one of the best safety records in our industry.”

The Grand Bahama Shipyard firefighters received specialised training in several survival techniques, including ropes and knots, repelling from an elevated position, wall breach, emergency bailout using charged fire hose, emergency bailout using dry fire hose, improvised anchors and ropes and ladder.

“The College has a well-suited facility and a fantastic group of instructors and administrators,” said Marvin Basden, the Shipyard’s facilities and maintenance manager.

“It was a wonderful training exercise; many of the ERT members have commented that this is the best training engagement they have ever experienced, and I personally feel the same.”

Participants in the course were Marvin Basden, Brisco Rolle, Leroy Forbes, Michael Lightfoot, Kevin Anderson, Paul Messam, Anjoun Armaly, James Sands, Shun Sands, Quincy Swain, Welly Smith, David Barnabie, Andre Davis, Cochise Parker and Densil Hepburn.

The presentations made by the instructors also included components of Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA), air management, hot bottle change, buddy breathing, navigating obstacles and disentanglement.

The training course finished with a test that included everything learned throughout the week.

Mr Basden said: “I’m extremely pleased to declare that everyone successfully completed the course.

“In summary, I believe the Fire Programme Manager put it best when he said: ‘We train to recognise the situations that we hope to never experience, and we practice to perfect the skills we hope we never have to use’.”