Casper College Opens Training Tower [AUDIO]

It's 60 feet tall and 12 feet in diameter, and there was a dedication ceremony at Casper College Friday to officially recognize its new training tower. After an introduction by Power Technology Instructor Richard Burnett, Casper College trustees Kathy Dolan and Bill Hambrick cut the ribbon to the tower.

What good is a 60-foot tower? The college offers instruction on wind turbine technology, for example.

Tower section of wind turbine:

"This right here is what they're going into in the industry, these wind farms. They're practicing exactly what they're going to be on, so for these guys, getting this honed and ready to go into the industry is bar none."

Casper College Adjunct Instructor Micah Rush said that the technique for rescue is the same, whether it's 15 feet or 100 feet.

Rescue procedure the same:

"When you get into confined space or high-angle rescue, it's low volume but high intensity. When you get on these scenes and you have to pick somebody off, it doesn't matter if they're 15 feet off the ground or a hundred, the systems are the same, the rescue methods are the same and you have to know how to do it safely and efficiently. Say they're 30 feet up, you can't just grab them and haul them down, you have to have systems in place and know what you're doing."

Mr. Rush is also a firefighter at Fire Station No. 1.

Technical Rescue Unit:

"And that's where our rescue runs out of; that's where all our technical rescue stuff is, and that's why it's kind of near and dear to my heart, too. I really think that's important, because when we do get those calls--we've had four or five this year--when we do get those, it's really important that we know what we're doing because we don't want to get our rescuers hurt or the patient hurt, and that's, if you look at a whole teaching these classes, I teach the students 88 percent of the fatalities from them are would-be rescuers, people that don't know what they're doing trying to help."

The tower is a training opportunity for both industry and emergency responders, says Rush.

Training opportunity:

"They can come and take classes on it, too, go through a whole confined space, high-angle rescue tech one and two certification and it meets the OSHA and FPA standard."