Finley's finest

FINLEY POINT - It is just another training session for the Finley Point firefighters. Wednesday evening they are gathered in a field located off the road near the Finley Point campgrounds.

The group of 22 firefighters are volunteers -- they freely give up their night to become better prepared to serve and protect the community. This training session has the group awaiting the arrival of members from the Advanced Life Support Emergency Rescue Team located in Kalispell. The group is providing a demonstration on the appropriate protocol for a helicopter rescue.

Currently there is one helicopter in Kalispell and two in Missoula. The rescue team includes Pilot Ryan Hunter, Paramedic Laurel Smart, and Flight Nurse, Darren Lobbesteal. Once the helicopter became visible, 19-year-old Justin Hoel of Polson kneels in the center of the landing area.

Hoel, like his father, is one of the younger members of both the Polson and Finley Point Fire Departments. But he is not a rookie. Having joined the department at 16 he has already taken part in a number of rescue operations as well as a number of similar training sessions.

“My favorite thing about landing today was communication. It was textbook. You guys did it right. You don’t know how many times we’ve had problems with that,” Hunter tells the firefighters. The A.L.S.E.R group works with a number of different departments in the area. They were obviously impressed with professionalism exhibited by the Finley Point firefighters.

The demonstration provided by the team went over a number of issues including proper radio frequencies -- tan, as their main channel and white as back-up, how to describe your location if trying to be found, and using clock hand descriptions from the viewpoint of the pilot and not yourself.

In addition, they practiced a patient loading simulation using Firefighter Hoel.

“I’m not afraid to jump into anything,” said Hoel, in reference to playing the victim for a change.