Trapped in a tangled mass of metal? Buried alive? Stuck in a burning building? Meet the Aussie legends risking their necks to save your arse.
Lindsay Creighton, 53, has been involved in coalmine rescue work for three decades and is currently an Operations Manager for Queensland Mines Rescue Service.
"My first job in an underground coal mine was at Cook Colliery back in 1977. The first thing I had to do was undergo a site induction so I knew what I was getting into, because I’d never been underground before.
Twelve months later I was accepted and joined the Central Queensland Mine Rescue Brigade based at Blackwater in Central Queensland.
Rescue work is all about managing the hazards – the main ones being underground fires, potential ignition or explosion, or a lack of oxygen or high concentrations of poisonous gasses.
One of my first rescues was at a mine in Collie. They were mining coal at 100m vertical depth and a young miner was driving a bobcat at the production face. He suddenly saw signs of movement in the roof above him and tried to drive the bobcat out of the way, but stalled.
Ian Smart, 46, has been a helicopter rescue pilot for 14 years. Currently plying his life-saving trade with CareFlight’s Head Injury Retrieval Team, he’s flown more than 400 rescue missions in the past three years.
"Most of the missions we launch with CareFlight are unplanned. The job comes in and you’ve suddenly got to launch. Sometimes I don’t even know where I’m going.
Generally I have a direction to fly in, but I’m relying on the crew to have the details. As the story unfolds, I get told what suburb we’re going to. But I still don’t know where I’m going to land or what I’m going to see at the actual scene.
It certainly gets the adrenaline going. On a CareFlight mission, there are four of us – an air-crewman who helps with the navigation and radios, a specialist doctor and paramedic who can essentially take the hospital to the patient.
To read the full story, buy the April issue of RALPH. On sale at newsagents now.
Win a shedload of prizes for comment of the month!
RALPH is looking for the most creative and funniest comment left in the
Babes,
News to Us, Big Stories or
RALPH Mouth sections. For your chance to win,
jump onto our competition page now!
Do you think rescue workers are heroes? Leave your comment below.
