Meet the El Paso Fire Department’s elite rescue team
EL PASO, Texas -- Within the El Paso Fire Department there is a Special Rescue 11 team which responds to rescues involving high angles, confined spaces, structural collapses, vehicle extractions and trenches.
Their special skills are required rarely, but when they’re needed the team has to be ready to spring into action.
"It doesn't come up too often,” Ladder 11 Lt. Gilbert Ramirez said. “But when they do, they can be very dangerous so we have to be ready for it.”
Station 11 is the only team with the equipment required to perform these type of rescues in El Paso.
There are between 60 and 90 trained firefighters at Station 11 who can perform these rescues. Each of them has at least 80 hours of specialty training under their belt and they try to do training to sharpen their skills once a month.
"It just creates muscle memory,” Special Rescue Team firefighter Abram Trujillo said. “Just doing the basic skills over and over again, that way when you're out in the field in an emergency the basic skills aren't a problem you can focus on the actual patient and any specific situations."
