Nova Scotia fire department prepares to share skills at international challenge

After months of training, a team from Nova Scotia's Enfield Fire Department will fly to Hannover, Germany to represent Canada in the Holmatro Rescue Challenge next week.

Invited by a Canadian representative, the challenge will host 20 teams and consist of a 20 minute extrication scenario with a live patient.

Although winning teams will earn a large sum of prize money, the opportunity gives members the chance to gain skills from departments around the world.

"So the guys going kind of range in experience from one year to 30 years plus in our department. Everybody's got hands on tool experience, everybody's been with the team for a better part of the year now," said Luke Guthro who is the team's captain.

During the challenge, Guthro says the team will come up with three plans of extrication, perform it, then find ways to get the medic inside the vehicle and treat the patient for any entrapments and injuries.

Teams will be scored on leadership, medical overall as a team, and technical expertise during the exercise.

"We've been doing a lot of intensive training lately and this is probably a big training night for us, so I think we're ready to get, give them a whirl," said Cecil Dixon, member of the Enfield Fire Department.

Regardless of the challenges final outcome, team members say they feel prepared and are looking forward to the learning experience for real life scenarios.

"Part of this challenge is going over there and learning the other tips and tricks of the world and seeing how other people operate so we can take that learning back not to just our department, but to other departments across East Hants and across Nova Scotia," said Guthro.

The challenge will take place from June 20 to 24.