Helicopter safety was the focus of a meeting this week in Dauphin between STARS Air Ambulance and almost a dozen area fire departments.
STARS Community Education Leader Troy Pauls has been doing these kinds of safety seminars with fire departments around Manitoba since 2012.
Pauls says he covered several crucial things firefighters need to know when they're assisting a STARS helicopter.
"Identifying safe places to land a helicopter, setting up a landing zone, communicating with the helicopter directly, so getting the guys to find the right channel on the radio to speak with our pilots directly and identify hazards on the ground, the big one being wires."
Pauls believes these kinds of meetings are as effective as they can be without actually flying a chopper.
"There's no training like actually landing a helicopter, and that's pretty much impossible to do with every fire departments. So we try to simulate it the best we can in a desktop-format. But I think just the annual refresher is a good reminder of what guys need to do to get us on the ground safely."
Pauls says training sessions like these makes pilots feel like they can trust the assisting firefighters, and gives the firefighters more confidence in emergency situations.
Dauphin's Fire Chief Cam Abrey said it was great as always to get to work with Pauls, as well as members from the 10 other fire departments in the Riding Mountain District.
