Hamilton Fire Department Attends Equine Rescue Training

The Hamilton Fire Department wants to ensure that it is ready to respond to any rescue call, even if that call doesn’t involve humans.

On Saturday, members of the department participated in equine rescue training sponsored by Myopia Hunt Club Stables in Hamilton.

Roger Lauze, equine rescue and training manager for the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animal (MSPCA) at Nevins Farm, said the club asked him to do the training and invited the fire department to join in, an invitation Lauze was glad to see.

“The reason fire departments are one of the big groups I try to get to with training is that, think about it, if something happens to your horse, who is the first person you’re going to call? The fire department,” Lauze explained. “They don’t panic and they’re good at that kind of thing.”

Lauze said that rescue calls for horses can range from the animals falling down in trailers to treacherous situations involving ice, an extreme instance of which took place in Hamilton in January 2014.

The Hamilton Fire Department took part in similar training last year, Lauze said, so Saturday’s training was a refresher course in how to use a rescue glide, a backboard for horses, as well as some other safety techniques.

Lauze said that fire departments are generally resourceful when it comes to rescues and they “usually get it done.”

“My job is to teach them faster and safer ways to get it done,” he said.

Lauze said he designs his training around how familiar with horses a particular group is. In Hamilton, ”you turn around and there’s a horse,” so the fire department is getting increasingly comfortable with the large animals, he said.

According to Lauze, the National Fire and Safety Board has recommended that large animal rescue be part of the regular curriculum, a recommendation he fully supports given that many departments don’t necessarily consider the training a need until after they’ve had to respond to an incident involving a large animal.

In Hamilton, one of those incidents occurred recently when a horse fell in a trailer at Groton House Farm, Fire Chief Phil Stevens said in a Town of Hamilton report.

Photos: Town of Hamilton (Photo 1); Patch archival story (Photo 2)