West Virginia First Responders Undergo Elevator Entrapment Training

Firefighters and county Department of Homeland Security (DHS) personnel in Elkins, West Virginia, underwent training on how to respond to elevator entrapments during a recent weekend in June, The Inter-Mountain reports. With Elkins Fire Department Chief Steve Himes observing “there’s not a lot of good information in the basic firefighter curriculum” that teaches responders about elevator entrapments; the event was “really informative.” Conducted by a retired fire chief from New Jersey who is also current Braxton County DHS director, the training included instructions on how to operate landing doors, manually lower elevator cars and activate firefighter bypass operations. Himes says most elevators in the small city of approximately 7,000 are hydraulic, with a few traction systems, which, he says, “are a whole different animal.” He is working toward getting additional elevator training for city firefighters.