Firefighters learn the ropes in daring 100ft abseil off shopping centre car park

Firefighters took a 100ft plunge in a daring training exercise in the town centre on Friday.

A crew of 10 from Scottish Fire and Rescue’s rope rescue unit carried out jaw-dropping exercises which saw three trainees abseil off the top floor of Centre West car park carrying a horizontal stretcher.

East Kilbride is the only fire station in the west of Scotland with a specialist rope rescue team, where firefighters use specialist and technical equipment to carry out rescues at height and in confined spaces.

They are trained to carry out difficult and often grim rescues at a variety of risky spots including cliffs and quarries, high structures such as bridges, tower cranes, pylons and wind turbines, as well as rescues from sewers.

Red Watch Crew Commander John Armstrong told Lanarkshire Live he was delighted with the outcome of the exercise and thanked centre management for their assistance with the vital training.

He said: “We get a certain amount of training reserve days where a standby fire engine is brought into East Kilbride which allows us to go out and concentrate on rope rescue. It’s a specialist skill so it means we have uninterrupted time to train.

“We tend to go somewhere off-site for realistic rope training as this is the kind of environment we go to when we get an operational incident such as big bridges, rock faces and hills where the edges are not easy to pull someone over.

“As much as it’s about training this is about getting our guys up to a standard where they’re a full member of the team.

“Through partnership working with the town centre we were able to arrange this, we’re grateful for the opportunity.”

EK East Kilbride centre manager, Alan Smillie, said: “We were delighted to be able to help facilitate the exercise and would like to thank our shoppers for their patience and support as the fire and rescue service completed this important element of their ongoing training programme.”

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