Fire & rescue

On Friday morning I head out on my journey to Nagahama via the mountains. More on that later.

But before I even really got out of town, I happened upon this exercise by the fire department. The young men were just lining up as I cycled by and one belted out a loud “GOOD MORNING!”

When I got to the scene, the kind Mr Yamada of the department explained what would happen in the exercise. I was welcome to watch, and he pointed out where I could stand without getting in the way. Someone (a dummy) was trapped in the car, and had to be rescued. They had to use a lot of ropes and climbing equipment. I also saw how they used something (maybe an ultrasonic sound device?) to shatter the window so that the glass could easily be pushed out. They also had to use ropes and pulleys to get the dummy out. They even practiced reassuring “the patient” by asking whether he was okay or telling him to just hold on a bit more.

They had another scenario coming up, but I decided to keep on. Turns out Mr Yamada is from Nagahama. He told me to watch out for the inoshishi on the mountain road.