Cereal Volunteer Fire Department takes Livestock Emergencies in Transport course

On this past, very chilly, weekend, the Cereal Volunteer Fire Department embarked on a long-postponed essential training course. This course, delivered through Lakeland College, entitled “Livestock Emergencies in Transport”, took place at the Crossroads Centre (Oyen) in a safe, socially distanced manner February 6th and 7th.

Over the weekend, the participants were able to experience the use of, and practice with, Cereal’s new Livestock Emergency Response trailer & its equipment. After having this specialized trailer & equipment for almost two years, it was imperative to finally train the area volunteers on its use. And, what made this training even more important is that Hanna is the only other fire department in this part of Special Areas with this equipment.

The course trained the team on various techniques for effective removal of different types of livestock from a variety of livestock trailers involved in accidents.

Finally, the group practiced caring for scared and injured animals as well as ways to capture livestock, construct pens to hold them, and re-load livestock onto other vehicles at accident scenes.

Overall, the team found the training very useful and gained a better understanding of the equipment to use and the protocols to follow when dealing with accidents involving livestock. And, none of this would have been possible without the help of many. In particular, thanks so much to Terry Stachniak & Lakeland College for the training course, Bill Dalton Trucking & Kevin Herron for providing & hauling the cattle liner to the course, Rocky Miller for providing the cattle, and Big Country Ag Society for their generous donation to the Cereal Fire Dept.