BY JOANIE MORRIS
SALISBURY POST

ENOCHVILLE—On Deal Road Saturday night, there was a bus on top of a car, a car that had overturned and farm machinery on top of people. There were also 68 rescue workers ready to help.

“We were planning on about 40 people,”said Coyt Karriker, chief of the Rowan County Rescue Squad. The cars, bus and farm equipment were part of a training exercise that was originally supposed to be a small training class.

“We didn’t turn anybody down,”Karriker said. “How many ever came, we just tried to make accommodations for them.”

At the training exercise, Karriker had a state instructor come to show rescue workers how to use the equipment on which they were training.

Rowan Rescue purchased a new rescue tool, called a ResQ Jack, and used it for the first time Saturday. It’s a stabilizing tool that cost $2,500 with attachments.

“It’s a time-saving device as far as stabilizing the vehicle,”Karriker added. That allows emergency workers to get victims out quicker, with a greater chance of surviving.

“That will enable them to quickly and effectively stabilize a vehicle that happens to be side resting or inverted,”Billy Leach, fire rescue instructor from the state, said.

“It will dramatically increase the speed and efficiency of a rescue operation. ... Not only will it increase the speed, but it will increase the safety of the workers as well as the victims.” . . . . . . .