One man’s trash is another man’s training tools at the San Marcos Fire Department. During the biannual machinery rescue training class, firefighters from across Central Texas gather in San Marcos to practice using various tools in simulated hazard scenarios. Green Guy Recycling provides cars, machinery, appliances and scrap metal to offer the rescuers a tangible training experience. Once training is complete, the crew at Green Guy Recycling hauls off the equipment to be recycled at their facilities.
The Regional Standardization of Equipment & Training organization, or ReSET facilitates the training.
“ReSET is the collective of the regional fire departments,” said SMFD Engine One Captain Billy Mullins. “We come together to make sure we all train to the same standard and have the same certifications so if we bounce around from area to area to work and end up working together, we’ve all trained together, we’ve all run with the same equipment.”
The training in San Marcos focused on machinery rescue, disentangling people from workplace machinery or everyday machines such as car accidents. Firefighters from Austin, Lake Travis, Pflugerville, Pedernales and Liberty Hill joined the San Marcos crew.
Training included multiple scenarios such as a worker getting their arm stuck down a pump at a water treatment facility. Fire fighters worked together to cut through the pipe while saving the stuffed dummy’s arm.
“This class is an opportunity for guys to get hands on with tools they don’t necessarily get to work with every day,” Mullins said. “This is our opportunity to introduce them to those tools and show them how those tools work in these rescue scenarios and situations.”
Other simulated scenarios involved a car crash impalement and restaurant machinery mishaps inside an industrial mixer.
The course runs two days, the first focused on tool learning while the second day is focused on simulated scenarios.
“We teach them tips and tricks like lifting cars with ladders and other non-plan-a type situations,” Mullins said. The training offers the space for firefighters to think outside the box in case scenarios don’t go according to plan.
In the past, the ReSET team would source equipment from garage sales to train on. Joey Harkrider of Green Guy Recycling got wind of this and knew he could help.
Mullins applauded Harkrider’s ability to quickly provide multiple roll-off dumpsters full of machinery and parts for the firefighters to use.
“This is a unique opportunity for us to do disruptive training on industrial equipment that we will see in the real field, but that we just can’t get our hands on. It’s amazing what [Green Guy] is able to provide for us and the best thing is none of it’s going in the trash, it’s all going back and getting recycled,” Mullins said.
Green Guy Recycling has been helping San Marco residents recycle their unwanted metal for 30 years, solidifying itself as a Legacy Business and employing over 30 people.
“[The equipment] is getting recycled with us, but then we’re recycling it again with the fire department, and then it’s getting recycled back again for a third time,” Harkrider said.
The company recycles over 45 million pounds per year, meaning it’s recycled more than a billion pounds over the course of their three decades of service to the San Marcos community.
