Cook County hosts 25th annual Emergency Services Conference

The Cook County Emergency Services Conference offers a multitude of training opportunities. Over the last 25 years, emergency responders have practiced responses to mock plane crashes, vehicle fires, hazardous material spills, search and rescue operations, airbag explosions, and much more. Here, a Hovland firefighter gets practice at the scene of a bus crash. The next conference will be April 25 – 26.

For 25 years, Cook County has been hosting an emergency services conference in Grand Marais on the last weekend of April. For 25 years, First Responders, firefighters, sheriff deputies, law enforcement dispatchers, Border Patrol agents, EMTs and other medical workers, members of search and rescue and others involved in emergency situations have gathered to learn from one another. Emergency workers from around the region and across the border have participated. They will be gathering once again this year for the 2014 Cook County Emergency Services Conference on April 25- 26.

Conference Coordinator, Emergency Management Director Jim Wiinanen issued the invitation to this year’s conference, stating, “With most Cook County responder entities migrating to ARMER in the last year to six months, we felt it appropriate to focus on communications. ‘If communications is the key, what does it unlock?’” asked Wiinanen.

All of the conference information is available online at http:// www.co.cook.mn.us/extension/ index. php/ 2014- registration. Anyone with questions may call Wiinanen at (218) 387-3059.

Conference activities are in various locations, but it kicks off at the Cook County Community Center on April 25 at noon.

EMS Director Wiinanen encouraged emergency workers to register soon to help with planning. A $10 suggested registration is payable at the door when you sign in at the conference.

Wiinanen added, “Twentyfive years of Emergency Services Conferences may be a milestone. But that pales compared to the evolution of emergency service in the county. I hear that the first ambulance in the county came in 1948 and if you attend the conference you will learn about that vehicle and the changes in emergency service through the years.”