Local Company Donates $10K Worth of Training to Middletown Emergency Management

On a sweltering Saturday morning, 12 members of Middletown's Emergency Management staff and volunteers took part Saturday in an invaluable emergency vehicle operations course training at Middletown High School.

It was part of a 40-hour classroom and practical training course donated by Deputy Director of Middletown's Emergency Management Services Angel Fernandez's company, Eleven Charlie LLC.

This nearly $10,000 training, Rodriguez says, took place during national hurricane preparedness week — June 1 to November 1 — in the large parking lot at the city's high school.

EMS Director Bruce Driska and Fernandez, the only two paid members of the department, were joined by Special Ops Instructors Greg Heddell (US Navy SEALs) and Alan Rodriguez (USMC Force Recon), who came all the way from Long Island to train volunteers in an intense and demanding obstacle course set up on various lanes of the high school parking lot with orange cones. 

While Middletown is the only city in the state to have full-time paid EMS directors, it still doesn't have the budget to provide annual classroom and practical  training like that provided by Eleven Charlie LLC. Fernandez says the town of South Windsor has already requested an information session — to learn how Middletown's EMS works and train its own personnel for possible emergencies.

When you watch the video, these maneuvers are done at 25 miles per hour, certainly a lower speed than most typical police and fire routine activities — but still able to hone the skills of staff and volunteers to react at the drop of a at in such emergencies like a child or animal running out in front of a vehicle or the rapid lane chance sometimes necessary in high-intensity emergency response. 

Prior to our ride-through, Heddell offered some scientific explanation of what takes place in extreme maneuvering.

"You have to understand the physics of the vehicle," he says, talking about the Escalade's coil spring. 

"If I'm making an aggressive maneuver with that, I'm actually using that to my advantage. I'm pressing and loading it and as I'm loading it, if I want to go right and I do a hard turn, I brake and I do a hard turn at the same time. I'd be throwing all that inertia onto that left front tire and the suspension is coming down," Heddell explains.

"It wants to go back to its happy state. It actually will throw the front end of the vehicle in the direction it wants to go."

Heddell, who is originally from Alaska, promised this reporter "the ride of a lifetime" — and delivered tenfold. A single run-through of the course left this journalist and her completely useless camera and notebook bouncing around this giant Ford Escalade's cab and her 9-year-old son strapped in the back seat impressed beyond belief.

"Every year, emergency management services gets busier and busier," Fernandez says, "and these sorts of programs reduce the liability" the city would have to assume if a hurricane or blizzard struck Middletown and EMS staff weren't so well-trained. 

Eleven Charlie LLC's mission is to provide security-consulting services for the improvement of safety and protection of our assets, according to its Facebook page. 

"We strongly believe our customers are our greatest assets, and we are dedicated in providing the highest quality of services possible to meet their needs. Eleven Charlie is comprised of skilled and talented professionals who understand Homeland Security Protection and Anti-terrorism techniques that benefit all. Our team is unparalleled because of our hands on experience as professional federal, military, and local law enforcement officers."

Make an announcement, trumpet your business news, speak your mind, or sell something on Middletown Patch's boards here.