Join us 1 day before the symposium to refresh your “Red Card” for the 2025. The RT130 will include required classroom education PLUS the Arduous pack test and Shelter Deployment! Head to the Registration page to sign up for the RT130 independent of the full symposium registration.

Need a refresher and a new card for your ACLS? Head to the Registration page to sign up for ACLS.

Need a refresher and a new card for your BLS/CPR? Head to the Registration page to sign up.

The purpose of this course is to optimize the knowledge, skills and abilities of experienced Pierce County paramedics in managing the airways, oxygenation and ventilation of EMS patients. Course participants, working in small groups, will practice technical skills and utilize critical decision-making skills in airway management scenarios. Written and practical evaluations will measure performance.

Event attendees gather for a morning debriefing on the days activities.

Brain Injury - From the Sidelines to the Fire line

In this exciting learning session, dual board certified emergency and sports medicine physician Tim Durkin will help you apply the latest concepts in concussion care from division 1 and professional sports and apply them on the fire line. You will learn field appropriate strategies to recognize, risk stratify and manage brain injury at all levels of severity. You will gain understanding of the physiology of concussion, how to help concussed patients recover, review key aspects of care for the critically brain injured patient, and get to apply these concepts in a variety of real world case studies.

Oregon WA Certified Rescue Training Courses Technical Rope Swiftwater

The Firefighter Knee

A strong, stable and functional knee is essential for fire fighter effectiveness, health, safety, mobility and career longevity. In this session, Dr Durkin will draw on his 30+ years of unique clinical experiences in prehospital response, ER work, Power 5 collegiate sports medicine, occupational medicine for fire departments, and outpatient orthopedics to help you optimize care for the injured knee and minimize injury risk for you and your teammates. You’ll learn about appropriate strategies for knee dislocation reduction, how to recognize limb threatening catastrophic injuries, and how initial care in the field can lay the groundwork for rapid recovery or prolonged disability. Additionally, we will apply evidence from high level sports and the limited data on fire fighter injuries to infer how we can program training and conditioning to prevent both acute and overuse knee injuries, and give you resources you can take home to help promote injury prevention in your response community.

1a - Vendor Walk

1b - Blister & Foot Care, Heather Buben

1c - Eye Emergencies, Dr. Woody Peeples

The Smokehouse Creek Wildfire was a defining event in wildland emergency response, presenting unique challenges in medical support for firefighters and displaced communities. This case study examines the multidisciplinary response to the wildfire, which consumed over 1 million acres in under five days. The incident’s rapid escalation due to extreme weather conditions, rugged terrain, and resource constraints tested the capabilities of local emergency medical services (EMS) and highlighted critical areas for improvement.

This presentation will explore the deployment and integration of medical resources during the incident, focusing on the collaboration between Austin-Travis County EMS and local, regional, and state agencies. Key points include the establishment of medical staging areas in remote zones, managing injuries, and addressing the logistical hurdles of prolonged field operations with an incident that crossed state lines. A significant component of this case study is the innovative use of Wildland Paramedic Units and portable internet technology for situational awareness and medical supply delivery.

Lessons learned from Smokehouse Creek emphasize the importance of pre-incident training tailored to wildland scenarios, including triage under austere conditions and the ability of responders to treat patients for a prolonged time. Additionally, this case study underscores the necessity of adaptive planning in the face of rapidly changing fire behavior and environmental hazards.

Resilience and Psychological First Aid: Practical ways to avoid burnout while also supporting co-workers and the public. This course is based on the instructor's 20 years of experience with the Bay Area Crisis Response Team, the USFS CISM program, Cal Fire's Employee Support Services, and more than 1,000 crisis intervention responses. It will describe the physical, social, and spiritual sources of stress and renewal, along with basic principles of using Psychological First Aid for individuals and small groups.

2a - Vendor Walk

2b - MedL Round Table, various Med L

2c - REMS Standards, John Meyer

2d - UTV Use and Maintenance