On 17th of June 2024 the Austrian Red Cross and the Rescue Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Armenia organised a first fire & rescue simulation exercise with the Volunteer Fire Rescue Group of Khachik.

Mrs Anna Bagty, representative of the Austrian Development Agency in Vienna visited the project the same day. She attended the simulation exercise and had official meetings with the representatives of the community of Areni, locality of Khachik and representatives of the Rescue Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs from Yerevan and Yeghegnadzor.

The scenario was an emergency in a house, with a fire on the ground floor and a casualty trapped on the first floor. The crew commander had to organise the crew, with the first team responsible for extinguishing the fire and the second team responsible for rescuing the casualty and getting him out safely.

The main aim of the exercise with PPE was to learn how to work as a crew, with each crew member having a specific role in the deployment: crew commander, driver, team leader 1, team member 1, team leader 2, team member 2.

The crew included 2 girls and 3 boys of the locality of Khachik.

One of the main lessons learned expressed by the volunteers was that they were able to deploy with limited exchanges between crew members, demonstrating that each crew member knew exactly what her or his role was.