Local towing companies team up for large-scale first responder training

It was eight years ago, almost to the day that Judy McNair received the horrible news that her brother, John Eastman Litzke, had tragically lost his life. An Olivet firefighter, Litzke was returning from an emergency call during a thunderstorm on Sept. 25, 2007 when his truck was struck by a fallen limb.
On this past Saturday, Sept. 26, Judy and Larry McNair, owners of Country Side Towing and Recovery, honored his memory at a special first-responder training event they hosted at the Eaton County Fairgrounds.
“It was a very touching moment,” said Tony Sanfilippo of Country Side Towing. “This event was held in remembrance to him.”
The concept actually started a year ago, when Country Side first held a training event for local first responders. Partnering this year with Shroyer’s Towing and McDonald’s Towing, the Sept. 26 event provided an opportunity for a number of realistic training scenarios.
Dean Transportation donated a bus, Williams Farm Machinery donated a combine and McDonald’s Towing brought in one of its large-scale wreckers, which allowed departments to respond to a number of life and death scenarios.
“We tried to set it up as an accident that could very easily happen,” Sanfilippo said. “They had to deal with a bus roll over that set up a number of scenarios. The first responders had to work together to handle the rescus, crowd control and a fatality.”
Sanfilipo said eight to 10 local agencies — including fire, police and EMS — participated in the training, which he said may become an annual event. He said the local agencies received a DVD of the training session to analyze how they performed and where improvements can be made.
“We wanted to provide a number of different avenues so people know what could happen and how to work together,” Sanfilippo said.
Country Side Towing, Shroyer’s Towing and McDonald’s Towing would like to thank the Eaton County Fairboard, Meijer, AVP Video, Dean Transportation, Williams Farm Machinery, DJ Jeff Wood, Eaton Area EMS, Hayes Green Beach Memorial Hospital and Sanborn Sign Crafters for helping make it a successful event.