Back to Faculty
Faculty

Norman Rooker

Paramedic
Chief (ret)
Medic of Fortune

Norm Rooker has been involved in EMS & Rescue since 1973. His career has covered numerous venues from the City of St. Louis to the streets of San Francisco to the mountains of Colorado and have ranged from standard EMS and supervision/administration to Special Operations including structural collapse rescue, SWAT/Tactical EMS, surf rescue swimmer and rope rescue geek, among others. After retiring as Chief of Ouray County EMS Norm has been doing contract and incident management work including serving as a Line Paramedic and a Medical Unit Leader for wildfires. He is a popular speaker and writer along with being a past member of the NASAR Board of Directors, a founding member of the IAEMSC and a founding member of NAEMT’s Disaster Response Committee.

2026 Sessions

You Pushed a School Bus Off of What? Red Mountain Bus FTX and the Guiding Line

Yes, I understand

The portion of U.S. Highway 550 that connects the city of Ouray to Silverton, Colorado, is 27 highly scenic and twisty miles with very few guardrails and steep drop offs of up to 410 feet. From January of 2005 to 2008 Ouray County emergency services responded to eight over-the-side vehicle rescues, all for cars, SUVs or vans. Emergency responders for this portion of Colorado wondered what rescue strategies would be needed to respond to a bus going over the side a la the Mexican Hat Utah 2008 motor coach accident and rescue efforts. Towards that end a school bus was obtained and pushed over the side of Red Mountain. This session covers how this field training exercise—two years in the making—was put together, silos of jurisdiction and responsibility were overcome, what strategy and tactics were selected, how it played out, and the lessons learned.

Other

Friday, October 02 8:30–9:30 AM
Room W230 B
Faculty

Norman Rooker

Paramedic
Chief (ret)
Medic of Fortune

Norm Rooker has been involved in EMS & Rescue since 1973. His career has covered numerous venues from the City of St. Louis to the streets of San Francisco to the mountains of Colorado and have ranged from standard EMS and supervision/administration to Special Operations including structural collapse rescue, SWAT/Tactical EMS, surf rescue swimmer and rope rescue geek, among others. After retiring as Chief of Ouray County EMS Norm has been doing contract and incident management work including serving as a Line Paramedic and a Medical Unit Leader for wildfires. He is a popular speaker and writer along with being a past member of the NASAR Board of Directors, a founding member of the IAEMSC and a founding member of NAEMT’s Disaster Response Committee.
Back to top