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Basement Rescue Video

Here is a great video of some basement removal techniques. This is another video from Dale Pekel, who looks like he may have gotten a promotion? Dale? Anyway, these props are able to be used for multiple drills and Dale is very generous with how to build them.

These two techniques are great and you can see that one must be comfortable and well trained in the use of the SCBA. Confidence comes from continued use and training. You must master the basics and know your tools like the back of your hand. This allows you to perform the more advanced tasks without worrying about the simple things because they become second nature.

Train hard and stay safe. Thanks Dale for another great video.

Jason

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Posted by dc802 on April 14, 2011 • Filed under: buildling construction, fire-rescue-topics, firefighter-safety-health, rescues, RIT, scba, self rescue, situational awareness, size up, training-development, training-fire-rescue-topics • Tagged: basement drills, basement removal, basement rescue, dale pekel, downed firefighter, drills, firefighter removal from a basement, firefighter rescue, mayday, RIT, training

Breakdown of FDIC 2010 H.O.T. Classes: RIT Combat Drills

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The second day of HOT classes at FDIC 2010 was RIT Combat Drills with Assistant Chief of Pittsburgh, Jim Crawford and his crew. This day was an eight hour day and it was challenging to say the least.

There were two houses set up for scenarios and evolutions to simulate downed firefighters and the techniques to rescue them. There were four stations at each house: lowering, deployment, lifting and the Pittsburgh Drill.

The deployment was designed to deploy a rescue team with air, rope and some hand tools to find the downed firefighter and to stabilize the situation and to determine what resources will be needed. In addition, this drill required us to remove the downed firefighter as fast as possible after getting him air and with just the tools we brought in.

The lowering drill required the team to raise a ladder to a second story window and send in a rescue team. While the rescue team was searching the room, the ladder was moved to the roof level to set up a lowering system to lower the firefighter from. The interior crew had to secure the downed firefighter with straps/webbing and get him out the window while the crew on the ground lowered him down.

The Pittsburgh Drill was by far the most challenging drill of the day. This video shows the basic concept, but we were more confined in a smaller area and the downed firefighter dummy had an air tank on that had to be manipulated during the removal. The rescue team had to low profile at least twice and in some instances, four times during this drill while having our masked blacked out.

The lifting drill had a downed firefighter trapped under debris. The RIT crew had to make entry, figure out the best way to extricate the firefighter and what equipment would be needed. In most cases, this was performed with airbags and with cribbing. The most difficult aspects of this drill were coordinating the airbag lifts and communicating without visibility.

The final drill was a scenario where all the drills we went through would be applicable for a final rescue of three Maydays. It was a team building exercise and multiple teams were needed to rescue one victim. Air management is paramount and the teams must understand when to call in the next team without running out of air.

I would highly recommend this class to anyone wanting a real challenge. The instructors were supportive and provided a great deal of experience and knowledge to back up the drills.

Thanks to Frank Lipski at Firefighting101 for the lowering video.

Train hard and be careful.

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Posted by dc802 on May 1, 2010 • Filed under: fire-rescue-topics, firefighter-safety-health, firefighting-operations, line-of-duty, mayday, rescues, RIT, training-development, training-fire-rescue-topics • Tagged: downed firefighter, fdic, FDIC 2010, firefighter rescue, mayday, RIT, RIT combat drills, rit exercises

Personal Harness H.O.T. Class from FDIC 2010

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This was the afternoon class that I took on Monday at FDIC 2010. The class was led by Dan DiRenzo and his crew form Safety and Survival Training. They did a great job and the class kept moving; no standing around and waiting.

Lowering from a 5th story roof.

My evolution started on the roof which was five stories tall.

We used the harness to lower a firefighter to the ground. In the lowering process, only the harnesses were used (other than the safety line) which showed the versatility of our harnesses.

The method for wrapping the hook on our harnesses is simple, effective and should be easy to use in limited visibility atmospheres. This method was also used for the bailout evolution.

We bailed out of a second story window using our harnesses.

The bailout evolution was by far the funnest part of the day. There were three opportunities to bailout and I think everyone took advantage of that.

Although this was not a bailout class, this evolution showed how to perform it and what to carry to have the capability. No specific brand was pushed, just the tools needed.

There were some vendors on site to allow you to use their harness and bailout system if needed. Again, the bailout was used with no special hardware, just the anchor point and your harness. Yes, safety lines were used throughout.

More bailout pics.

The next evolution was the downed firefighter removal station. This was a very informative and versatile evolution.

We were shown how to use our hooks and harness and that of the downed firefighter to remove a downed firefighter.

It allowed us to use webbing and two-man removal methods that made the rescuing of a downed firefighter a little easier. It allows us to use our center of gravity and legs to drag a firefighter out without pulling his air pack off and without hurting ourselves in the process.

Using the harness to drag a downed firefighter.

The toughest part of the drag evolution was the removal up a stairwell. This was physically demanding even with the methods learned.

I would recommend this class to anyone that has just recently obtained personal harnesses or for those that want to utilize them to their fullest.

Stay safe and I will have some more in the coming days from the RIT Combat Drills that just about did me in.

Take care and train hard.

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Posted by dc802 on April 29, 2010 • Filed under: fire-rescue-topics, firefighter-safety-health, fun stuff, rescues, RIT, special-operations, training-development, training-fire-rescue-topics • Tagged: bailout, dan direnzo, downed firefighter, fdic, FDIC 2010, firefighter drag, hot classes, lowering systems, personal harness training, safety and survival training

Downed Firefighter Drills

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Well, I couldn’t not post this video. Brotherhood Instructors has this on their Facebook page and it is a great video. Now, before you watch it, there will be some who say “yeah, what about….” and that is fine. The point is that it gives you some good tools to work and train with.

Now, get out there and do it!