BY RYAN GILBERT
IMAGINE THIS: YOU ARE THE FIRSTDUE ENGINE ON A breadandbutter residential contents fire in your district. The stretch goes perfectly, and forcible entry is not a problem, but as you are advancing the hoseline 30 feet into the structure, you encounter an unconscious victim. Do you have a plan for quickly and efficiently removing that victim from the deadly atmosphere?
As firefighters, we are naturally confident people, but overconfidence can breed complacency. I used the above scenario to put a question to several of the firefighters in my department: What would you do? All of them said that they would simply “grab the victim and go.” It sounds reasonable, but in realworld conditions, grabbing an unconscious body and hauling it out is anything but simple.
In our training, the “victims” are usually inanimate dummies that could never replicate the gelatinlike consistency of a truly unconscious person, or the “victims” are other firefighters who are typically fit people wearing bunker gear (which makes great handles). We must also remain mindful that heat, smoke, and the lack of visibility may render some of the techniques we take for granted impractical or even harmful to the victim. These factors, combined with the fact that fires are becoming increasingly rare, create the opportunity for complacency in one of our most important and basic tasks saving people from fire.
Not finding any victims on the fireground seems to be a common expectation today. Incident commanders and company officers cannot wait for the radio transmission, “Primary search complete; nothing found.” Being surprised when a victim is found while performing a search is as inexcusable as being surprised by discovering fire showing when responding to an automatic fire alarm. We must search the fire building as if our family members were inside, and we must not forget that when we do find victims our journey is only half done.
More than a year ago, my crew and I endeavored to gather as much information as possible on the subject of victim removal and distill it down to the most consistently useful techniques. We performed hundreds of training evolutions under zerovisibility conditions to find out what worked best. The results were surprising.
VICTIM-REMOVAL TECHNIQUES
This article focuses on five tried and true methods of victim removal to put into your “rescue toolbox.” For clarity, I won’t delve into the oriented search, vententersearch (VES), or other search techniques. I will assume that all other search priorities, such as closing the door in a VES operation, making a quick sweep for additional victims, and giving a quick radio report, have been accomplished.
The benefits of these methods are that they do not rely on clothes, which may or may not be present, and your hold on the victim will never be in question no matter how slippery the victim may be.
Conventional Method
If you have a short distance to travel and the fire conditions do not necessitate keeping the victim low, sit the victim up, reach under his armpits, and grab his wrists. The second rescuer then crosses the victim’s ankles and puts both legs over one shoulder as he turns and lifts (similar to lifting a ground ladder). The key to lifting the victim’s legs over the rescuer’s shoulder is for both rescuers to explosively and simultaneously lift the victim as if performing an Olympic “clean and jerk.” Now both rescuers are facing forward, can exit the fire building quickly, and can navigate stairs easily (photo 1). Additionally, the rescuer in front has one hand free to carry a thermal imaging camera (TIC) or hand tool.
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Figure 4
If you need to keep the victim low, the most secure way to grab the victim is to use the Figure 4 method on a limb: Place one of the victim’s limbs in the crook of your elbow, grab your opposite arm, and place that hand on the victim’s limb (photo 2). If the victim’s limb is too big to perform this method, grasp your hands together under the victim’s limb; it will be almost as secure. This is an excellent method for one firefighter to remove a victim after forcing a door and performing a quick hostile search of the room.
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FAST Strap
There are few things more hotly debated in the fire service than webbing drags. Some see them as too finicky and detail oriented to work in the chaos of the fire scene. Ultimately, if a technique does not work in the worst conditions, it needs to be refined or thrown out completely. This means that victimremoval techniques must work in high heat and zero visibility and should not necessitate fine motor movements. The FAST Strap method meets these requirements and has the added benefit of being quick and simple.
Once you locate the victim, orient yourself in relation to the victim by placing your knee between the victim’s head and shoulder. This knee will serve as an anchor and ensure that you don’t get confused about your position in relation to the victim if visibility deteriorates. It doesn’t matter if the victim is lying face up or face down, though face up is preferred.
Take out your loop of webbing (any size loop greater than about two feet will work), and pin it to the ground with the knee you are using as the anchor (photo 3). With a bight of your webbing pinned to the ground, hold up the other end with your nondominant hand to make a loop. With your dominant hand, pull one of the victim’s arms through the loop, and then his other arm (photos 4, 5). Reach through the loop from bottom to top, and grab the bight of webbing anchored to the ground with your knee (photo 6). Pull this bight through the original loop while pushing the original loop underneath the victim’s head (photo 7). You have effectively girth-hitched your webbing around the victim’s shoulders without any cumbersomerolling of the victim (photo 8).
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The second rescuer can then clip his webbing loops to the FAST strap, throw it over his shoulder, and have both hands free for tools or a TIC and orienting their exit along the wall. Not only can both rescuers face forward and exit the building quickly no matter how big the victim is, but the strap protects the victim’s head, preventing collisions with door frames or furniture. Most importantly,this approach enables the victim and firefighters to stay low in the most survivable atmosphere.
It takes about five to 10 seconds to put the FAST strap on the victim in zero visibility with your fire gloves on. We found in our trials that if the victim must be kept low and you are more than 10 feet from the exit, it’s quicker to put the FAST strap on the victim than to use any other technique. It takes a lot of discipline to take the extra six seconds to put the FAST strap on the victim when your adrenaline is up, but it will pay huge dividends on the way out.
“L” Carry
If you need a webbing harness to lift the victim or carry him up or down stairs, take the victim out a window, or lower an unconscious victim by rope, the “L” Carry is ideal. It is essentially an impromptu seat and chest harness. You will need a six-foot webbing loop or two three-footers connected. Roll the victim on his back, cross his arms high across his chest, and pin the arms there with your knee. This ensures that the victim’s arms will not slide off his chest and that you will never need to let go of the webbing. With your webbing, loop the victim’s nearest leg; pull the loop high into the victim’s crotch (photo 9). Lay the remainder across the victim’s chest in an “L,” and slide it into the victim’s armpits without letting go of the webbing (photo 10). Take your knee off the victim’s arms (again, without letting go of the webbing), and sit the victim up with your fists in his back (photo 11).
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Secure the ends of the webbing behind the victim’s back. For this, we devised a sort of double lark’s foot we call “the 6 hitch.” With your wrists through the loops of webbing and your knee in the victim’s back, to prevent him from falling, first pull one bight through the other in a lark’s foot while leaving your wrist in the remaining bight. Now pass the tail to your hand that is still in the bight and pull it through again (photos 12-15). This is a quick way to ensure that the webbing will not fall apart and that the strap will be easy to find if you need to let go of it for any reason. Also, you can hold onto the tail until you have the victim securely on a ground ladder or clipped into a rope for lowering.
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Now you have a harness on the victim that is low on his center of gravity and very secure. When carrying the victim, grab the knot at the victim’s back with one hand, turn around, and walk forward. The second rescuer can cross the victim’s ankles and lift them onto his shoulder similar to the conventional method, except that he is facing the victim. The second rescuer must make sure to get as deep under the victim’s hips as possible, to take most of the weight off of the primary rescuer. This method is quick and uncomplicated and results in a secure handle that is perfect for taking the victim up stairs and lifting him out of a window onto a ground ladder.
Firefighter’s Carry
This classic carry has recently lost favor in the fire service and is discounted because it is considered antiquated or too difficult. In the right situation, though, this carry can literally be a life-saver. Obviously, you must rule out using it in any situation where the thermal and smoke layering prohibits you from lifting the victim onto your shoulders. However, if you have a long way to go, and puttingthe victim onto your shoulders will not cause him additional harm, the Firefighter’s Carry is one of the best methods for victim removal.
For two rescuers to perform this carry, first get the victim on his back, and bend his knees so his heels are touching his butt (photo 16). Sit the victim up, and drive him forward so that he is balanced on the balls of his feet (photo 17). The primary rescuer (in front) reaches under the victim’s armpits; the second rescuer does the same. Both rescuers lift the victim to standing; then the second rescuer rests the victim down on his knee (photo 18). He then grabs the victim low around the waist and both rescuers, again, lift the victim. This time, the second rescuer balances all of the victim’s weight on his hip (photo 19). The primary rescuer squats and grabs the victim’s leg with one arm. The second rescuer drapes the victim over the primary rescuer’s shoulders, and the primary rescuer grabs his arm (photo 20). The secondary rescuer grabs the victim’s free leg, and both rescuers lift the victim onto the primary rescuer’s shoulder (photo 21). They are now ready to quickly exit.
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The beauty of this technique is that once you get the victim up on your shoulders, there is no friction to remove the victim. All you have to do is walk out. With the weight properly centered, a large victim feels surprisingly light, and you still have one hand free. It is for these reasons that the Firefighter’s Carry is a favorite with the military.
Additionally, with the victim in a Firefighter’s Carry, a window-to-ground ladder transition becomes so easy that you’ll never want to do it any other way. Simply pass the victim’s legs out of the window to the ladder rescuer (photo 22). The ladder rescuer reaches between the victim’s legs and grabs the back of the beam of the ladder (photo 23). Then, as you rotate your back toward the window, the victim naturally gets placed on the ladder properly with the ladder rescuer’s other hand grabbing the beam underneath the victim’s armpit (photo 24).
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These techniques represent just a few of many firefighters have perfected across the nation. Rescuing a victim who has been overcome by smoke in a structure fire is one of the most pure and unadulterated realizations of our mission. Unfortunately, as our knowledge base expands to take care of our ever diversifying call load, we must caution ourselves not to lose sight of the basics. Compare the techniques in this article with what you have learned; then evaluate them to see what works best for your fire company.
Training for just 30 minutes per shift can ingrain these techniques into members’ muscle memory and might make the difference at the next fire. We enjoy an unparalleled public trust built by countless generations of firefighters who made saving people from fire their life’s work. Only by dedicating ourselves to continuing their commitment can we make ourselves worthy of standing on their shoulders.
RYAN GILBERT has been a career firefighter for 12 years and is assigned to Engine 3 at the Bellingham (WA) Fire Department.
