A HAULING SYSTEM THAT’S “QUICK AND DIRTY”
Photos by John Gardner.
Not every difficulty encountered in fighting a fire aboard ship is proportional to the size of the vessel. As the size of a ship increases, so does the likelihood that its lower decks will be divided by transverse watertight bulkheads, which strengthen the ship’s hull against the forces of the sea and limit the extent of flooding. The bulkheads also may serve as firewalls, dividing the vessel into main vertical zones, which help to confine a fire to a manageable area.
Firefighters attempting to reach a fire burning on a lower deck can avoid the barrier of rising smoke and heat if they can make their descent by a stairway in an adjacent vertical zone and then initiate their attack at the same level as the fire through a watertight doorway. An unconscious crew member or injured firefighter can be dragged from the fire area into the refuge of a separate zone before being moved to an upper deck.
The accommodation (living area) of small vessels usually lacks the compartmentation of transverse bulkheads. Firefighters may have to endure smoke and heat rising up the only stairway (ladder) that will take them down to a cabin burning on a lower deck.
These adverse conditions make it almost physically impossible to carry a 200-pound unconscious person back up steep and narrow stairs from the lower decks of most coastal freighters, salvage vessels, and private yachts. Officers with responsibility for marine fire protection should ask themselves, Is it wise to send a firefighter down into a ship without a means to get him back up if he should get into trouble?
After training and fire experience on several types and sizes of vessels, the instructors of our Marine Firefighting Training Program have improvised a simple hauling system that can be quickly rigged to vertically evacuate an unconscious person from the lower decks of most ships. We borrowed equipment and techniques normally used in confined space entry or high-angle rescue and adapted them for our own specific application.
THE SYSTEM
The hauling system consists of 50 to 100 feet of bagged kernmantle rope, a pulley, two carabiners, and a large nylon web anchor strap. The free end of the rope is attached by a carabiner to the anchor strap, which is wrapped around a substantial object. The pulley, which travels on the rope, moves with the load (victim). The rope assumes a “V” shape as it runs from the anchor point, down through the pulley, and back to its bag. As the load is raised closer to the anchor point, both sides of the “V” get shorter at an equal rate and each side bears one half of the load. Since the person raising the load pulls on only one side of the “V,” the rope going into the bag, he realizes only one half of the weight or, theoretically, doubles his lifting power, thus achieving a 2:1 mechanical advantage.
This concept is certainly not new’ or difficult for anyone with basic rope rescue skills. What is new is its application under entirely different conditions. Those with expertise in rope rescue may question the system’s lack of sophistication: Why not use a 3:1 “Z” rig and avoid the tangle of two ropes and a pulley moving with the load? Where is the safety cam device? How about a directional pulley?
For the answers to these and similar questions, remember the conditions under which the hauling system will be used. We’re not rescuing a window washer off the face of a 10-story building; we’re raising a downed firefighter 10 feet in blinding smoke. Any system used in such a desperate situation must be simple — simple to rig and use, a system with a minimum number of components, and one that does not require any knot tying. The only knot in the entire system, which attaches the rope to the carabiner at the anchor point, should be pretied with whatever knot your department uses to tie a loop in the end of a rope.
When rigging the system, tty to anchor the hoisting rope as high as possible, directly over the victim. A high anchor point, while not a necessity, is preferred because it will raise the victim directly upward. A lower anchor point will direct the pulling force at an angle that may pull the victim into the stairs as well as up the stairs
Of course, a high anchor point isn’t always possible, either because one isn’t available or it’s too smoky to find one. In these situations, a backboard can be improvised as a ‘ skid” to help slide a victim on a stairway that is not directly in line with the direction of pull. As the hauling system forces the victim against the stairs while being raised, the backboard simply provides a smooth surface that allows the victim to slide over the treads.
When the anchor point is less than ideal, lay a backboard on the stairs with the bottom end resting on the deck. The victim is dragged to the base of the stairs. When there are no corners to negotiate, the victim actually can be pulled with the hauling system in a straight line to the stairs. The victim will slide up the backboard as he is raised from the deck. A rescuer will hold the backboard in place and keep it from moving up the stairs until the victim’s head is even with the top of the board. The backboard then can be pulled up the stairs in unison with the victim.
Although it should be apparent, it is important to note that stairs are not necessary to raise a victim. Stairs, in fact, get in the way, necessitating the backboard to slide the victim over the treads.
The victim is raised in a harness fashioned with two 15-foot lengths of tubular webbing, pretied into loops. Whatever harness is used must be as simple as the hauling system; it must be able to be applied quickly to a victim in poor visibility and with no knot tying to complicate matters. The harness that we use meets the criteria; it is also easy to teach, learn, and remember.
Although one rescuer can attach the harness to a victim in a few seconds, the process is easier with the help of a second rescuer. The victim is first rolled onto his back. A rescuer pushes and holds the victim’s torso in a sitting position. One loop of webbing is laid on the victim’s lap and each end of the loop is run under the closest leg, from outside to inside. After encircling a leg, both loop ends will meet between the legs at the groin area. The second webbing loop is run through both ends of the first loop at the victim’s groin and back under each arm. One end of the second loop then is run through the other and “cinched” to form a girth hitch, which tightens at the victim’s back. Webbing beyond the girth hitch can be wrapped around the rescuer’s hand to improve grip and allow the use of two hands to drag the victim. The harness serves as an expedient means of fastening the hauling system to the victim. A carabiner on the pulley snaps into the long loop formed by the girth hitch at the victim’s back. (Although it’s not essential in an actual rescue, the comfort of practice “victims” will be increased if they pad themselves with extra clothing and if the girth hitch is secured with an overhand knot to prevent it from becoming uncomfortably tight.) The assembly causes the victim to be lifted in an almost upright position to be raised through small openings.
APPLICATIONS
Although hoisting a victim can be a challenge, it may seem easy in comparison with the task that awaits firefighters who must get an unconscious person out of the tight, confined spaces of a lower deck. Living areas on the lower decks of small vessels are typically very close quarters. Dragging a person out of a cramped cabin and around corners in a narrow passageway is very difficult and may cause additional injuries. Dragging a victim by the wrists requires a lot of room to maneuver the full length of the body. The victim may be injured in tight spaces when the body is forced to bend in places where it wasn’t meant to bend.
It is under these conditions that the web harness really proves its usefulness as a rescue device. The harness gets the victim in a sitting position, which significantly reduces the overall length of body that must be dragged around corners. Dragging someone in a sitting position requires much less physical effort because it reduces the amount of body surface that creates friction resistance with the floor. With the torso off the floor, there are fewer body parts to catch under furniture and doors. Finally, the harness enables a rescuer to lift a victim over the raised sills in doorways of cabins and other compartments.
There are, of course, excellent devices on the market that will do a better job of packaging, carrying, and hoisting a person than any harness — // conditions permit their deployment. A stokes basket, semi-ridged litter, or extrication device should be used when you have enough time, space, and visibility.
Because of its simplicity, the hauling system is versatile in a wide range of nonmarine applications. The hoist and harness can be quickly rigged to raise civilians or firefighters from a shaft, up basement stairs, or through a hole cut in a floor or roof. There’s nothing delicate or high-tech about this simple hoist and harness, but simplicity may be just what firefighters need when the situation calls for a “quick and dirty” way to raise someone a few feet to safety
