Man-made or natural disasters often overwhelm emergency workers, resources, and the ability of other organizations to respond from different locations. The emergency scene renders a multifaceted approach for incident commanders (IC) to ensure the safety of personnel involved in the operations. Safety management on the emergency scene can be effected through fire personnel training, effective leadership management, and standard operating procedure (SOPs) and guideline (SOGs) development.1,2 For firefighters to survive the many risks faced on the fireground, fire departments should consider rapid intervention teams (RITs) as one of their mainstays. Company officers must maintain awareness on the fire scene and be capable of deploying the RIT in case of a lost, trapped, unconscious, or entangled firefighter.3
TRAINING FOR RIT
Successfully training and implementing a RIT starts with basic firefighting skills. Emergency response and RIT operations training are enhanced when firefighters understand how to perform basic firefighting tasks in a friendly environment. The focus of the RIT encompasses training on tools and equipment, search and rescue operations, breathing apparatus for firefighters low on air, ropes and knots, and packaging and removing the downed firefighter trapped inside a structure. As fire department administrators, although we understand budgets are shrinking and funding is becoming more difficult to obtain, it is, nevertheless, important to equip the RIT with the basic tools to perform search and rescue inside the structure.
Most fire departments have the basic tools necessary to develop a RIT bag; ladders, hooks, self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA), halligans, axes, hoses, nozzles, sledgehammers, ropes, saws, handlights, and a means of communication. They are already used and trained on at fire academies and in monthly drills. Most firefighters should already have a working knowledge of these tools and their uses; however, it is important to revisit and retrain with them prior to implementing your RIT. According to National Fire Protection Association 1001, Standard for Firefighter Professional Qualifications (2002), RIT members should meet the criteria of firefighter I, which qualifies them for performing search and rescue, setting ladders, firefighter survival techniques, SCBA, and using ropes. After ordering and inventorying tools and revisiting basic firefighter skills, establish SOPs/SOGs for RIT members and all firefighting personnel to follow.
DEVELOPING SOPs/SOGs
Creating departmental SOPs/SOGs is one of the most difficult steps in developing a RIT. Designate a training officer to research and develop RIT SOPs/SOGs, which should include attending schools at which RIT skills are taught to assist in creating the guidelines. More than likely, the training officer will instruct personnel in RIT operations.
It is also important to research NFPA 1500, Standard on Fire Department Occupational Safety and Health Program, and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards regarding RIT. For example, section (g) (4) of the OSHA standard (29 CFR 1910.134) governs the two-in/two-out rule pertaining to all firefighters. It clearly states that two firefighting personnel shall be on standby waiting outside the structure within voice or radio contact to perform rapid intervention rescue.
Once the research is complete and the RIT SOPs/SOGs are prepared, chief officers and firefighters should review them and suggest additions or revisions prior to implementation. Involve personnel at all levels in this decision-making process to enhance life safety on the fireground. Once the revisions are complete, train all personnel on the RIT policies and guidelines prior to training on RIT skills in the field. With a general working knowledge of the SOPs/SOGs, department members will understand why the department has implemented a RIT. The goal is to educate firefighting personnel about safety and rescue techniques should the RIT be activated.
INCREMENTAL HANDS-ON TRAINING
Although only a designated group of mentally astute, well-equipped, and physically fit firefighting personnel will be specifically assigned to the RIT, it is important to train all firefighters on RIT skills in case an illness, schedule conflict, or job assignment change affects the availability of designated RIT members. Begin training with a review of the basic firefighting topics, such as using personnel protective gear, donning the SCBA, familiarity with the uses of the SCBA, and the proper procedure for calling a Mayday. Although the stress levels during these training exercises will not resemble the stress firefighters would experience in an actual RIT operation (1), create realistic and stimulating rescue scenarios by using smoke machines and acquired buildings and compelling firefighters to develop on-the-spot strategies and tactics.
MAYDAY
Training in calling a Mayday should cover the minimum specific information a firefighter must include in such a message-name, location, company/brigade, and nature of the problem. To enhance realism, members in full turnout gear should wear a blacked-out mask or a hood pulled over their masks and be placed into a wire-entanglement scenario. In this evolution, a firefighter must realize he is entangled, attempt to remove wires entangled around an SCBA tank, and eventually radio a detailed Mayday call as outlined above after two minutes.
SCBA DRILLS
RIT training includes SCBA skills such as converting the SCBA harness into a rescue device to extricate a downed firefighter and learning three different methods for entering and leaving low-profile areas within a structure.
There are a variety of training evolutions involving SCBA, such as converting the harness and using the low-profile methodologies. To ensure members become familiar with their SCBA and accustomed to darkness, continue training on working in blackout conditions. Place the firefighter’s SCBA harness and tank in a dark room with the straps tightened (not twisted or tied) and the connection of the high-pressure line to the tank loosened. The trainee should be on air at the end of the drill.
During the same set of evolutions, personnel can learn how to convert the harness from the standard position (around the waist) by placing the strap between the legs of another firefighter, converting the harness into a rescue device for removing the downed colleague. The firefighter will eventually need a partner for this drill and for learning pushing and pulling techniques used to remove a downed firefighter from a structure.
The low-profile drills may also be accomplished in conditions in an acquired structure slated for demolition or in a burn tower, if available. Instruct personnel to crawl through a low-profile area, such as a cut-out in a wall, with their SCBA tanks on their backs and on air, with the tank partially removed, and with the tank completely removed in the final maneuver. Firefighters will have a thorough knowledge of their tanks after successfully completing these drills.
REGULATOR EXCHANGE, FACE PIECE EXCHANGE, AND SEARCH ROPE
Firefighters must be familiar with exchanging air regulators and face pieces on the firefighter victim. Such evolutions should occur in a darkened area, with participants fully outfitted in turnout gear. RIT personnel are required to carry a RIT bag specifically designed to carry an extra tank for SCBA drills, so that the RIT bag is accessible for use within a hostile environment and the face piece remains attached to the regulator.4 Personnel should take turns performing each role in the drill-e.g., acting as victim, changing the face piece, and carrying the RIT bag to the victim. Also, all should train on all aspects of the SCBA unit and face piece.
Search ropes assist firefighters in creating a map for the RIT to follow to the downed firefighter’s location and to find the way out. Secure the search lines on entry; they should be outside the hazard zone of the rescue operation. Members should learn the following basic knots: the figure-eight on a bight, the handcuff knot, the water knot, and the bowline used for practical evolutions. (3) Deploy teams of two or three members into the building. Have them locate the victim (manikin) and practice tying the aforementioned knots to nearby furniture (or leave in rope bag if used). Trainees must not tie the knots to the victim, in case the RIT has to leave the structure because of a low-air or other life-threatening emergency. If the victim is still mobile, he may become disoriented, wander around, and slip the knot off. This would make it difficult for the replacement RIT to find the victim. After completing the various firefighter rescue, SCBA, ropes and knots, and two-firefighter pushing/pulling evolutions, review the RIT techniques.
RECAPITULATION TRAINING AND INCIDENT COMMAND
Prior to completing RIT training evolutions, firefighters should have reviewed all the skills learned in previous evolutions. Repetition allows personnel to revisit and practice these difficult operations. Brief chief officers normally in charge on the fireground on suggested methods for RIT operations and personnel: The IC should establish and deploy the RIT, make a backup RIT available after the initial RIT deployment, anticipate the need for additional resources, and create a personnel accountability report (PAR) prior to deployment.5 (2, 3)
Although the IC has overall command during the incident, he must communicate with the RIT entering the structure and determine which member will serve as interior RIT commander. This position, an important aspect of the rescue operations, allows the interior RIT officers to supervise their teams. If leaders do not provide the necessary knowledge and support for personnel, chaos can ensue under working conditions.6 Once all personnel and commanders have been trained and updated, the scenarios involving multiple teams, equipment, commanders, and removing victims from the structure may begin.
BENCHMARKING AND SCENARIOS
RIT training must specify a benchmarking system that the team will employ on entering a structure so the IC can monitor its progress. As the training proceeds over several evolutions, the team should relay information such as “Team 1 entering the building,” “Team 1 has found fallen/missing firefighter,” and “Team 1 is placing firefighter on air” to the IC to allow that person to mark the time of team entry and its location, calculate the amount of air consumed, and determine whether it is necessary to order an evacuation.7
A key component of realistic training is locating and acquiring a structure slated for demolition (a two-bedroom apartment is preferred). Before using such a structure, review its structural integrity, identify any hazards, clear any debris away from the training area, and allow adequate time for preparation (i.e., creating entanglement areas and obstacles, blackening windows and doors, and setting up a smoke machine for enhanced realism).
Once the structure has been secured, develop a list of scenarios that use all rooms in the structure for evolutions that include rescues, wall breaches, donning and doffing SCBAs, and managing the Mayday calls.
The department’s size determines your training schedule for the scenarios. For example, if a department has 180 firefighting personnel, training could be completed over three days, with two training sessions on each day. Most firefighters will be able to participate and have the opportunity to train with the different scenarios. Once all firefighting personnel have arrived at the designated training site, instruct them about the scenario.
The first group of RIT trainees should be dressed and ready to make entry after the initial drill instruction. RIT members should be equipped with forcible entry tools, a search rope, a thermal imaging camera, a portable radio, and an SCBA bottle with face piece, and they should be donning full personal protective equipment (PPE) on making entry.8 The entry team should consist of a minimum of two firefighters, but four is the suggested number for making entry. The training officer has the flexibility of communicating with the entry team, giving possible updated information, creating attenuation with radios, simulated collapses with cushions or mattresses, entanglement with 14-gauge wire in crossed sections throughout the apartment, and informing the trainees about areas where breaching is necessary. The constant changing conditions during training accustom firefighters to the real-life situation on the fireground. Incident command is responsible for maintaining an extra RIT to make entry when the first team has exited.
Although several other rescue areas are not mentioned in this article (e.g., ladder rescues, use of power tools, hose practice, and other rope rescue methods), these techniques should be introduced into the training curriculum as well. There must be cooperation among chief officers, firefighting personnel, building administrators, and the department’s union (if applicable). Successful training depends on numerous factors, but the training officer has the burden of ensuring that all elements of RIT training are working. If fire departments declare they do not need to train on, establish, or use RIT for emergency response, these organizations should stay in quarters and not respond.
Endnotes
1. United States Fire Administration, Technical Report Series: Rapid Intervention Teams and How to Avoid Needing Them, 2003.
2. Brunacini, A.V., Fire Command, National Fire Protection Association, 2002.
3. Jakubowski, G., and M. Morton, Rapid Intervention Teams, Fire Protection Publications, 2001.
4. Terriaco, Ron, “Basic RIT Tools on the Apparatus,” Fire Engineering, December 2004, 18-19.
5. Whitby, Chris, “Basic Essentials of RIT,” Fire Engineering, February 2004, 30-32.
6. Kerfoot, K., “On Leadership: Establishing Guardrails in Leadership,” Nursing Economics, 2005; 23: 334-335.
7. International Association of Fire Chiefs, Fire Officer: Principles and Practice (Jones and Bartlett, 2006).
8. Smoke, C., Company Officer (second ed.), (Thomson-Delmar Learning, 2005).
DAVID MILEN, a training officer and 10-year veteran with the Hammond (IN) Fire Department, is director of the fire science program at Ivy Tech Community College. He has a Ph.D. and master’s degree in public health from Walden University, where he mentors doctoral and master’s students in the School of Public Policy and Administration, and has a master’s degree in occupational safety management from Indiana State University. Milen has published articles in England and the United States, and is bioterrorism/disaster preparedness coordinator for Saint Margaret Mercy Health Care Centers in Hammond and Dyer, IN.
