PERSONAL/UTILITY ROPE USE
TRAINING NOTEBOOK
Assigned to the outside vent position, you arrive on the scene of a working house fire, take a portable ladder and your partner, gain access to the porch roof, pop open a window, and climb inside the house. Once inside, you realize the home owner has done extensive remodeling and that what was once two bedrooms and a hallway is now one large room measuring 20 feet by 30 feet, with furniture and other obstacles in your way. Realizing that a perimeter search will not be sufficient, you reach into your pocket, grab your personal/utility rope, and hand one end to your partner, who ties it off to a ladder rung. I sing the rope as a guide, you quickly search the room, covering more ground faster than you would have using a perimeter search. In the middle of the room you feel something soft and grab it. only to discover that it’s a small child. Following the rope out, you take the child to safety. Another life is saved w ith the help of a S10 piece of rope.
Sound farfetched? Not really. The personal/utility rope—30 to 30 feet long with a hook at one end and w’ith a minimum thickness of ½ inch— probably is one of the most useful tools you can carry in your pocket. You can use it for searching, hoisting tools and equipment, tying up smoldering mattresses, tying off a scene, and a number of other purposes.
SEARCH TOOL
As the scenario above indicates, the personal rope can be used its a search tool. It usually is long enough for private dwellings and apartments. It also comes in handy when you are forced to do a search off a hoseline, in parking garages or office buildings, or anywhere that limitecl-area searches may be needed. By working with a partner who has a personal rope, you can extend the line another 50 feet if necessary. A three-member search team, each member being equipped with a personal rope, “automatically” has 150 feet of search line with which to work. All members can carry similar sized ropes with connecting devices at each end to facilitate deployment and hookup. However, personal ropes in many cases should not replace but rather should be used in conjunction with longer search ropes (150 to 200 feet or more) to extend search patterns off the original line. I sc of longer search ropes is dictated by building size, type of occupancy, unusual building features, and so on.
The rope becomes especially important when you are looking for trapped or disoriented victims. A victim who is able to move can get out of the building with your rope as a guide. Sometimes you may use up all your breathing air to find a victim and may not have enough air for extrication and removal (such as during a structural collapse); in this case you can tie off your personal rope near the victim so relief crews can relocate the victim immediately.
Tie off all search lines in an area of safety that you expect will remain clear of fire, smoke, and other hazards. Search ropes should be tied off outside a burning structure, if possible, for two reasons: to allow anyone following the rope to exit to the outside and to alert arriving companies that a search line is in use in the building. The line should be a bright, highly visible color so other members easily recognize it as a search line.
You can use a personal rope to join two members of a search party together in large-area searches. Using a perimeter search pattern, you can search a large area—one member maintains contact with the wall while the other one searches.
If a search rope is being used down a long hallway, you can attach your personal rope to it to branch off and scarcli rooms off to the sides without winding the search rope through a long maze. Tic* off with a secure knot that also allows for quick disconnect when the search is completed.
PERSONAL UTILITY ROPE
OTHER USES
Hoisting tools and equipment. You can use the personal rope to move tools, equipment, and hoselines to the upper floors or roof of a building. Most personal ropes can withstand the weight of a saw or hoseline without compromising their integrity In times when you have so many things to carry that you can’t get a utility line up to the roof when you need it, you can use the personal rope in your pocket.
Forcible entry. The personal rope can play an important role in forcible entry. Tie it to the fire door to control it when it is forced. This will prevent it from swinging open and exposing you to possible fire hazards behind the door.
Vehicle accidents. In auto extrication the rope has several uses. If a victim’s foot is tangled in a brake pedal, you can tie the rope to the pedal and tie the rope off to the door. Then you can slowly open the door to move the pedal.
If the vehicle roof is cut and flapped over, you can use the rope to tie the flap down to keep it from blowing over on rescuers and victims.
You can secure the scene of an emergency or accident by tying together several personal ropes. Or you can use several ropes together to secure an overturned vehicle until you can stabilize it with proper shoring techniques.
Overhaul. During overhaul operations you can use the personal rope to tie up smoldering mattresses for removal to the outside. You can use the rope to string tarps as catchalls during salvage operations as well.
Water rescues. If no other line is available, you can deploy the personal rope as a throw line to victims in water. Be sure that your personal rope floats before attempting to use it as a throw line.
ROPE SELECTION AND CARE
When selecting personal ropes, choose a minimum of ¼-inch nylon rope. One end should have a snap hook attached and the other an “O” ring, which attaches to turnout coats or pants with a double snap hook. This configuration allows you to quickly hook up to another personal rope if necessary. Ropes should be a bright, distinctive color for easy identification.
Regularly inspect your personal rope for signs of excessive wear and use. Replace damaged ropes immediately. They are relatively inexpensive and their many uses are well worth the cost.
(Photos by author.)
