BY ROBERT DUBÉ
The Fairfax County (VA) Fire and Rescue Department includes a two-day fireground survival class in its recruit school curriculum. Adapted from firefighter rescue seminars, this class teaches recruits the basic skills they need to survive on the fireground and techniques to save a downed firefighter.
The class typically starts with three case studies focusing on firefighter fatalities and how the deaths could have possibly been avoided. On Day One, the focus is on self-survival techniques such as calling a Mayday, using PASS devices, wall breaching, ground ladder bailout, and emergency rappelling, among others. On Day Two, the concentration is on practicing firefighter rescue techniques that have been outlined in Fire Engineering (for example, “Saving Our Own: The Firefighter Who Has Fallen Through a Floor,” Rick Lasky and Ray Hoff, Training Notebook, March 1998).
One technique our department has added is the use of prerigged rescue rope, which, if rigged in advance, is faster and ultimately safer in less tenable conditions than using the handcuff knot.
Two carabiners are added to the rope. Our department already carries webbing, carabiners, and descenders in our rope rescue bags, together with 200 feet of 1/2-inch kernmantle rope. This rescue rig is placed on the rope outside the building, which can be done while the RIT is staged at the command post. Basically, all you need to do is to tie two figure-eight knots in-line (see photo 1). The carabiners are clipped into the figure-eights, and the rope is ready to go. If the RIT (or any company) is called into a structure to attempt a rescue of a firefighter who has fallen through a floor, just clip the carabiners on the downed member’s SCBA shoulder straps (see photo 2), and a quick three- or four-person haul brings the firefighter up and out.
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The advantage of this system is that it can be prerigged in a safe, tenable environment and then quickly clipped to the downed firefighter’s SCBA straps, minimizing the amount of time the rescuer spends in the untenable environment. It is also easy to attach to the downed firefighter in zero visibility.
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Using this system, you can make one piece of rope into a four-line haul system. It can also be used to pull or drag a downed firefighter if needed. As with any firefighter rescue technique, it should be practiced as often as possible. The training environment should be as realistic as safety will permit-smoke, heat, blackout mask, and as much noise as possible (shaking old metal Venetian blinds makes an incredible amount of noise). This will make the training better and, ultimately, your department better prepared if or when you have to rescue one of your own.
ROBERT DUBÉ is a captain with the Fairfax County (VA) Fire and Rescue Department and the director of recruit training. A 23-veteran of the department, he is training coordinator for the technical rescue operations team and the Virginia Task Force 1 (VATF-1) urban search and rescue team.
