RIT Drills

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Permalink Reply by Chris Piepenburg on October 15, 2008 at 2:55pm

There are all kinds of good RIT drills out there you just have to ask yourself how far you want to go. If you can build props you can set up the Denver Drill with little supplies, an open garage pit can give you a good area to work at rescuing ffs from below grade. There is an article in the May 2008 issue of FE on rescuing ffs using a hoseline. You could even do something as easy as blindfolding your ffs and having them hook up a "downed" ff using the RIT pack. If you have any questions or need any help just let me know.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Sterricker on October 17, 2008 at 9:02pm

Hey Chris, we did one a couple months ago that I thought was one of the best we had done in a while. Unfortunately it either requires an aquired structure (which we had) or a lot of prop building. We used a 4-man RIT team that had to find it's way into a downed firefighter played by Rescue Randy. You black the guys masks out and lead them to the starting point. A hose line is placed through the entire course to Randy for the crew to follow. The first obstacle is a wall-breach, one stud-space wide and about 20 inches high. We reinforced the opening area on both sides and above with scrap plywood to protect the drywall as we were doing the drill repeatedly over several days. Once through the wall-breach the guys follow the line for whatever distance you want to the second obstacle. This was a doorway in our drill with a ramp built through it. We nailed 2x4's to the floor to brace the ramp and then built an A-frame ramp about 18-inches high and then secured a piece of plywood above it across the doorway to reduce the opening above the peak of the ramp to about 3 feet. Past this was another wall breach that had a 12 or 14 foot tunnel (I forget exactly) built out of 2x4's and plywood on the opposite side, secured to the floor by 2x4 braces. The tunnel was 16-inches wide and about 18-inches high. This opened into a bedroom in our aquired structure where Randy was, dressed in full bunker gear, air pack and PASS activated. Every member of our department is issued a 25 foot section of webbing so each crew came up with different ways of securing Randy in some sort of hasty-harness etc. and a haul line. Remember, everyone's masks are blacked out. They then had to remove Randy through the same path they had entered. It sounds nearly impossible but it isn't. We had a time limit of 20-minutes as an added incentive. Many crews made it, some didn't initially but then reattempted and made it. Another rule was that if your bell went off you had to exit the area by way that you came, replace your bottle as quickly as you could and then rejoin your team. For the purposes of this drill only, members were allowed to exit and re-enter alone. The drill may not be 100% realistic, what with all the shifting and dumping of the RIT crew's packs required just to get to the victim that we might not do in the real world but, hey, you never know. It is very interesting to see the different ways that guys interact with each other, different methods for getting Randy out and the physical limits that some guys didn't know they had. If your interested and I can clarify anything for you let me know.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Piepenburg on October 17, 2008 at 11:05pm

Chris,

That sounds like an ass kicker of a course! We did a similar training earlier this year with a vacant structure that we had. We simulated a mayday situation where a ff fell through the floor. The building was heavily smoked and crews followed the line in, had to figure out a way to get the ff out of the floor and then find a way out without having to travel from where they came.

During the drill we had one instance of a ff who was having problems with his mask and he was sent out of the structure on his own. The ff became disoriented and got lost in a relatively small area to the point he was running out of air and pulled his mask off. This was a seasoned member with over 20 years on the job! Now imagine if this would have been under real conditions in a hazardous atmosphere? The old saying of "We play the way we practice" is something I truly believe in! I know that just this one drill ffs were allowed to exit the building by themselves, but we know how ffs are, you let them do it in one drill then they'll do it in the next and so on until they are doing it on a real incident.

And yes, it is extremely interesting to see what people come up with when they are blacked out!!

Stay Safe!!

Piep

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Permalink Reply by Jim Golden on October 24, 2008 at 3:39pm

These sound like great drills. If I may, I would like to pose a question to think about: how does the RIT begin?
I have taken this for granted in our department. We have spent extensive time in our department over the past two years with RIT training and purchasing RIT equipment, but I neglected one of the most important parts- the firefighter in trouble.

We all assume that the FF will be able to correctly call for help if they need it. History proves without prior (and continued) training this is not the case. I’m a believer if a firefighter encounters a MAYDAY parameter and does not call MAYDAY, chances are the RIT will be performing a search and recovery instead of a search and rescue.

The past six months in our depth, we have been drilling heavy on MAYDAY- when to call, how to call, why to call, what to do after calling, etc. The next several drills will tie everything together- a firefighter issuing a MAYDAY, the IC responding and deploying the RIT, the RIT performing a successful rescue based on the info gained from the LUNAR.

Stay safe,
Jim
~

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Permalink Reply by Chris Piepenburg on October 24, 2008 at 5:25pm

Jim,

You are absolutely right RIT does begin with proper MAYDAY training! If ffs don't know when to call or practice calling a MAYDAY they will never do it in the instance they need it. There are some great drills out there to help ffs with practicing calling MAYDAYs. The drills don't need to be elaborate, just enough to let them know that they are in a situation where they should be calling. All of the drills should be conducted with full turnouts, gloves and breather and their radio should be worn where they normally wear it in order to practice pushing the emergency button and speaking on the radio.

Chris

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Permalink Reply by Chris Sterricker on October 29, 2008 at 11:21am

Since I've been off I've been coming up with ideas for new drills I'd like to do when I get back. One of them is for just this situation. I want to put the guys in a "surprise" situation where the only real option is to at least call command and let them know something has happened but prefferably call a mayday. The goal being to see how long it takes them to recognize the situation, call command/mayday, see what their situational awareness is as to what to do next and what they actually do. My difficulty is that 1403 says everyone has to be familiar with the drill, get a full walk-through of the building etc. Anyone have any ideas of how to pull this off? I really feel that if it's not an actual unexpected situation or surprise the guys aren't going to react like they would in a real situation.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Golden on October 29, 2008 at 11:59am

Hey Chris,

Shoot me an email. I have some info that can help.

Jim
jgolden@cityofalabaster.com

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Permalink Reply by Chris Piepenburg on October 29, 2008 at 12:42pm

Since 1403 only deals with live burn conditions you could always use smoke machines and smoke up an acquired structure. Have them crawl through the building like they are doing a maze training and then spring the MAYDAY situation on them.

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Permalink Reply by Lisa Fairfield on October 29, 2008 at 2:45pm

Chris, check out www.tes2training.com. Chief Sendelbach has some good drills in this website. Good luck.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Sterricker on October 30, 2008 at 1:56am

Thanks Lisa. I can't believe I'd never been to his site. Lot of great stuff there. Thanks again.

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