Personal Harness HOT Class at FDIC 2010

This was the afternoon class that I took on Monday at FDIC 2010. The class was led by Dan DiRenzo and his crew form Safety and Survival Training. They did a great job and the class kept moving; no standing around and waiting.

My evolution started on the roof which was five stories tall.

We used the harness to lower a firefighter to the ground. In the lowering process, only the harnesses were used (other than the safety line) which showed the versatility of our harnesses.

The method for wrapping the hook on our harnesses is simple, effective and should be easy to use in limited visibility atmospheres. This method was also used for the bailout evolution.

We bailed out of a second story window using our harnesses.
The bailout evolution was by far the funnest part of the day. There were three opportunities to bailout and I think everyone took advantage of that.

Although this was not a bailout class, this evolution showed how to perform it and what to carry to have the capability. No specific brand was pushed, just the tools needed.

There were some vendors on site to allow you to use their harness and bailout system if needed. Again, the bailout was used with no special hardware, just the anchor point and your harness. Yes, safety lines were used throughout.

The next evolution was the downed firefighter removal station. This was a very informative and versatile evolution.

We were shown how to use our hooks and harness and that of the downed firefighter to remove a downed firefighter.

It allowed us to use webbing and two-man removal methods that made the rescuing of a downed firefighter a little easier. It allows us to use our center of gravity and legs to drag a firefighter out without pulling his air pack off and without hurting ourselves in the process.


Using the harness to drag a downed firefighter.
The toughest part of the drag evolution was the removal up a stairwell. This was physically demanding even with the methods learned.

I would recommend this class to anyone that has just recently obtained personal harnesses or for those that want to utilize them to their fullest.

Stay safe and I will have some more in the coming days from the RIT Combat Drills that just about did me in.

Take care and train hard.