technical rescue

I’ve Got a Fever…

Posted by rescue2training on October 15, 2012
Posted in: appalachian doortex, high angle, rope rescue, technical rescue, Uncategorized, vortex. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

…and the only prescription is more cowbell !

Just kidding, it’s more Doortex.

Continued work at the vacant buildings that double as the testing sites at R2T brought us to yet another variation of the Appalachian Doortex. We’re toying with the name Appalachian Slingshot (APS); again with the obvious shoehorning of East Coast stuff in to a rope topic. The APS concept was tested a few years ago when I hooked up and rappelled out of a window on it. The pictures below show us using it in an elevator shaft, but can be used out of a window or even for creating an anchor in a doorway.

The basic configuration for lowering:

This front tie is only needed when the APS is unloaded.

A change of direction was added to the haul line in order to make the hauling easier. We were able to pull down instead of up.

Here it is used to create a strong, simple doorway anchor. The AZTEK is there to pre-load the system.

Also under development is the stand alone use of leg sections sections as anchors in doorways. Here are a couple of pictures of two outer leg sections used to span a doorway and create anchor for the two MPDs used to raise and lower the load. We’ll be taking a serious look at this in the coming year to find out the limits of these leg sections.

A Real Tower Rescue

Posted by rescue2training on October 12, 2012
Posted in: firefighting, high angle, rope rescue, technical rescue, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

The raw video is of an actual tower  rescue in Washington DC. No, not a telecom climber stranded high up an antenna, but a worker dangling on his safety line after his motorized scaffolding had a catastrophic failure. It was Tower 3 who positioned themselves to be able to use the bucket to go get the worker and unclip him from his system and eliminate the need for any type of rope rescue (damn).

A couple of points to note in the video:

Even though it appeared the Tower was going to be able to get the victim, the guys were still getting dressed out in order to perform a rope based operation should it have been necessary. It was a good job getting plan B in motion in case plan A didn’t work for whatever reason.

The worker hanging in his harness was staying relatively still while hanging. As noted by Dr. Roger Mortimer in his 2011 ITRS presentation, it is the lack of motion while hanging in a harness that seems to cause Suspension Trauma, Harness Hang Syndrome, whatever you want to call it. The point is to get the people to move their legs if they are at all able to. Here is a link to his published work on the topic:

http://www.itrsonline.org/PapersFolder/2011/Mortimer2011_ITRSPaper.pdf

Last, it looked like the bottom end of his safety line was entangled with the scaffolding and pulling tension on the line across his body. I don’t know if that means anything or not, but it should be a consideration during size up.  If the Tower was unable to get to the worker, it’s possible they could get to that safety line and free it up if it were causing issues.

[brightcove vid=1878559651001&exp3=1685956553001&surl=http://c.brightcove.com/services&pubid=29906171001&pk=AQ~~,AAAABvaL9Hk~,mLC66bU8hPOBGO8BPO1coBAeF5n-gkxo&w=300&h=225]

Anchors are the Key

Posted by rescue2training on October 6, 2012
Posted in: firefighting, high angle, rope rescue, technical rescue, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

It’s obvious that anchors are the key to any successful rope rescue operation, but sometimes they just aren’t where we need them or they aren’t as strong as we’d like.  Take a look at the three anchor failure videos below for proof. While there are some slackliners who have an idea of the forces they are putting on their anchors, a lot have no clue. Evidence:

Maritime anchor failure:

If, however, you are interested in a strong portable anchor for your rope or vehicle extrication team, then take a look at the pictures below. James Hurley of Heavy Rescue Solutions has developed an aluminum anchor plate that can be picketed into the ground with three picket. Wrap the handle with webbing and pull away. The plate is roughly 3 feet long and weighs around 25 lbs without the pickets. The pickets can be driven by hand or with an air impact chisel which HRS has developed a special bit for. If driving by and with a sledge, they have developed a fitting to make it less likely to mushroom the head of the picket.

This anchor plate has been pull tested end to end and withstood 44, 000 lbf of force. The ability of the plate to hold a load is clearly dependent on the soil in which the pickets are driven, but early testing R2T did with James was conducted in a moist, loamy soil and the anchor held to around 8000 lbf after it settled in a bit. The newest version of this plate has been revised and James said it can hold quite a bit more than the prototype and with less settling in movement as well. He’s hoping to have everything finalized and ready for production at the beginning of November. If you are interested in the plate or want more information, give James a shout at:

heavyrescuesolutions@gmail.com

Appalachian Doortex

Posted by rescue2training on September 26, 2012
Posted in: appalachian doortex, confined space rescue, firefighting, high angle, rope access, rope rescue, technical rescue, Uncategorized, vortex. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , . 8 comments

Here are some new AZV uses we at R2T have been testing to see the real world practicality of.  There are some earlier proof of concept pictures on the multimedia page, but these were done in exposure with a two person load. They’re all versions of what we’ve decided to call the Appalachian Doortex (APD), an obvious attempt at getting some East Coast love into the rope world.

The purpose of these APD is to create either an anchor, a high directional, or both simultaneously in the urban environment. The initial thought was for use in elevators, but can obviously work to create an anchor anywhere there is a solid block wall surrounding a door. We run A LOT of stalled elevators in in the city where I work, 15 a day is about average in our geographically small city. Not many require any rope work at all, but the one’s that do can be a real pain. Have you ever looked in an elevator lobby for anchors or a high directional? Not much around. That’s the problem we were trying to solve.

The “Ram’s Head” is the first version we came up with. In this configuration we hooked both MPDs right to the head of the APD; there was no guying, tying, or anything. The foot of the lazy leg was not resting against the opposite wall. Aside from a very minor initial settling in of the APD, it did not move during the operation. It was loaded with a two person load that was raised and lowered several times. One of the MPDs was hooked up in a fashion that caused it to bind against the head of the AZV a bit because it allowed us to have the operating handle facing outward. Because of the angle of the rope leaving the MPD into the elevator shaft, this very minor binding was felt not to be an issue.

Next up is an Upside Down APD, with no clever name given yet. Maybe the Appalachian Lean-To (ALT)? Yup we’ll go with that for now.  Just another way to make an anchor/HD combo. Also loaded with a two person load, operated up and down a bunch.

Here is the close up of the dual MPD anchoring on the Appalachian Lean-To.

Below are two pictures of what we used to keep the the Appalachian Lean-To from kicking back should it have wanted to. It didn’t want to. We had a dynomometer in there to see if there was any force trying to push the ALT away from the opening. The needle didn’t move at all during the operation. We were pulling against an extra leg section of an AZV run through two 4×6 blocks with holes drilled in them to keep the leg section from resting on a small, roll prone contact point on the hoistway doors. We’ve been calling them “Brace Blocks” (Appalachian Brace Blocks?) They worked really well. I suspect they can be used to help span doorways in buildings to create quick, simple anchors in a hallway.

While we have not tested a center pulled AZV leg to failure yet, this one was pulled to 500 lbs without any visible deflection. Further testing on this configuration will be conducted in the near future and we’ll let you know what we find out.

If anybody has any thoughts, questions or comments on this, or would like further training on operating on rope in an urban environment please feel free to leave a comment below or send Kelly an email directly at rescue-2@comcast.net.

Break Out the Violin Bow

Posted by rescue2training on September 18, 2012
Posted in: high angle, rope rescue, technical rescue, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

…to play that overly tensioned piece of rope that’s supposed to be a highline! Or, at least that was my first thought until I realized that  it was an unloaded basket. Pictures from a different website show a basket with an attendant on it clearly creating a more appropriate amount of sag in the track line. I’m curious if they ever did have a victim in the basket as well as an attendant. The goal of the drill, aside from incorporating a bunch of rope skills and logistical planning, is to get a patient who is in distress to an area where they can be helped. If that is the goal, why not train with a victim in the basket?
I’m not picking on these guys in West Point, NY. There are lots of places that don’t put victims in a basket. “Safety” is the reason that I have most often heard. If “safety” of your system depends on the difference of 200lbs, we should probably use another system. “Scared” or “uncomfortable” are a much more realistic answer. I know I don’t like being in the basket on drills. Not only are you out of the rigging picture, you also feel completely helpless just laying there. And you pretty much are. But you can imagine that somebody who has NO idea what is going on (an actual victim) is going to be 10 times as scared as you are.

It’s not a bad idea to place somebody in the victim role so you are at least able to empathize with people somewhat when they are laying helpless in a basket.

More pics

Article

Now, we’re only looking at a small scene from a moment in time, but the rigging pictured below raised a couple of flags for me. First is the use of redundant anchor straps. The second is attaching one biner to those anchor straps to hold the whole system. Just food for thought:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tight!

Not so bad once loaded:

Same department, different drill:

 

Another One Over the Falls

Posted by rescue2training on September 14, 2012
Posted in: high angle, rope rescue, technical rescue. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a Comment

The gravity near Wallace Falls in Idaho must be much higher than elsewhere on Earth. For the second times in 4 months, a person has fallen off the trail and into the water at the top of the falls. Despite being a 200+ foot drop, people seem to still want to risk it by looking over the edge. The most recent fall was a 20′ fall into the water. The girl got herself back to shore, but needed a rope system set up to get back to the top side.

 

Here is a link to the article:

HERE
Previous Drama at Wallace Falls

 

Additionally, here is a news story about a technical rescue in Willard, UT where two climbers were stranded for 24 hours after excessive rockfall caused them to stop climbing. That’s got to be a serious pucker factor for rescuers: you KNOW the rock is unstable and you still have to do a rope rescue just the same. Here’s the article:

HERE

Picture Gallery

 

That type of rock doesn’t exactly inspire confidence does it?

Cratering

Posted by rescue2training on August 29, 2012
Posted in: high angle, rope rescue, technical rescue, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

No, not falling to the ground, which is what I think of when I hear the word cratering. This is a video taken at Crater Lake from a recent Josephine County SAR training exercise. I particularly like the thoughts expressed on their website about being able to learn from other groups and being willing to look critically at the pictures after the operation to spot any things they might not have picked up on in the heat of the operation. That’s probably a harder skill to work on than any litter scoop they did that day. Good job JoCoSAR!

From the JoCoSAR website:

Last weekend was a fabulous opportunity for us to train with 5 other rope rescue teams from southern Oregon.  By chance, we worked both days with the Corvallis MRU, a MRU certified team with a lot of depth, experience, and talent.  Every rope unit evolves its characteristic way of doing things, but we profit by seeing alternative ways to work safely—especially when we can talk through the alternative pros and cons.  That isn’t possible, of course, on a real rescue.  This short video isn’t intended to be a demonstration or “how to” video.  It is just a record of what our two units did on this particular day in a spectacular spot on the Earth.  

Often, photos show us details we miss watching a dynamic event “live.”  Reviewing the pictures allows a chance to review small details that might change how we do things next time or show a way not previously considered to solve a technical problem.  The site chosen was picked because it offered technical problems including a narrow “chimney,” overhanding sharp rock and narrow areas for a litter—not because it offered good photo access.  It wasn’t easy to see what was happening over the lip of rock at the start of the descent, but we hung over the edge and took the best shots we could to learn from and to share.  I find what these people did to be awe-inspiring for their skill, strength, judgement and presence-of-mind demonstrated under pressure—this is what rope rescue requires.  This was a wonderful day. Thank you, Corvallis MRU, for all you shared!

 

Get Your Head out of the Sand

Posted by rescue2training on August 23, 2012
Posted in: confined space rescue, firefighting, high angle, rope rescue, technical rescue, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

From St. Paul Minnesota comes video and pictures of this confined space /trench / rope rescue incident where a worker fell down a hole that he had just bored in the sandy soil for a column for the light rail tracks. Thanks to Collin Moon from Elevated Safety for the heads up on this one.

Clever job by the St Paul guys using a horse collar to hand down to the guy in the pit to raise him up with. All in all a decent looking job done simply; the best way. If I could pick some things to improve, I’d definitely make the bight attached to the rescuers harness smaller, I’d probably control the operation with the rope instead of the bucket (which they may have done but it doesn’t look like it), and I would probably get the two guys out of the bucket during the operation.

Here is a link and two pictures of the incident. The CMC MPD looked to be used in this incident for the mainline.

http://www.firehouse.com/news/10761621/minn-crews-rescue-light-rail-worker-trapped-in-pit

http://twincitiesfirewire.com/2012/08/20/st-paul-crews-pull-worker-after-fall-into-hole/

Rescue in Sedona

Posted by rescue2training on August 20, 2012
Posted in: firefighting, high angle, rope rescue, technical rescue, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

While Sedona, AZ is the site of countless practice rope rescues thanks to being home to a couple of rope rescue schools, it was recently time to do the real deal.

Thunder Mountain was the location of this rescue after a hiker fell several feet of the trail and down into a ravine and was unable to climb back up due to his injury. Here is a link to the story:

HERE

One thing that was interesting to me is the three hour search for the victim. As an urban fireman, it is neat to see a different perspective of FD operations in n area with more wilderness than urban buildup. I’m pretty sure that if we had to search 3 hours for somebody, most guys would think we were on a wild goose chase after about 15 minutes; and in a big city they would probably be right. It is neat to see that smaller departments are equipped to handle emergencies like this that take longer to handle. Good job Sedona FD!

 

Here is one of the pictures from the article. Interesting to note the cross about 100 feet above the rescuer and victim. I’m curious (morbidly) if this was the site of a previous fatality.