techniques

All posts tagged techniques

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?

Knots Found on Mars!

Posted by rescue2training on September 8, 2012
Posted in: knots, rope rescue, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a Comment

The Mars Rover “Curiosity”  has photographic evidence that even on Mars you can find evidence of the superiority of finely tied knots. Of course, the picture is of the Rover taking a picture of its own wiring harness. But it is still cool to know that despite all of the superiority of modern technology, that it still comes down to a clove hitch to keep a wiring harness bundled together countless miles from home. Members of the International Guild of Knot Tyers (IGKT) have defined exactly what kind of knots are used.

Whoa, wait. There is a GUILD for people who tie knots? Yes. Yes there is, here is their website:

http://www.igkt.net/

I was actually a member for a couple of years. I like rope; these people LOVE rope. You might even say they want to marry it, which any good member, past or previous, of the IGKT knows is actually called a bend. OK you can boo now.

My bad attempt at humor finished, here is a link to the story. Thanks to Joe Fefe of Winchester Sprinkler for knowing that if there was such a thing as the IGKT, I must surely have been a member and for passing this story on:

http://news.yahoo.com/ancient-knots-keep-mars-rovers-laces-tied-red-141541222.html

Bowline=Death?

Posted by rescue2training on September 3, 2012
Posted in: high angle, rope access, rope rescue, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 1 comment

Can a bowline with a Yosemite finish be a recipe for disaster? According to the video below  the answer is a resounding yes. That is, of course, if you are prone to loosely and incorrectly tying and dressing your knots. I think there are quite a few knots that would come undone given those set of circumstances. You can read  about the inspiration for this posting of mine at these two climbing forums:

Rockclimbing.com

Supertopo.com

Does this mean that it is a bad knot? I would argue that it is (k)not. It could be argued that it might not be the best thing to use as a harness tie in for people who are only using it for climbing. But to argue that one usage against the effectiveness and efficiency of the many variations of this knot when used for rescue, seems a like it might be limiting yourself. For instance, you can tie on bowline on the bight with a Yosemite to create a quick rope anchor, around a tree for example, with a bight to be used for connecting your friction device to; or use a Portuguese bowline to anchor an A frame as shown in the last video. I would(k)not discount a whole series of knots just because one variation of it does not fit one specific use. I might be preaching to the choir, but I still wanted to get it out there. Please feel free to leave a comment if you have any thoughts on the matter.

Here is the first video of how not to tie a bowline with a Yosemite

Here is are two video sfrom R2T friend Eric Campbell. One on how to tie a “snap bowline” with a properly tied Yosemite and the other, a couple of bowline variations for anchoring

Lastly, you can see in this video, around the :17 mark, a Portuguese bowline (with a bight and Yosemite) used to anchor the A Frame and create a rearward facing bight to attach the 3:1 tensioning system to. To do this with a family of 8 knots would take forever, not be nearly as clean, and is sure to eat up a ton of rope.

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/