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Kickoff Pickoff Part Deux

Posted by rescue2training on January 18, 2013
Posted in: firefighting, high angle, rope rescue, technical rescue, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

Another one off the front page of Statter911 is this video that redefines the Kickoff Pickoff. While the previous coverage HERE actually showed people getting kicked backwards into the structure, the video below is of the fire department’s lead off kicker on the kickball team trying his hand, foot actually, at technical rescue. Perhaps the speediest method ever of getting the victim safely to ground.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhSlSHQvfVk&feature=player_embedded

Well, if too fast is bad ,then slower should be better right? I’m not so sure in this case. The rescuer looks to be rappeling on a figure 8 descender with some sort of autoblock, so he can go hands free if he needs to. Not a bad thought. The trouble comes from clearly not being comfortable using the autoblock. It causes him to start and stop suddenly a couple of times. Worst of all is that he overshoots the target because of it. If you’re taking yourself down a rope, it ain’t a bad idea to have a way to get yourself back up.

Do you equip your team with the equipment and knowledge to quickly switch to ascent should they need it while on rappel?

It wasn’t a huge issue here, but it could have a lot worse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A11QlQ3V6hw

Man down a well

Posted by rescue2training on January 14, 2013
Posted in: confined space rescue, firefighting, high angle, rope rescue, technical rescue, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

Near Olympia, WA a man was rescued after falling approximately 30′ down a well into waist high standing water. Good heads up by the rescue team when they threw him a PFD to help keep him from drowning into water of an undetermined depth. Note also, the presence of well known volunteer Batt. Chief Andy Speier of the technical rescue team.

A local press release:

THURSTON COUNTY TEAM RESCUES MAN FROM WELL

Shortly after 10:30 this morning, members of the Thurston County Special Operations Rescue Team (SORT) assisted Mason County Fire District #4 in the rescue of a man that had fallen into an abandoned well at a residence located in the 300 block of SE Arcadia Road near Shelton. According to Andy Speier, Battalion Chief with the McLane Black Lake Fire Department, the man was in the process of demolishing a shed and was standing on what he believed was a four foot deep sump when the earth gave way, plunging him 35 feet down the well into deep water. First responders from Mason County Fire District #4 and the Sheriff’s office were able to successfully lower a floatation device and protective clothing to the man who was treading water to stay afloat.

According to Speier, “With the rescue team in place, Lt. Mark Schreck of the Olympia Fire Department was lowered into the well to prepare the victim to be hoisted back to the surface”. “Once secured in a harness, the man was then hauled up and out of the well”. While the patient was wet and cold, he appeared to be uninjured from the fall.

Technical rescue trained firefighters from Mclane Black Lake, Olympia, East Olympia, Lacey and Tumwater Fire Departments assisted in the rescue.

 

[brightcove vid=2081848354001&exp3=836564316001&surl=http://c.brightcove.com/services&pubid=309144709001&pk=AQ~~,AAAAR_p154k~,Ay3i1IziTki8aMdGaY0jFtvV8ga6DiJN&w=615&h=392]

wellrescue1

wellrescue2

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Thanks once again to Mike Forbes for the heads up on this.

 

 

 

What is IKAR?

Posted by rescue2training on January 10, 2013
Posted in: high angle, highline, knots, rope rescue, technical rescue, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

Roughly translated from the ancient Nordic from which it derives, it means: a polytribal gathering of rescue people. Okay… That might be a bit of creative license. IKAR stands for the International Council for Rescue and is located in Switzerland. You can find their website HERE.

Check out the full length review of what happened at this year’s IKAR meeting in Poland. One of the neat things that stood out to me was the team from Tyrol, which does around 2000 calls annually, was using 8mm Spectra ropes. They’re ultra static and have around a 7000lb breaking strength. As you can see and hear in the video, you can’t put a knot in it and all terminations have to be spliced. Apparently it works for them, though.

Thanks to Spokane FD tillerman, rope geek, family man, and all around nice guy Mike Forbes for alerting us to this video.

Another Peruvian Highline Disaster

Posted by rescue2training on December 28, 2012
Posted in: accident, high angle, highline, knots, rope rescue, technical rescue, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

If you ever find yourself in the country of Peru and are offered a ride on highline, it might be in your best interest to politely decline. If the trackline failure that we posted a while ago HERE doesn’t convince you, perhaps the videos below will.

The first video of this event shows the accident and subsequent recovery of the victim. It is interesting to see how the highline started up through a piece of metal that was used as a high directional. A little ways into the video you can see that the HD collapsed at some point, but you don’t see where.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVTdpbUBjSE

This second video shows a different viewpoint that shows the HD failing right after the rescue package hits the lines; my guess is from the shock (not intended as a pun, but I suppose it is anyhow) loading. Also of note is what appears to be a multi (20!) point anchor that looks like it just goes to a bunch of guys holding each point. Pause the video around the :14 mark to see what I’m talking about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ngr8DbOxkO0

Three points to note:

They were lowering the rescue package VERY fast and probably could not have communicated the “Stop” command in time, even if they saw the issue coming.

There was no horizontal control line for the down hill side. It wouldn’t have made a difference here, but there seems to be a lack of highline knowledge in Peru.

The people who set this trackline up apparently had no idea how to calculate the sag in their trackline that was needed to clear objects in their path and maintain a safe number on their (obviously) sketchy anchors and high directionals.

Does your team have the ability to calculate sag before setting up your trackline or is it a calibrated eyeball and more trackline tension that you rely on?

Highline Failure w/Video

Posted by rescue2training on December 1, 2012
Posted in: high angle, rope rescue, technical rescue, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

This dramatic highline failure in Lima, Peru looks like somebody tried to go bungee jumping while attached to a Stokes basket loaded with a (previously) uninjured victim.

A couple of points to note:

Just before the track line snaps, you can see the carriage kind of “chugging” along down the line, indicating that something is binding up somewhere. One thought is that the control line used to lower the rescue package down the trackline is on the downhill side of the carriage, which would cause the side cheeks of the pulley to dig into the rope until there was enough force to cause the pulley to move down the rope a bit before binding up again. Hence the chugging motion.

The tension on the trackline seems to be way too tight. While it is a sloping highline, there seems to be very little sag, which would indicate that the trackline was too tight and easily susceptible to being cut by something…like, say, a pulley that is loaded sideways.

There is no horizontal control line on the downhill side. When the basket falls, there is a substantial fall distance as well as one hell of a swing fall at the bottom of the ride. When the basket reaches the bottom of its arc, it starts to swing back up again, only to be stopped by  the second floor walkway, which I’m sure did quite a number on the rope.

Had there been a lower horizontal control line, the total fall distance would most likely have been less, and the swing fall most certainly would have been all but eliminated.

Despite all of those things, the system still kept the load from hitting the ground. Not a ringing endorsement, but it does give you an idea of strong our equipment actually is.

I’d seen this video before, but Matt Hunt from Sterling Rope passed along a facebook link to it that caused me to search for a linkable version of it. Thanks for bringing it back to the forefront, Matt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unF2shRE2KY

And just for kicks, here is a dramatic presentation of what happens when there is not enough sag in the system between your anchors. It’s a good showing of the load pulling the anchors towards each other:

anchor failure

Holy Rope Rescue, Batman!

Posted by rescue2training on November 16, 2012
Posted in: firefighting, high angle, rope rescue, technical rescue, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

While Batman may have nothing to do with these two stories, they are nonetheless a bit holy in that both of the following rope stories take place in churches.

The first story is of 85 year old Rev. Tim Harrison of St George’s Cathedral in Perth, Australia who rappeled 130 feet down the side of the bell tower for Seniors week. From some of the pictures, it looks like he has better form than a lot of 20-somehthings! Good job Reverend.

Heavenly Descent

And if you think bell towers and rope go together like milk and cookies, you might be right. But then again, you might end up like an unlucky bell-ringer from near Bath, England. While ringing the bells at her local church, the unlucky victim made the rookie mistake of not letting go of the rope in time. What followed was the inevitable flying up in the air and the requisite return trip to terra firma at the speed of gravity.

The victim was knocked unconscious and had to be lowered through a hole in the belfry floor rather than carried down the small stairway. Not an obvious place for a rope rescue, but certainly a heads up call by the responders on scene.

Unholy Ascent

World’s Sketchiest High Directionals

Posted by rescue2training on November 7, 2012
Posted in: high angle, rope rescue, technical rescue. Tagged: , , , , , . 2 comments

If you like Artificial High Directionals, but don’t have a lot of money to spare, consider improvising one. Feel free to use whatever you might have on hand. Perhaps a ladder from Home Depot or if you are looking to go the free route, how about just using a couple of friends?

 

Enjoy!

 

New Technologies in Rope Rescue

Posted by rescue2training on October 29, 2012
Posted in: appalachian doortex, firefighting, high angle, knots, rope rescue, technical rescue, Uncategorized, vortex. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

Well it’s short notice, but we have had some significant interest in running another “Modern Technologies in Rope Rescue” class. So we’ve decided to add one more for the year.

We’ll be at the Lancaster County Public Service Training Center in Salunga- Landisville, PA on Dec 8-9 for this two day class covering a wide range of what’s new in the rope world. In particular, we will be working heavily with the CMC Rescue MPD (Multi-Purpose Device) and Two Tension Rope Systems. This system dramatically simplifies the rigging needed to execute the majority rope rescues.

We’re also going to be covering the use of  Arizona Vortex artificial high directional. While we will cover several traditional setup configurations, we  will also be showing the setup and use of the Appalacian Doortex in a couple of different configurations. Knotcraft, with a focus on the benefits of the bowline and it’s many variations, will also be covered in depth.

The cost of this 16 hour class is $280 per person. If you have any questions or would like more information, please give Kelly a call at 240-462-6610 or send an email to

rescue-2@comcast.net

Do Dropkicks Belong in Rope Rescue?

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

I’m going to go out on a ledge here and say that they might. You can see the technique in action in the two videos below. This first video shows a more subtle version of the “Kickoff Pickoff ” that may or may not have been made up on the spot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLZzqNlpazU&feature=player_embedded

This next video clearly shows that this team has practiced this more aggressive version of the Kickoff Pickoff. Note that he was completely comfortable on a short, very fast rappel and the coordination of his partner dropping all of his excess rope as he jumps. Clearly they’ve trained on this enough to know that it will work. Because, if you get it wrong, it’s going to be a LONG day on the typewriter trying to explain this one away.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn7SWTj9TIU

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.