You are called to the scene where an individual is suspended at mid-height on some type of rope or cable.
Let’s shift now to build out a rescue scenario with two distinct variables. The bottom line: You need to ensure that redundant and compliant rigging is completed with two points of contact to both yourself as the rescuer and the victim. It can also be a fixed line with ASAPs connected to it for yourself and the victim. There are a lot of ways to accomplish this, it can be a midline knot connected to yourself on a fixed belay system with a tail that will extend to the victim and get rigged in. Whether you are rappelling to the victim or ascending to the victim, you will still want a belay and will need to ensure the victim also has a belay. So, as the rescue team, instead of building out a system, simply utilize existing lines that are deemed safe and compliant or deploy your own fixed lines and then rig into the line with your descent-control device. It can still be done with what you have and can be more effective in certain circumstances than fixed systems. It will radically impact your rescue capabilities.īecause many fire departments have moved toward the newer devices for this system hub, they have become hyper-focused, in my opinion, on always lowering and hauling rescuers and victims, and have neglected the importance of individual rescuers capably ascending and descending rope to perform access and rescue. If you can move away from racks and 8s as an organization and collectively update your inventories to include more versatile and efficient devices, please do so. I still encounter many departments using brake bar racks and rescue figure 8s as their primary device for rappelling and lowering. Many of these serve dual purposes as effective rappelling and ascending devices but are not often used in those applications because there aren’t enough of them.
In other words, every rescuer is not equipped with one on their harness. Although many fire departments have these, they are not in unlimited quantities and have to be selectively deployed during the operation for mission-critical tasks. These examples should be familiar to most of you reading this. There are many examples of these: Petzl I’Ds, multi-purpose device (MPD), D4s and D5s, Maestros and Clutches. These are devices that allow loads to be lowered or hauled, and they auto-capture the load when the device is not being actively operated.
Most fire departments that are conducting rope rescue operations have at least a limited number of newer descent-control devices. To start, let’s establish what I believe most fire departments have. There are a million ways accomplish the goal using very advanced gear, but they require equipment and training that many fire department rescue teams simply don’t have. Rope rescue pickoffs can be accomplished within the boundaries of more common fire department capabilities.
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