| Basic Firefighter Rescue Operations / Introduction to RIT
Signal 73 delivered our Basic Firefighter Rescue Operations / Introduction to RIT program. This course reviews the knowledge and hands-on skills every firefighter should possess to help save our own.
Night One focused on the fundamentals of Rapid Intervention Team (RIT) operations and rescuing a downed firefighter. Members reviewed the evolution of FAST/RIT concepts, team responsibilities, and firefighter survival operations. The evening also included a comprehensive tool lab featuring equipment used by the departments in attendance, including thermal imaging cameras, SCBA RIT packs, PASS devices, and Pak-Tracker systems.
Students then rotated through three hands-on skill stations covering:
* Proper deployment and use of the RIT pack, including the responsibilities of the Air Management Firefighter.
* Packaging and removing a downed firefighter.
* “Firefighter CPR”—performing effective chest compressions while simultaneously removing a firefighter’s PPE to expedite advanced care.
On Saturday, members spent the day combining these individual skills into realistic, physically demanding rescue scenarios. Firefighters performed rescues involving wall breaches, conscious and unconscious firefighters who had fallen through floors or become trapped during structural collapse, and removals from both ground-level and upper-floor windows. Evolutions included carries up and down interior stairways and incorporated mechanical advantage systems using ropes, ladders, and hose lines—along with the reality that sometimes the only solution is brute force through dragging, carrying, and pulling.
The program concluded with multiple firefighter Mayday scenarios in a smoke-filled simulated IDLH environment, allowing students to apply everything they had learned throughout the week under realistic conditions. |
