Posted tagged ‘victim rescue’

Survivable Space Exists!!!!

01/24/2013

This is an incredible video out of Corinth MS from a few days ago. Units pull up to a well involved house, with rapidly advancing fire throughout the building. A 9 month old child was dropped out of the window to bystanders and survived. Lt. Chris Duncan is told from the bystanders that the Father is still inside of that room. Conditions are becoming pre flashover very quickly, the Lt. makes a quick VES in the window and removes the adult male to the window just before flashover occurs. Other firefighters outside the window drag the victim away as the Lt. makes a dive out into the yard. The victim is in critical condition but still alive. I extend my gratitude to  Lt. Chris Duncan who made a decision to put the Citizens life above his own and made a move that was rewarded with a second chance on life for this citizen. Job well done, Citizens of Corinth you should be proud of your fire department.

This is a great demonstration of survivable space that can be found in a very well involved home. You can find teachings out there that would tell you the front of this building had no potential for viable victims, and intern to not take the risk for victims. VES and quick recognition of the survivable space saved lives.

Video Training: Structure Fire With Rescue

02/07/2010

This video starts out a little slow because it shows the response  to the fire, however if you skip to the on-scene footage it is worth the wait.  The truck arrives in the video at about the 1:30 mark.  This video has been around for a couple years and provides some good training footage, it originates in Columbus Ohio. The first photo we have posted just gives you a clear day time view of the street and occupancy.

A couple things to notice in the video. It appears that when the rig arrives there is already at least 1 engine and 1 truck on scene. The engine is getting a line flaked out and the truck appears to be getting ready to make a search of the floor above. There does seem to be a slight delay in getting water to the line, with that said we are not sure if it was a problem at the pump, or just a normal delay from performing a reverse lay to the hydrant. The video captures some good fire development and the speed at which it can be knocked down. We will let the video speak for itself.

Something that stands out to us is how much everyone is counting on each other. The truck crew is heavily relying on the engine to make a knock down and the engine crew is relying on the truck crew to make the rescue so they can focus on extinguishment. Obviously the citizen (unconsciously) is relying on both crews if they have any chance of making it out of this building.  If either crew would have not done their part on this fire,  the outcome could have been much different. From our research we found that  the first arriving units had no reports of victims trapped.  This victim was pulled out unconscious with some 2nd degree burns but had reportedly survived the fire.

We welcome any thoughts or discussion on this video, please keep it productive and related to learning as much as we can.  I think we can agree that videos only give us a small look at these scenes (that we were not on) and it becomes very easy to pick apart the things that went wrong. However they present a greater opportunity to discuss lessons learned, what went right and what we may change next time.

We think this specific video brings up some excellent points such as: Search priorities? Ladder work/Egress ladders? Where do you take the 2nd line? Ventilation on this structure? Bringing your own water or not?….and many more.


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