To the Rescue
The formula for emergency rescue is like a good recipe, constantly being updated through trial and error.
The recipe starts with trained individuals. While paid firefighters are required to have several days of various training per month, volunteers are only required to have a few days per year, and often they have to seek specialized training on their own.
Bob Barbarini, a South Butler volunteer firefighter and instructor at the Pennsylvania State Fire Academy in North Park, trains emergency personnel in cave, water, collapsed structure, confined spaces and trench rescue, as well as just about anything else that comes along.
"That's about all we teach at the academy. But we do farm silo rescue, structural rescue, window washers, too. We'll custom design classes for anyone who wants it," Barbarini said. "It all depends on what they want to rescue."
Butler County Community College offers several types of emergency rescue training as well.
For example, two years ago Barbarini and other instructors designed a rescue class for Allegheny Power, teaching personnel to rescue employees from transformers.He said the design of any class involves a survey of all elements involved. In Allegheny Power's case, it was transformer design, OSHA requirements for employees and proper rigging."If the guy has a broken leg and needs rescued, you don't want to destroy the transformer in the process," Barbarini said."It's a trial and error, and we take everything that we know from other rescues and adapt it to that environment."In rescue on a transformer, Barbarini said crews switched from steel cords to Kevlar ropes to avoid metal fibers dropping into the transformers and short circuiting them.He said rescue is as much about preserving the environment as it is about saving the individual.The academy formerly conducted cave rescue classes at Lemon Hole Caves in Westmoreland County — since discontinued due to an outbreak of white-nose disease among bats that is killing entire populations of the mammals across the Northeast — and developed techniques to leave the cave relatively unchanged after instruction.Rescuers would drill holes for rope anchors during a rescue or training, then remove the anchors and fill the holes with mud afterward."But we create a map of those anchor sites and leave the metal threading behind, so if there's another rescue we can clean it out and put another bolt in," Barbarini said.<BR><BR>
The academy trains for water rescue at McConnells Mill State Park due to the Slippery Rock Creek's swift waters, and ice rescue on any body of water with ice."Structural collapse rescue is best if you have structures, like an old house you can use, but that's not often the case."Trench rescue, however, he said is easy to conduct because trenches can be dug anywhere. Trench rescue becomes necessary when construction crews laying pipe or utility lines are endangered by the collapse of the trench.Butler County's trench team is Middlesex Township, Penn Township and Saxonburg (volunteer firefighters)," Barbarini said.<b>More practice</B>Butler's city fire department, already trained in confined spaces rescue, honed its rope rescue skills last month on the West Cunningham Street tier garage."We wanted them set up with a confined space and rope team," Barbarini said."Now they are prepared, once they have the equipment."He said it makes sense to stage equipment at the city station, even though many volunteers are rope rescue certified, so it can be quickly dispatched throughout the county.Rope rescue is just about the most common class for Barbarini, who has been a trainer at the academy for three years. He most recently adapted the training to tower rescue.
Last Saturday, 14 firefighters trained at the academy on a 225-foot communications tower owned by the Port Authority of Allegheny County.In Saturday's scenarios, four teams of three people, each with a 300-foot section of rope, lowered a stranded patient in 50-foot sections before the next team took over."There's two ropes on (the patient), first for safety and second for positioning," said instructor Terry Yeany, fire chief in Distant, Armstrong County."This tower is 225 feet, but we still practice in segments. If this would be a 1,200-foot tower, nobody has a 1,200 foot rope."Dawn Dufford, a volunteer with the Meridian Volunteer Fire Company, was among those enrolled in the training. She said ascending the tower, which sways with the wind, was scary at first."Once you're up there, though, you trust that your rope is secure and focus on your mission," she said.Playing the patient was Nick Leach, also from the Meridian Volunteer Fire Company. He has completed the class several times and is working toward his instructor rating."You have to pay attention to detail," he said. "The technology advances every year a little bit more."He said the new gear rescuers practice with, including ropes, harnesses and descent control devices, are field tested for companies during the classes.Descent control devices, or DCDs, are shaped like a figure-eight or a ladder, creating friction on the ropes to control the patient's rate of descent."We'll tell them what we like, what worked or didn't work for us, and they'll make the changes if they think it's necessary," Leach said.But more important, he said, is the comfort level gleaned from practicing multiple scenarios on the tower."I think the more advanced you get in the class, the more familiar you become with the procedure and terminology," Leach said. "That's why we use so many different colors of rope, for example. If someone says 'white go left,' everyone knows which person and rope you are talking about.""There is a lot more interest in these classes because more and more towers are being constructed," Yeany said."You can see about 75 other towers from the top of this one."
Barbarini said the tower rescue training received a trial by fire in April 2009, when two Butler men, one of them injured, had to be rescued from a 60-foot perch on an Allegheny Power transmission tower behind Butler Fabrication on Kittanning Street."From some of the mistakes we had there, we made changes to the state curriculum," Barbarini said.He cited terminology as one example, wherein some rescuers were familiar with rope rescue, but not with some of the terms or procedures associated with tower rescue.Furthermore, the dangers associated with tower rescue include more than just gravity and the hard ground.The tower in the Kittanning Street rescue carried two sets of circuits, a 12,000-volt line and a 25,000-volt line, enough voltage to create an arc of electricity even if an individual is several feet from the lines.A communications tower can interfere with radio frequencies, and the microwave dishes atop the towers emit exactly that, microwaves which can injure anyone who gets close.Yeany said there are three types of communications towers in the area: monopole, tripod and free-standing.The tower in Saturday's class was free-standing, meaning it had no guide wires securing it to the ground.Yeany explained that, depending on the tower's shape, a patient can be lowered using a backboard, harness or basket, either straight down or at an angle away from the tower.Nick Leslie, a volunteer with the VA Butler Healthcare fire department, said towers offer different challenges than regular rope rescue."There's very little to secure yourself to. Trusting your equipment is key," he said. "Awareness is big, knowing where your patient is and where your team is."Jason Fait, one of eight rescuers from a technical rescue team in Penn Township, Westmoreland County, said he agreed."Your anchors are limited, and there's no place really to stand. You also cannot rappel normally," he said.Space in the tower rescue class is limited for just that reason, because space on the tower is limited.Dave Guiste, also a member of the VA Butler Healthcare fire department, said tower rescue also shares some of the challenges of regular rope rescue.Guiste said a 150-foot length of rope can weigh about 50 pounds; double lanyards to secure oneself to the tower can be another 5 to 7 pounds, and a harness can be between 5 and 10 pounds."The hard part is carrying all of the equipment to the top. The lowering is easier," he said.
