Tonight We drilled on firefighter rescue and R.I.T. skills. R.I.T. stands for Rapid Intervention Team. At every fire where firefighters are committed to fighting the fire from inside the building (interior attack) a R.I.T. team must be standing by outside the building. These firefighters MUST be proficient with advanced firefighting, search and rescue and other techniques. In the event that the interior crew gets into trouble while fighting the fire a R.I.T. team can be quickly deployed to rescue the firefighters inside and lead them to safety. This is a very high risk operation and requires the firefighters to be well trained prior to such an event happening on an actual fire scene. At the drill Thursday night, members used a vacant building and set up several stations. In one of them, firefighters had to breach through a simulated wall and fit through the 16″ gap between studs with all their turnout gear on (including Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus SCBA) In another station firefighters took turns moving a downed firefighter up and down stairs to remove the injured member to safety. and in the third station, members had to go over a 4′ high wall in a narrow hallway which didn’t leave firefighters too many options for positioning themselves to move the downed firefighter over the wall. Techniques were taught by seasoned members of the department to the younger less experienced members to make them more efficient and versatile.
