Special Operations and Rescue Services

Special Operations and Rescue Defined

• Rescue means to free from confinement, danger, or evil.
• Technical rescue requires specialized tools, equipment, and technical know-how, within a complex operational environment, for a successful outcome.
• NFPA 1670 defines technical rescue as applying special knowledge, skills, and equipment to resolve unique or complex situations.
• Rescue involves improvising, adapting, and overcoming challenges.

Providing Rescue Services

• Squads focus on expanding hazardous materials response capability.
• Task-force-type organizations must roster and train multiple people for each task due to unpredictable availability during emergencies.
• Federal system task forces must roster personnel three deep in each position.
• The non-dedicated rescue squad is among the more common, but least effective, rescue service methods.
• Review past operations & recent trends in construction, occupancy, & hazards every five years to ensure the current system provides the required service level.
• When designing apparatus, determine the intended uses by consulting end-users and those who determine the build.
• Rescue apparatus can be the heaviest in the fleet, sometimes weighing over 70,000 lbs.
• Tool and equipment lists determine compartment size and layouts.
• Vehicles requiring limited power for extended times may benefit from a smaller, separate generator while larger demands may need a pto-driven unit.

Equipment Layout and Power Sources

• Heavy equipment should be stored low, and related tools kept together.
• Items are arranged so one person can remove and transport necessary accessories.
• Tools distinguish a special unit from a line unit, like an engine or ladder company.
• Six common power sources for tools include gasoline, manual (hand), battery, electrical, and hydraulic.
• The simple hydraulic bottle jack is among the earliest and most useful rescue tools.
• Compressed air is a tremendously powerful energy source that can be stored and used at a variety of pressures.
• High-pressure (145 psi) airbags can lift as much as 93 tons with a single bag, while low-pressure bags can lift 10 tons or more.
• A typical impact wrench uses 5 cubic feet of air per minute; a 45 cf air cylinder lasts less than ten minutes.
• Electric power units for hydraulic tools eliminate exhaust fumes and engine noise.
• A key advantage of electric-powered tools is the ability to start and stop with a switch.
• Battery-powered tools offer portability.
• Many 18 and 24 volt units have the same power of electric units.

Tool Training and Essential Rescue Tools

• Training should involve using tools enough to ensure fuel turnover, member proficiency at full working load, and equipment testing.
• Hydraulic rescue tool sets are a basic necessity for rescue.
• Rescues should have at least one apparatus-mounted winch.
• PTO style winches have capacities up to 20,000 lbs.
• Electric models have capacities up to 12,000 lbs.
• Most winches are rated for industrial use(2:1 or 3:1) and require safety factors of 10 to 1 for human loads or rescue use.
• The Griphoist is the preferred pulling tool due to its failsafe wire rope holding mechanism.
• Griphoists come in capacities up to 8,800 lbs and have shearpins in the handle to prevent overloading.
• Blocks, large pulleys, can change the direction of the pull, creating a mechanical advantage.
• Atmospheric hazards account for a high percentage of rescue operation casualties.
• Hazards include oxygen deficiency or enrichment, flammability, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen sulfide, found in sewer gas lines and industrial processes.
• The most important rescue tool is the human mind.
• Missing equipment, the office log should indicate removal date, reason, and repair location.
• SCBA maintenance by field personnel should be limited to routine cleaning and inspections.
• In-service training should balance hands-on skills with knowledge-based learning.
• The primary training goal is to motivate members, to develop a rescuer attitude.

Special Operations Unit Member Requirements

• Members must possess strength and stamina.
• Members must be able to think on the run.
• Members must be able to coordinate actions with others under difficult conditions.
• Members must be able to recognize and manipulate SCBA parts by feel in zero visibility.
• Members must be able to perform most tasks blindfolded, including tying various knots.
• Avoid developing an attitude that rescuers are superior to others.
• Proper written training materials are key to any training program, ensuring careful procedure review and valuable updates.
• Emergency responses are best when following a ten-step plan for technical rescues: Preparation, Response, Incident assessment, Hazard control, Support, Gain access, Disentanglement, Patient packaging, Patient removal, Termination.
• Transportation facilities (interstate highways, rail yards, airports) see numerous incidents beyond traditional responders' capabilities.
• Special projects at existing facilities pose many potential problems for responders.
• The situational analysis of resources should include the community and neighboring jurisdictions.
• Examine regional needs and capabilities.

Incident Assessment & Patient Packaging

• Key items to determine during incident assessment:
  • What happened?
  • How many victims are affected or trapped?
  • Are they savable?
  • Can they be saved with resources on hand or enroute?
  • What are the dangers to responders?
  • Can the dangers be mitigated?
• Incident assessment must focus on threats to rescuers and victims.
• Hazard detection and analysis is critical and should be undertaken immediately.
• Special unit responders must maintain situational awareness.
• In confined space rescues, 60% of victims are rescuers.
• Patient packaging balances protection, speed, size, and weight.

Incident Termination, Air Tools, and Airbags

• The first priority during termination is accounting for all personnel.
• Critical incident stress debriefing should occur after events involving tragedies.
• Air-powered tools are lightweight, portable, and reduce flammable vapor ignition potential.
• Airbags are available for low-pressure lifting, medium-pressure leak sealing, and high-pressure lifting.
• The force applied equals the internal pressure in the bag multiplied by its surface area.
• A typical low-pressure 7 psi bag with a 42-inch diameter produces nearly 5 tons of lifting force.
• Models operating at 14.5 psi can lift as much as 34,000 lbs and up to 6 ft high.
• Airbags should be marked with their maximum weight and height limitations.

Rigging Principles and Priorities

• Pilasters, thickened brick sections, increase wall stiffness.
• Calculations of loads, centers of gravity, load angles, hoisting system capacity, and means of attachment are critical before moving any object.
• Rigging uses simple mechanical advantages (levers, inclined planes, pulleys) to overcome natural forces like gravity, inertia, and friction.
• Inertia is the object's resistance to starting movement.
• Air bags teetering and shooting out from under a load is known as "falling the load”.
• Inclined planes reduce the percentage of weight lifted until the angle reaches 45 degrees.
• A sling used as a choker reduces the vertical rating to 75% of its rated load.
• All slings should be marked with manufacture date and working load.
• Sling angle is a major factor when attaching to any load.
• Slings should not be less than 30% on to the shackles.
• General rule is slings should be 1.5 times the length from attachment point to load.
• Protecting human life is the top priority in all operations as rescuer safety is the higher priority.
• When using drags, it is best to drag a patient head first, so that allows the limbs to fold in neatly against the body so as not to get them hung up.

Trench Work Regulations and OSHA Requirements

• Steel or stainless steel stokes baskets are highly recommended for high angle work.
• OSHA 29 CFR-1926 regulates all trench work, including rescue operations.
• OSHA 29 CFR 1926 subpart P governs excavation construction and protection.
• Trenches are no more than 15' deep. Most trench incidents happen in trenches 6-10 feet deep and under 6' wide.
• OSHA classifies soils into three categories: A, B, C (C is the least stable).
• Barrels reduce backfilling effects by creating a coffer dam around the victim.
• Classifying soil helps determine the cave-in hazard.
• OSHA requires soil piles to be at least two feet from the trench lip.
• Four common types of cave-ins: lip slides, slough-ins, shear wall failures, and kick-ins.
• OSHA requirements include that:
  • Soil piles and other objects must be at least 2 feet from the lip.
  • Trenches over 5' deep must be protected.
  • Trenches over 4' must have a safe exit (ramp or ladder) within 25 feet of every worker.
  • Ladders must be secured, and extend 3' above the lip.
• Awareness-level personnel can enter properly protected trenches less than 5' deep for non-cave-in emergencies.
• Operations-level trained personnel can enter trenches less than 8' deep for non-cave-in emergencies.
• Only technician level trained personnel should perform shoring or excavation in trenches over 8' deep.
• Monitor all trenches 4' or deeper for oxygen, flammability, and toxicity.
• Proper respiratory protection or ventilation is needed for oxygen levels at or below 19.5%.
• If flammable vapors exceed 10% of the LEL, the trench must be vented and fire protection implemented.

Shoring Systems and Construction Types

• Unshored trenches deeper than 15' are problematic due to lumber strength limitations.
• Trenches over 20' require a licensed engineer to design the shoring system.
• Common elevator types in commercial buildings are hydraulic, electric, or roped; roped hydraulic elevators are found in small residential buildings.
• Buildings over 5 stories are equipped with traction elevators.
• Instead of winding, traction elevators pass ropes over a drum (sheave) with one cable end secured to the crosshead beam, located at the top of the car frame.
• A typical counterweight equals the weight of the empty car plus half the weight of a full load of passengers.
• Almost all modern elevators are enclosed in a fire-resistive hoistway, due to building codes.
• Blind shaft elevators start at the lobby and do not stop until an upper floor of 15, 20, or higher; commonly found in buildings with 20 or more floors.
• Elevator cars have five fundamental door designs: outward swinging, single sliding, double sliding, bi-part sliding, and vertical bi-parting (freight elevators).
• Elish Otis invented the safety brake in the 1850s.
• The elevator car connects to a separate governor rope system.
• The governor rope passes over a sheave with a flywheel at the top of the hoistway.
• Centrifugal force spins hooks out of the flywheel to grab the sheave's edges if the car moves too fast.
• Man in machine runs
• Always follow basic precautions when dealing with any entrapment.

High-Angle Rescue Protocols

• Conduct a equipment size up and gather operational information.
• Immediately stabilize machinery before moving any parts.
• Remove or secure all energy sources to the device.
• Provide advanced life support and psychological first aid to the victim.
• Lead climbing happens when walking or climbing along a structural element such as a tower or the boom of a crane, creating attachment points for safety lines along the way.
• NFPA 1893 defines minimum breaking strengths, labeling, maintenance, and record keeping for life safety ropes and equipment, includingharnesses and carabiners.
• Kernmantle construction ropes and the figure-eight family of knots have replaced life safety rope widely.
• An anchor point can have multiplied forces on it by the attached hauling system.
• Structural steel and reinforced concrete elements are the preferred anchor points.
• NFPA 1993 includes three rope and hardware categories: Escape, Light duty, and General purpose.
• Escape - intended for one time use
• Light duty - use is for a single person load
• General purpose - will handle a two person load
• Hardware indicates its minimum breaking strength (MBS) in kilo newtons (kN) and intended use (light, general, or escape).
• The figure-eight family of knots was developed for kernmantle rope, its smooth surface does not allow other knots to hold well.
• The butterfly knot forms a loop in the middle of a rope for a thee-directional load, such as when an anchor point needs suspending over an opening.
• The pulley is key in any mechanical advantage system.

Load Support, Mechanical Advantage, and Confined Spaces

• The number of ropes that support the load, not the ropes that pass through pulley sheaves, determines mechanical advantage.
• Conventional MA systems require a lot of rope.
• The Z-rig uses rope grabs to attach a moving pulley in line with a fixed pulley to create a 3:1 MA system that can be reset.
• Another type of resetting system is a compound system.
• • The simplest compound system is the 3:1 piggyback.
• Four types of scaffold incidents include, unoccupied swinging scaffold, occupied stalled scaffold, occupied hanging or off level scaffold, and medical emergencies at heights.
• Federal regulations 29-CFR 1910.146 defines a confined space as any area:
  • Not designed for continuous human occupancy.
  • Large enough for a person to enter and perform work.
  • Has limited means for entry and escape.
• Dangerous spaces are termed permit-required confined spaces if they:
  • Contain or could contain a hazardous atmosphere.
  • Contain material that could engulf a person.
  • Are shaped so a person could be caught or asphyxiated by inwardly tapering walls or floors.
  • Contain any recognized serious health or safety hazard.
• Atmospheric hazards can be of three types: asphyxiant, toxic/corrosive.

Operational Safety Standards

• There is no safe way to detect a lack of oxygen than with an oxygen meter.
• OSHA 29 CFR 1910.147 regulates lockout procedures for potential discharges into spaces.
• If using a 30-minute SCBA cylinder, each rescuer needs fresh air in 15 minutes for safety; rescuers with SCBAs must remain in sight of the outside and their exit.
• NIOSH limits supplied air respirators to 300 feet of hose from the source.
• Each member entering a confined space has to be secured to a retrieval line.

Structural Collapse Rescue and Construction Types

• Steel or concrete structural skeletons resist total collapse well and are called framed structures.
• Structures relying on bearing walls are known as unframed structures; bearing wall collapse can cause extensive collapses.
• Vertical member failure is more serious than horizontal member failure.
• Order of structural element failure impact on structural stability:
  1. Bearing walls
  2. Columns
  3. Girders (support beams)
  4. Beams and joists
  5. Floor or roof decking
• Greatest to least resistance to collapse by construction type:
  • Class 1: Fireproof construction
  • Class 4: Heavy timber construction
  • Class 3: Ordinary construction/standard brick and wood joist
  • Class 5: Wood frame buildings
  • Class 2: Metal or noncombustible construction

Collapse Types and Rescue Plan Stages

• The five collapse types: V-shape, A-frame, supported lean-to, unsupported lean-to (cantilever), and pancake.
• V-shape collapses usually occur in class 3 or 5 buildings with wooden floor joists that are overloaded or burnt.
• The collapse zone size must be at least 1 1/2 times the size of the facing wall.
• Buildings with bowstring truss roofs can have deadly collapse zones.
• The five stages of the collapse rescue plan are: Scene survey and reconnaissance, Surface victim removal, Search of the voids, Selected debris removal and tunneling, and General debris removal.

Collapse Rescue Shoring and Safety Protocols

• Shore human life whenever it is in danger.
• Shore before a secondary collapse occurs.
• Shore from a safe area to the danger area.
• Don't cut natural shores.
• When shoring, do not move or lift objects; let the load settle onto the shore.
• If in doubt, shore it.
• Only remove installed shoring when the load is stabilized or the situation allows.
• Use hand-powered tools close to the victim when tunneling or trenching.
• Crush syndrome is life-threatening and caused by restricted limb circulation; acid build-up returned to the circulatory system causes deadly disorders.
• Follow LCES (lookouts, communications, escape routes, safe havens) for safe operations.

Vehicle Extrication and Water Rescue Protocols

• Maintain 5' of clearance between the side roof and knee bags, 10" between wheel bags, and 20" from front airbags.
• NFPA 1670 requires any water entry rescuer be technician-level trained.
• Four water rescue steps: reach, throw, row, and go (rescuer swim).
• Drowning incidents mainly occur within 100 yards of the shore.
• Do not wear bunker gear near water or ice, except during firefighting.
• All rescuers need Type III personal flotation devices (life jackets).
• Selecting the water entry location is critical to rescuer safety; don't jump or drive into the water due to underwater obstruction potential.
• Use polypropylene rope for water rescue work because it floats and does not rot.
• Only get close enough to pass a flotation device to conscious victims.
• Active victims should not be grabbed from the front.
• Line pull signaling:
  • One long steady tug: Stop
  • Two steady pulls: Go
  • Three steady pulls: Back up
  • Four steady pulls: Move left
  • Five steady pulls: Move right
  • Short, sharp series of pulls: Emergency, back-up diver/swimmer is needed.
• Removing unconscious persons involves parbuckling (using a net and rolling them onto the boat).
• Near-drowning victims should be encouraged to go to the hospital due to up to 8-hour delayed effects.
• 70-degree water submersion increases survival by invoking the mammalian diving reflex.
• Check for carotid pulse because extremities will be hard to detect.
• Check to ensure they warm and dead.
• Time to exhaustion in different water temperatures:
  • 40 degrees can cause exhaustion in 15 minutes
  • 60 degrees can have the same result in an hour
  • 70 degrees can have the same result in 2 hours
• Give hypothermia treatment if below normal body temp (98.6 degrees)

Ice Rescue, Hazmat

• Non scuba trained personnel at the incident should identify and begin witness interviews.
• From witnesses try to obtain the time victim was last seen or went under and the location the victim was last seen before submerging.
• The SCUBA unit decides when not to dive. Each diver can decide if it is to dangerous to dive, or for other reasons, such as health issues that affect the ability of the diver to equalize pressures.
• Ice needs to be 3-4 inches thick to support one person, 5-6 for two.
• Ice water survival time is 15 minutes, ability to assist in rescue diminishes after 5 minutes.
• Rescuers on ice should wear cold water exposure suits or scuba dry suits with helmets and have a retreival line.
• Avoid getting in the water even wearing a rescue suit.
• If trapped under ice, try moving to the darker area of the ice.
• Expect conscious victims to be combative; use a hand-off approach you can release if needed.
• Wooden “ice ladders” around some lake perimeters help, used best in pairs to spread weight over an area.
• Only one rescuer should be on any section of ladder a the edge of the ice.
• Wood ladders work best because metal ladders freeze.
• CPC members (HAZ-MAT first level) are trained to don Levels A/B chemical protective clothing for hot zone casualty treatment and decon.
• Technician 1 is the slightly higher HAZ-MAT level
• An EPA and OSHA minimum of 40 hours of training provides allowed for HAZ-MAT technician to mitigate normal utility emergencies, gas leaks, and gasoline spills.
• Haz tac medic units carry gear such as level A CPC and chemical agent antidotes and they have 80 hours of hazmat training to patient care and use triage while supervising CPC equipped firefighters in this process .

Hazmat and Electrical Precautions

• When detecting materials in HAZ-MAT scenes, it is important to interpret instrument readings and know the properties of chemicals: flash point, flammable range, vapor density, specific gravity, and solubility.
• Standard Monitoring Response:
  • Always wear full PPE and SCBA when responding to potential atmospheric testing problems.
  • Test detection equipment against known sample before entering a hazardous environment; test again after exiting to ensure that it works.
  • When using detection equipment, use a backup device capable of the same tests.
  • Always assume the worst until proven otherwise.
  • Move slowly to give the sample time to move through the sampling hose, and monitor floor, eye, and ceiling level on a rotating basis.
  • Protocols are written using both hindsight and foresight; equipment use and restrictions must be followed.
• Electrical emergencies have two primary hazards:
  1. Electrocution
  2. Burns
• Electrocution - is brought by electrical current interfering with the body’s normal currents.
• Variables affecting electrocution: current amount, contact size, entry/exit path, current flow time and skin conditions (wet/dry, broken).
• High current flows cause rapid death through higher voltages and low resistance with wet or broken skin.
• Voltage gradient is current's dissipation to ground from a source.
• Rescuers need to consider all distribution system carriers potentially fatal.
• Potential hazards at power plants and substations:
  • Electrocution
  • Fire
  • Explosion
  • High-pressure gas or steam lines
  • Hazmat release
• PCBs break down to dioxin when heated - SCBAs should be mandatory for electrical fires.
• Emergency Actions:
  • Assume defensive position.
  • Remain outside of the hazard area and await supervisory arrival.
  • If present, stretch a line to supply a standpipe and sprinkler system but don't enter until declared safe.
  • Metal tools or ladders inside the generation station aren't allowed under any circumstances.
  • Make sure handlines are equipped with fog tips.
  • Set up search lines to tie off outside where low visibility due to steam or smoke may be an issue

Smoke and Tower Climbing

• Burning underground conduits and manholes can produce toxic carbon monoxide.
• Burning wire insulation (PVC) polyvinyl chloride smoke causes hydrochloric acid contact with mucous membranes that increases the toxic effects of gases like CO.
• Maintain a maximum of 3' of slack in the belaying line when Lead-climbing a tower or antenna.
• A small amount of 5' slack can result in a fall of 10' fall, or a 2:1 fall, greatly increasing the chances of serious injury or death.