Forest Grove Firefighters Participate in National Firefighter Safety Week

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This week Forest Grove Fire & Rescue (FGF&R) and Cornelius Fire Department (CFD) firefighters participated in training that is centered around firefighter safety. June 19th through June 25th is National Firefighter Safety, Health and Survival Week, with this years theme being "Surviving the Fire Ground." During the week, firefighters will train both in the classroom as well as conduct hands on exercises all centered around what to do if firefighters get lost, trapped or hurt inside of a burning building. So far in 2011 there have been 45 firefighters throughout the United States that have lost their lives in the line of duty, the last occurring just days ago on June 20th in Lake City, Florida.

When firefighters are faced with a situation of being either lost, trapped or injured, they are to call a Mayday. Doing this brings a specially designated crew called RIT (Rapid Intervention Team) into the building to help find and remove the firefighter out of the harmful environment before their air supply runs out. Also an additional alarm is requested, bringing four more fire companies with 16 more firefighters. Sometimes it is as easy as finding the firefighter and leading them out, to more complex rescues involving locating the firefighter trapped under debris in a building collapse situation.

FGF&R and CFD firefighters wearing full gear with their vision obscured were taken through a local warehouse to simulate four separate instances where calling a mayday may be needed. Those situations simulated being lost, trapped under debris, having their air pack become entangled, and a low air emergency (less than 1/4 left in their air cylinder). Once firefighters call a mayday, they need to make incident commanders aware of who they are, their unit, their location, how much air is left and what the mayday is for. Instructors were also advising firefighters to not wait very long to call a mayday-the sooner it is activated, the sooner crews can start the rescue.

Conducting this training helps remind firefighters of what to do if calling a mayday is needed. In all 35 firefighters from both agencies participated in the drill over the week. FGF&R wants to thank Woodfold Marco for allowing the firefighters to use their facility for this critical training opportunity.



Author:Forest Grove Fire & Rescue Press Release