SHACOG Technical Rescue Team

TRT practiced Confined Space Rescue tonight at Station 110.

12:51 PM - With only seconds of daylight to spare a 34 year old man was rescued from a silo at 5160 E 96th St after a 7 hour, full scale effort, by multiple f...ire department agencies. Indianapolis Fire Department was dispatched to Milestone Contractors for a possible trapped worker inside an asphalt silo. Upon arrival it was confirmed that the man Billy Joe Walls was indeed trapped in coarse gravel but alert and able to talk to firefighters. IFD Collapse Rescue and Rope Rescue teams worked valiantly for over an hour to extract the man from the silo with no success. With input from onsite Milestone Contractors personnel, plans A, B & C were established. However, with no real way to remove the gravel from the silo - the constant shift of the loose gravel became the biggest obstacle. Rescuers reported that every time progress was made in removing it from around the victim, it would slide back down in a v shaped cone and put them back to square one. Two steps forward, two steps back. Despite the initial use of wood as a barrier to stabilize the area around the victim, gravel removal proved to be like digging out concrete. Additional resources were requested. Among them, Hancock County Collapse Rescue (Sugar Creek FD and Greenfield FD) and Fishers FD. The city of Carmel also sent a large Vacuum truck. With rescuers maintaining constant contact with the victim inside and attempting to utilize wood, a silo kit and sheer muscle, exterior crews worked on creating an access hole on the side of the silo and utilizing the vacuum truck. Co-workers from Riley Tool and Machine say that Mr. Walls was working inside the silo taking measurements. Normally these silos are filled with asphalt but in order to take measurements they are filled with gravel instead. The gravel allows for a firm work environment on which they can walk. The gravel starts 3 feet from the top and the worker is lowered in. Once measurements are taken at that level the gravel is released through a port at the bottom in 3 foot increments. At each 3 foot increment more measurements are taken more gravel released - until they get to the bottom. The crew was about 30 feet from the top at time of the accident. It is believed that Mr. Walls stepped on the gravel base and hit an air pocket which sucked him into the gravel much like quicksand. He was still harnessed and attached to his braided stainless rope cable. He remained attached to that until firefighters removed it just before he was raised. Rescuers were unable to secure him to one of our harnesses as he was buried too deep. Tac Team 14 utilized a high angle rope system including a main, belay and osha line for each of the 7 rescuers. The OSHA line is used for accountability. Due to the fact that Mr. Walls was buried so deep in the thick gravel, firefighters were on constant watch for any sign of compartment syndrome or compression injury. The constant pressure on the body, lack of movement and ability to perfuse, the body can sustain a build-up of lactic acid which when rapidly released can be deadly to a victim. The shift of the gravel and its subsequent release from the silo had to be well coordinated to protect the health of the patient. Too quick of release could have caused significant and/or catastrophic injury to his lower body. Constant re-evaluation of the rescue process was on going and several ideas were tried to no avail. In the end, at 8:19 pm when the victim was raised to the top, it was a combination of the use of the vacuum truck, the release of gravel from the bottom door (5lbs at a time) and the 7 rescuers (4 IFD, 2 Fishers, 1 Greenfield) hard work inside the silo that kept Mr. Walls from serious injury and gave this rescue a successful outcome. The coordination of effort by all agencies on scene, from the firefighters up top and those working below, was truly a group effort with one mission. Representatives from both agencies said they had never seen this kind of accident before. Big thanks to the Indianapolis Fire Buffs for their Rehab Support and the Indy Public Safety Foundation for the much needed pizza for the ride home.

Tech Rescue Thursday Pre-rigged rope rescue systems We have looked at pre-rigged equipment in the past. Stokes basket pre-rigged to go to work, C-space 4:1 pre-rigged in a bag etc. It is the basics of emergency services, Boots in pants, pre-connected hose lines, pre-connected step guns, intubation rolls, IV start kits, hydraulic tools pre-connected to reels, etc, etc. Why don’t we pre-rig out basic lower and haul system and a belay system? We have put a 300ft bag of... 12.5mm into service pre-rigged with an MPD. There are two anchor straps, a short and long one for different anchors i.e. from the side of the rescue truck or anchored to a tree. There are two more anchor straps and a pulley for a change of direction if needed. The Rock Exotica swivel pulley, mallion rapid and Rescucender are pre-connected to switch from the lower to a haul quickly. The belay bag is the same with the same anchor straps and a pre-rigged Petzl I’d for the belay. In an off handed study at a class we took some well trained rescue techs and pitted them against each other. One team rigged traditionally and the other used the pre-connected equipment and stokes basket. The pre-rigged team was down the hillside and back up three times before the traditional rigging team was moving down for the first time. If it was your loved ones over the hillside which crew would you want? Are there system we need to build, yes but we can make them quicker using pre-rigged equipment. We were setting up AHDs at drill and the tie backs were pre-rigged mini 4:1s (Aztecs, SMC AdvanceTech, PMI personal haul, jiggers, etc.) We have pre-rigged equipment for years, what is the next step?

Some of my friends have told me to quit beating a dead horse but I feel like I’m on a crusade. It’s 2018 and fire gear has no place in a water rescue. There’s r...ight ways and wrong ways to do water rescue. They are both depicted in this picture. If you don’t have any water rescue training then stay out of the water. I’m not picking on these guys or any one department. It happens all over the country to departments big and small. If you need help educating then find the resources you need. There’s a ton of them out there. Convince the bosses to not allow this to happen. I’m going to continue to try to spread the word. #imoffofthesoapboxnow #firefighter #firegeardoesntbelonginthewater #waterrescue #rescue #rescuecompany See more

Tonight the TRT worked on rigging a high line carriage system, Norwegian reeving system and an English Reeving system. Next month we will be doing the systems in scenario based training evolutions. We started using screamers in place of Prusiks due to a know failure point. Still working on knot selection for connection and slack in the absorbing system. We have also started playing with the idea of using ASAPs in place of the prusiks in the reeling systems. No testing at height yet. Would rather use ASAP Locks but we used what we had.