Ladders and Residential Search Training Sessions
This past Saturday at the BAVFC annex approximately 30 members from both Bel Air and Fallston spent the day with the team from Adapt and Overcome Training. The training was a combination of two courses; “Aggressive Ground Ladders” and “Residential Primary Search: Creating and Searching Survivable Space”.
The first portion of the class focused on selection and rapid deployment of ground ladders using Tower 332 and Truck 1331. Topics covered included:
- Ladder selection and priorities
- Moving ground ladders to placement
- Individual deployment of larger 24′, 28′, and 35′ extension ladders
The first course concluded with timed “two ladder, three victim” drills in which groups of two firefighters were tasked with quickly deploying two ladders to remove a victim from three separate windows.
The second portion of Saturday focused on searching and removing victims in the residential setting. During this session personnel reviewed and honed vent, enter and search techniques, victim packaging and movement, removal of an unconscious victim from a second story window, and search techniques for furniture commonly found in residential homes including beds and cribs. Each firefighter performed an individual search, which was video recorded by the training staff. The firefighter then reviewed their video with the training staff to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their next search.
Only continued, repetitive, and correct training takes a firefighter’s knowledge, skills and abilities in their job to the next level. The BAVFC extends its many thanks to the crew of Adapt and Overcome for their time and training and we hope to do it again.
We also want to thank the members of the Susquehanna Hose Company for taking their time out of their Saturday to cover our territory so our personnel could attend this training.
Photos: Sharon Marino, BAVFC
