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Collapsed Your Fire Station Lately? - How to Use an Old Fire Station for USAR Training
A follow-up story to last month's USAR excercise hosted by Hilton Head Island Fire & Rescue.
Hilton Head Fire Station Now A Training Ground
Participants included:
Hilton Head Island FIre & Rescue
Bluffton Township Fire District
Hilton Head Island Emergency Management
USAR SC-RRT-4 (Hilton Head/Bluffton)
Burton Fire District Technical Rescue
Mt. Pleasant Fire & Rescue Technical Rescue
USAR SC-RRT-5 (Columbia)
USAR SC-TF-1 (state Type I team)
The exercise included two days of USAR Team Technician-level training, conducted as an Operational Readiness Exercise. It also included three days of Operations-level training for all Hilton Head Island and Bluffton Township engine and truck companies.
The instructors were members of Hilton Head Island Fire & Rescue and the Bluffton Township Fire District and members of USAR SC-TF-1.
The ORE included the successful asessment and shoring of the building, numerous masonry wall breaches, stabilization of tree cantilevers from a section of roof, void searches, and the rescue of all victims that were evaluated as having "survived" this collapse scenario within two 12-hour operational periods.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Mick Mayers on
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It was beautiful. Wish we could do that every week.
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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We'd run out of fire stations in like, two months, or something.
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Permalink Reply by Brian Dumser on
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Not a bad idea. We're going to be rebuilding one of our Fire Stations. It's in the early planning stages now. There's been talk of tearing down the whole thing, which would fit nicely with this training idea.
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It took us around 3 months of planning to stage a 1-week exercise. If you have a local or regional USAR team, get their leadership involved in the planning, especially their operational and logistics managers. We're fortunate to have several real experts in both areas that are members of our FD or our partner department and that are either on our regional team or are in leadership roles on the state Type I team.
All of them were integral to the planning process, as were the team leaders of the mutual aid teams and the Special Ops chief from another neighboring department that unfortunately could not participate.
Anticipate needing lots of rehab, being able to feed two meals per every participant per 12-hour operational period, fuel, LOTS of expendable timber, nails, pickets, rebar, drill bits, saw blades - the list is extensive.
Dropping the building should be coordinated between the FD, the USAR folks, and the demolition contractor. In our case, we got everything out of the structure, got the asbestos remediation done, then got the environmental and demolition permits. We used Level B hazmat suits full of hay as the manikins and put them randomly in the structure prior to the collapse to simulate real entrapment problems.
You'll need to think about parking for a lot of apparatus and personal vehicles, safety personnel, PIOs and media relations, etc, etc.
We also used NIMS forms to track everything, ran a corresponding EOC exercise, and had every company officer complete a NIMS 214 Unit Log for their after-action report so everyone has done that at least once before they have to do it for real.
PPE is another issue. We chose USAR PPE and close monitoring. It kept the nail holes out of our expensive turnout gear.
If you guys decide to do a collapse exercise, message me and I'll let you know a few other things that are helpful if you wish.
Oh, and don't forget the porta-johns.
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Permalink Reply by Carlos Flama on
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