Brotherhood Instructors - This was the fourth and final scenario that challenged the members taking our RIT/FAST Scenarios course in Bensenville, Illinois on Saturday July 31st, 2010.

The members of the course took positions of the RIT/FAST team while the instructors of Brotherhood Instructors, LLC took positions of the trapped engine company and incident command.

This scenario took place in a vacant store, in which Brotherhood Instructors constructed a major collapse, completed with a buried live victim (stuck in a void).

Members were not told what the scenario was, simply that they had responded as a RIT/FAST team to a store fire. A "mayday" was transmitted for a major collapse with members trapped, just prior to the start of the video. The video starts as the RIT/FAST team is making their way to the entry point to gather information.

The video: Due to the collapse, the members were unable to use the doorway that the victims used to exit. Members had to force entry via another entrance, make their way back to the collapsed area, conduct reconnaissance, figure out the problem, conduct a tunneling evolution, locate the victim, extricate and package the firefighter and remove the firefighter as quickly as possible.

There was no correct or incorrect way to accomplish this, and the members were allowed to perform whatever operation THEY felt was necessary to get the job done.

They chose a 2-pronged attack to gain access to the victim, tunneling in from two different directions. You can see (or not see) the conditions that they were working under. Common fireground noise and zero-visibility were present (occasionally the camera gets a view via thermal imaging to check the progress). Note the multiple angles of "V", "inverted-V", and "Lean-To" collapses that were constructed, complete with furniture and other junk that needed to be dealt with. Teams were rotated out as they became exhausted or exhausted their air supply. You can hear RIT/FAST teams giving progress reports to the IC and the RIT/FAST team sent in to relieve them.

After locating and providing air on the trapped firefighter, members realized they were very close to an exterior wall and elected to have a team breach the sheet metal wall from the exterior.

Watch and listen to the radio transmissions, packaging, removal at this realistic and life-like scenario. The only thing that we cannot duplicate is the fire, everything else, we provide as life-like as possible.

If you are still a bit apprehensive that we cannot provide realistic and life-like RIT/FAST training, take a look at the firefighter's faces at the end of the video! Their faces show that they took it serious enough to be life-like.

At the end of the scenario, a critique took place where all instructors and members were able to discuss what went well, what didn't, what worked, what didn't and then ask questions complete with instructor input.

We had an outstanding day and we know the brothers learned a lot based on the Course Critiques. Thanks again for the great opportunity to train with everyone. Stay safe!