Waltham Firefighters Train to Rescue Downed Firefighters

Tuesday - July 17, 2012

The Waltham Fire Department Training Division is conducting training exercises in July that teach firefighters how to respond to a mayday call from fellow firefighters - locate those victims, rescue them and bring them to safety.  WFD has been using a vacant commercial building and a smoke machine to create various scenarios where a firefighter becomes trapped and issues a mayday.  These drills reinforce the duties of a Rapid Intervention Team (RIT) and use of multiple RITs to complete a rescue in a timely manner.  Like most departments, Waltham Fire activates a RIT at every working fire to ensure the safety of our members.

In the photo below firefighters gear up for the exercise.

In this photo, the officer leads a crew in using a thermal imaging camera and search line.

In this photo, fire crews operate in smoke-filled conditions to put the firefighter that issued the mayday on a new air tank source and convert the SCBA harness into a rescue sling.

In this photo, the RIT begins to remove the victim.

In this photo, RIT continues the removal of the victim to safety.