Harrison Fire Department Holds Bailout Training

On Saturday, the Harrison Fire Department held its annual bailout training at the firehouse in Harrison. 

The required training is a result of a day known as Black Sunday, which occurred in January of 2005. A fire broke out in an apartment building located in the South Bronx the day after a blizzard. Five trucks from five companies responded to the call, working their way through frigid, unplowed streets. Six firefighters were sent to the fourth floor of the building to evacuate any tenants and to try and prevent the fire from spreading upward. 

While inside, fire roared up through the floorboards, trapping the six men against the windows.  With no working hoses and a frozen fire hydrant, the men were forced to jump out of the fourth-story windows.  Two of them, Lieutenants John G. Bellew and Curtis Meyran, were killed from the jump, and the four others suffered extensive physical and emotional traumas.

New York State Law now requires firefighters to undergo training that equips them with the means to exit through a window quickly and safely.

 “Over the years, firefighters have been killed or seriously injured when trapped in a room, and they need a quick means of egress and most of the time it’s out the window”, explained Dino DelSignore, chief of the Harrison Fire Department.  “This allows the firefighters to exit the room in a fast way, in a controlled way. That’s what the descenders are for. They jump out the window and hang there if they’re unconscious or disoriented, which would allow the rescue team to get to them and lower them down if need be, or they can lower themselves down if they’re able to”.

Firefighters are equipped with a hook, a descender, and a harness.  They tie off to an object in the room, exit through the window, and descend to the ground. 

“Different scenarios are gone through, such as tying off to a radiator, a door frame, a steam pipe, and then the window sill as a last resort,” said DelSignore.  “Then they do the same thing again with an air pack.  With the turn out gear, the air pack, and the helmet, they’re carrying about 60 pounds of gear."

Lieutenant Michael McMenemon, a bailout instructor, explained that each fireman must go through six jumps.  

“They go over every jump, over and over and over again with as many scenarios as possible.  Repetition, repetition, repetition.”

The firefighters will continue to have yearly recertification drills in the bailout-training program. 

“If anyone is ever caught in a room and they need to get out, this is the way to do it,” said DelSignore.