East Providence Firefighters Conclude Training with Urban Search and Rescue

The sound of wet-sawing and jackhammering ricocheted off the industrial buildings in Phillipsdale Landing, helping to create an impossible scenario and trapping hands and feet.

It was all part of the final training session, known as Urban Search and Rescue Team Deployment. In this training season, local firefighters have performed everything from to , all aimed at keeping East Providence's bravest fluid in recovery technique.

Wednesday's training in some way utilized a component of previous sessions, with a written exam being administered in the early morning. By the afternoon, the class had been divided into two squads, comprised of 12 firefighters each. The squads carried out the exact same exercise starting at opposite ends of the course. They were supervised by a command structure which included 2 Operation Officers, one responsible for each squad, which reported to an overall commander.

A line made of large concrete pipes snaked through the back of the mill complex, beckoning each of the squads at either end. The squads were responsible for sawing, hammering and breaking their ways through the slabs of wood, cement and metal that separated one concrete pipe from another, and ultimately them from the "victim."

Captain David Rave, who oversaw the training, explained the severity of the obstacle.

"Basically, this training mimics a structural collapse of a building," Rave said. "Any contents of a building, like desks and machinery, would also be found in the debris. This is as close to real life as you can get."

Before crawling into the heavily obstructed cement pipes to retrieve mock victims, both squads had to saw and jackhammer through a large concrete slab.

"[The squads] saw first and then hammer pieces free and remove them out," said Rave. "They remove them out because if there's a victim underneath, we don't want them injured by what's being removed."

Rave also said that the initial breaking through of the cement is the most tiring, so the squads rotate in "15 minute shifts to prevent being overtired."

Both squads had 3-and-a-half hours to complete the entire course. As of its completion, the members from this season's training now have 274 hours of training, making them National Incident Management System (NIMS) compliant.

Captain Rave said that being NIMS compliant is not only good for East Providence, but the nation, overall.

"There's a big push by the feds right now to make more departments NIMS compliant," said Rave. "If there's a disaster and there's a need for a large response, you can pull responders from all over the country and they're speaking the same language."

In regards to state and local agencies and departments aiding in interstate recoveries, Rave said that there is a chance that some East Providence Firefighters may assist in tornado efforts in Missouri. If so, Rhode Island's larger relief agency would select certified Ocean State members to be delegated in relief rescue efforts.