Not as Bad as it Looks...

Members of C Platoon recently conducted some technical rescue training.

The mission given to the crew was to rescue an individual from under a heavy object, while causing no further harm to the victim or unnecessarily endangering firefighters.  The officer in charge, Captain Steven Lynch, chosen strategy was to use high pressure lifting bags to lift the load from the victim to allow for removal.

The crew performed a successful and safe recovery of the victim; they used two lifting bags in concert in an effort to provide an even lift that would not further injure the patient.  Firefighters used cribbing and struts to capture the progress made by the lifting bags and to guard against a catastrophic failure of the equipment.

The department's high pressure lifting bags come in various sizes and capacities; the maximum lift the department’s equipment can make is approximately 160,000 pounds.  The air used to fill the bags comes from spare SCBA cylinders.