What a great training day! Our friends from Philly Tin Helmet Training came to Arkansas for a great weekend of practical skill building and drills. We just completed Day 1 of R.I.T (Rapid Intervention Team) trying to learn valuable rescue skills to save firefighters that are lost, trapped or injured in a structure incident. .
It is also fantastic mutual- aid training with Collegeville Fire, Shannon Hills Fire, Arch Street Fire, Crystal Fire, and Little Rock Fire Department.
We spent the day learning skills and slowly increasing the difficulty of the tasks progressively with full gear and then low light or blackout conditions. Following the classroom portion, we moved to our truck bays for skills practice and eventually down the road for live drills in a donated 2-story residential structure. We worked to move simulated downed firefighters up stairs from a lower floor, move them out of a 2- story window down a ladder, and then through constricted locations like walls with minimal access width.
We will continue Sunday’s training in the donated structure with more blackout drills and smoke scenarios. Then we will have a full fire scenario on the structure at the end of the day.
