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R.I.C., R.I.T., F.A.S.T.—Call it what you want, this is the team of firefighters on the fire ground who are immediately available to rescue an incapacitated firefighter.  For the purpose of this article, we will refer to this team as “R.I.C.” Like everything else in the...

This article is the third and final in a series of learning how to effectively manage a MAYDAY situation as seen from the Rapid Intervention Team. We have previously discussed Incident Commander and company officer responsibilities, now let’s move forward and talk about t...

In the last article we discussed Incident Command priorities and skills to effectively manage a MAYDAY event. Now I would like to focus on the tasks that the officer leading the Rapid Intervention Crew (RIC) should perform. As always please refer to your departments SOG’s...

What Can We Do? As the fire service moves closer to understanding that our own need to call for assistance earlier, more MAYDAYs seem to be occurring on the fire ground. Is this a bad thing? I don’t really think so. Quite the opposite actually. It shows that we are learning that...

SAVING OUR OWN Rapid Intervention, F.A.S.T., RIC, RIT, these terms all mean the same thing, rescuing a trapped or downed firefighter. Most of these terms and theories are fairly new (within the last 20 years) to our business. The best I can trace the theory of having a dedicat...