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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...

Tool #3 – Ground Ladders Remember, the RIT toolbox is built on situational awareness. This situational awareness gives us some insight into where and how firefighters are operating inside of a structure. Using this information gives us the opportunity to better understand...

Tool #2 – The Irons The irons are a combination of a flathead axe and a Halligan bar which are carried/married together. This combination has been around the fire service for nearly sixty years and is tried and true. (A sledge hammer or PIG tool can be carried with the...

Disclosure There are numerous acronyms associated with teams designated for the rescue of a firefighter in distress.  It doesn’t matter if we call it RIT, RIC, or FAST, there are some tools that are essential to the team’s operations.  In this series, we are going to discuss five...

Webbing is one of the most important tools we can have as a firefighter with it’s limitless uses. The ingenuity firefighters have always amazes me especially when it comes to webbing. We are going to discuss  only 7 of the ways firefighters use webbing.  The most common...

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...

In my previous article, Rescuing the Trapped Firefighter Part 2 ,we discussed four essential components to the firefighter rescue. This article will wrap up my series and it will discuss the skill sets needed to bring this all together. Skill Sets The first set of...

FF Rescue – Just What Does it Mean – Part 1 of 3 The Essential Components The primary function of today’s firefighter should be to survive. You wonder why I say that? Without survival you are not only a loss to the fire service but your family. So, how do we balance...