FDNY Rope Rescue

By Robert Morris Jr. and Michael M. Dugan

A rope rescue off the roof of a burning building is one of the most daring rescues a firefighter can make. Doing it when the rope might be exposed to fire and could melt or break is a phenomenal rescue. When studying for promotion in the Fire Department of New York (FDNY), we had a code to remember the rescue priorities: “I Have (a) Fat Little Rump,” which equated to interior exits were the primary and safest. That was followed by horizontal exits moving people away from the fire area. The third option was fire escapes, which had railings and were a little safer for civilians. If none of those options was available, then we used ladders, which would take a lot of firefighters to accomplish. The last resort was always a rope, because the firefighter and the rescued civilian are going to be hanging off the building! The person lowering them most times does not have a view of the firefighter being lowered, so another member is required to relay commands. These factors make it a low-frequency/high-risk rescue for both the member and the civilian involved.

2016年10月27日,在0326小时,火代表orted on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. The fire building was a five-story building of ordinary construction with two apartments per floor that ran front to rear. It had four windows in the front of the building. There was a front fire escape but no rear fire escape, which meant civilians trapped in the rear had no escape except for firefighters. There was heavy fire in the enclosed light and air shaft between the fire building and the exposure 4 side. Fire was also burning in the cellar and in every apartment from floors 1-5 on the exposure 4 side of the fire building. Inside the building, fire had extended out of an open door on the first floor and had control of the lobby and the wooden stairs on every floor all the way up and out of the bulkhead on the roof. There was an inordinate amount of fire in this 100-year-old building.