By DENNIS CARMAN
When you consider rapid intervention training, most of your time and energy is spent on teaching a new technique (a drag, 2-1 advantage, and so on) or working on your proficiency with a particular maneuver. Have you and your training staff ever discussed or actually spent time training on how your members would locate a down firefighter whose personal alert safety system (PASS) device is on full alert? Your firefighters can have the best training in the world on techniques or maneuvers, but this will mean little if you cannot locate the down firefighter.
Our members should have the ability to locate a down firefighter's activated PASS device not only by sight (which, in most cases, will be very limited because of conditions) but also by their sense of hearing so they can narrow down the possible directions. This is the conditioning we look to instill in each member. The rescuers will need to focus on the sound and then pick in which direction to move. This is no easy task depending on the environment, fire conditions, building occupants, and building size. This article presents a simple drill that requires little to no advanced planning or setup.
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