The last words anyone on the fireground wants to hear are, “Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!” This is when everything is set in motion for you to go in and rescue your fellow firefighter. Some Mayday classes that focus on getting down firefighters out of buildings include drills on how to pull them out of basements and windows, carry them down ladders, and so on. When self-rescuing, these classes cover ladder bails as well as profiling to escape through narrow openings or through a wall. However, few Mayday programs spend as much time as they should on the down firefighter. The programs teach a few techniques such as air conservation, body positioning, stress management techniques, and so on; these key factors are going to help keep that firefighter alive. A proactive rapid intervention team (RIT) and a quality accountability system will obviously factor into this situation, but if those two things are ineffective, the down firefighter could have a fighting chance if he is trained properly and he continues to practice the skills that will keep him alive.
Think about all the Mayday traffic you have listened to over the years. How often have you heard someone call out a proper ASLIP (Air, Situation, Location, Intent, and Par) or LUNAR (Location, Unit, Name, Assignment/Air supply, and Resources)? In a perfect world, every firefighter who has been in a bad spot will rattle these off with ease. Even with training and repetition, we fail to hear these acronyms used as much as we would like. The firefighter placed in this extremely stressful situation will have his ability to think straight, hear radio traffic, and conserve air decreased severely. As the incident commander (IC), it is unrealistic to expect this firefighter to be able to recall every bit of information mandated by company policy. He will ultimately relay information to the IC regardless of what policy is in place or what he has learned in training. If you are the firefighter in trouble, you only need to pass along the information needed to get you out of the situation. For example, if I fall down a set of stairs and no one is around me, there is no fire chasing me down, and I have a good air supply, I may be able to calmly give a full ASLIP or LUNAR. If I fall through a basement, get trapped at the end of a hallway by fire, or become lost in a building and cannot find my way out, my panic level will increase. In those circumstances, it is unlikely that I could pass along a full Mayday report.
发生了什么让你叫五月天?而且,where do you think you are in the building? These two basic questions will inform the IC of where to deploy resources and what equipment those resources may need if the RIT is deployed. A down firefighter using a long acronym may prove useless in certain situations; relaying all of the information dictated by this policy will cause him to consume more air, thus decreasing his chances of survival.
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