Update on Wheeling Confined space recovery Operation–Press Conference

Confined Space rescue (recovery)

Rescue workers remove the body of a man who died in a chemical tank Thursday at a business in Wheeling.

Cicero man dies in Wheeling chemical tank - DailyHerald.com

www.dailyherald.com/article/20121129/news/711299836

Nov 29, 2012 · ... Wheeling Fire Chief ... Illinois AP Award: Best NewsWebsite; ... including personnel specifically trained to work in confined spaces…

Good Helmet Cam–Rescue involved structure

The San Bernardino City Fire Department responds to a structure fire with a victim trapped. This is a first hand look at how the engine company made the rescue. The footage was taken from both the engine captain's helmet camera as well as a local news reporter. Posted on You Tube

Recue captured with the aid of a Helmet Cam–Classic Kid hiding in a closet!

• From Firehouse

• 

A camera attached the helmet of an Alameda County firefighter captures the rescue of a child from a burning building in California. The camera is being used to review fire procedures. Alameda County firefighters rescued three children from a fire Tuesday morning and it was all captured on a helmet-cam.

Watch Video and full story at KGO-TV

A mother dropped her child from a second-story railing and into the arms of a firefighter, according to KGO-TV.

Dog stays with fisherman who broke through

February 7, 2012 - 8:41am

Prudent anglers heed a sheriff's warning posted at the north access of Lake Washington in Le Sueur County in south-central Minnesota and walk to their fishing spot Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012 in Manketo, Minn. In the background, other fisherman prepare to move their permanent shelter from the lake. Unseasonably mild weather has created unsafe ice conditions on many Minnesota lakes this winter.

WHEATON, Minn. (AP) — A fishing outing turned deadly for a western Minnesota man.

The body of 50-year-old Charles Krauth was recovered from Mud Lake, just west of Wheaton in Traverse County. Sheriff's deputies found the man's dog and four-wheeler near the spot where he broke through the ice Sunday. Family members became concerned when he failed to return from ice fishing.

Authorities tell KSTP-TV (http://bit.ly/yP1vy1) the ice was only about one inch thick.

Information from: KSTP-TV,http://www.kstp.com  - From The Brainerd Dispatch

Rare rescue–Good use of technical Rescue & Mutual aid though M.A.B.A.S.

From Beacon News

Firefighters send pipe and tubing up to help clear sand from around a worker at DuKane Precast in Naperville after he fell into the half full hopper on Monday morning. | Brian Powers~Sun-Times Media

A supervisor for a Naperville concrete company remained hospitalized late Monday night with what were described as non-life-threatening injuries, after being partially buried that morning in a sand silo. The supervisor, William Ortiz, 37, was listed in good condition at Edward Hospital in Naperville on Tuesday morning, spokesman Keith Hartenberger said.

Crews from 22 public safety agencies joined members of the Naperville Fire Department in the rescue operation at Dukane Precast, 1805 High Grove Lane, in the Burlington Northern Industrial Park on the city’s far west side. Rescuers were called about 11:23 a.m. Monday to the company’s headquarters. Dukane Precast manufactures prefabricated cement slabs for buildings under construction.

Fire Capt. Dave Ferreri said firefighters found Ortiz buried up to his waist in “a hopper full of sand.” “We don’t know how he got in there,” Ferreri said, adding it was his understanding workers were never supposed to be inside any of the hoppers.

Ortiz was extricated from the sand sometime between 3 and 3:15 p.m., “after about a four-hour rescue,” Ferreri said.

Fire Bureau Chief Kevin Lyne said in a news release that members of Naperville’s Technical Rescue Team climbed up the catwalk and found Ortiz buried to his waist in the sand mixture and worked to keep him from sinking deeper.

The rescue operation involved getting Ortiz into a harness and then using vacuum-type machinery from Naperville’s Public Utilities Department to remove some of the sand surrounding him, so that he could be freed without further injury. At least two truckloads of sand were taken out of the bin during that effort.

“The Fire Department is slowly, slowly taking the sand out of the silo,” Christman said Monday at the scene. The supervisor “is conscious, he is OK.”

Among the departments that sent units to the site were Addison, Aurora, Bloomingdale, Bolingbrook, Carol Stream, Downers Grove, Elburn, Geneva, Lisle-Woodridge, North Aurora, Oak Brook, Plainfield, St. Charles, Sugar Grove, West Chicago, Wheaton and York Center. Also on the scene were Naperville Police Department squad cars and the city’s bus-sized Emergency Management Agency Mobile Command Unit. Most of the vehicles were still on the campus more than two hours after the fire department issued the general alarm.

A police official who declined to be identified said the reason for the size of the response was not immediately known. One emergency responder was seen carrying a heart defibrillator into the building, but it was not known whether the device was used.

Wonder if they likely used a The Rescue Vac – Along with the utilities vacuum -  truck Rescue Vac is an integrated rapid debris removal system that utilizes a two-phase procedure to perform the fastest collapse, entrapment, and engulfment ...

Future of auto extrication?

Would, could, should this type of machine be used for auto extrication,

building collapse? Could be the future of rescue tools?

Raytheon-Sarcos Prototype Power Loader

from MAKE Magazine by Sean Michael Ragan

It rolls on tracks instead of walking, but this ditch-witch style tracked chassis retrofit with a pair of giant waldos is pretty much the power loader from Aliens. This video showing it in action is a great news segment from Ed Yeates of Utah’s KSL-TV, right up to the point where they start talking about the system as an “equalizer” opening up jobs to women “that might’ve otherwise been closed just based on strength issues.”

Last time I checked, guys, there aren’t a lot of men running around out there who can wave 200-lb steel I-beams around with one arm, either. Still, in all, an extremely cool toy developed by Raytheon-Sarcos (Wikipedia), the same folks who produced the XOS-series powered exoskeletons we’ve featured here before. [via Gizmodo]

Another Trench Collapse

Ohio sewer line trench collapse  Yet another reason for trench rescue training, keeps firefighters and responders safe in these types of rescues. One Victim was saved after 6 hours, and one lost. Just goes to show that this is not a short incident at best, this is a time consuming incident that requires safety first as in everything you respond to.

HUDSON, Ohio — Crew members dug through rain-soaked muck to rescue two workers trapped after a sewer line trench at a residential construction site collapsed Wednesday. Full story here with pictures

Ohio sewer line trench collapse kills 1 worker - Yahoo! News

Apr 8, 2010 ... Crew members dug through rain-soaked muck to rescue two workers trapped after a sewer line trench at a residential construction site ...

Again another incident where a Rescue-Vac may have helped?

United States (Minnesota) - Emergency crews from across the metro spent almost nine hours Thursday trying to delicately extricate a worker trapped up past his chest in corn in a Farmington grain silo. The man fell in while attempting to empty it shortly before 11:30 a.m. He was freed 8 1/2 hours later.

FARMINGTON, Minn. –Video HERE - http://www.kare11.com/video/default.aspx?bctid=65119454001

After eight hours stuck in a grain bin and a night at Hennepin County Medical Center, Mark Malecha is back home in Farmington. They had to be concerned with Crush syndrome and move the corn bucket by bucket to dug him out. It was literally a race against the corn that the rescue workers and Mark Malecha won.

Rescue Vac Systems web site, they only problem here would have been having long enough hose. 

In Case You Missed it – Trench Collapse

Always a big worry when responder go a trench collapse to try and not become a victim themselves. Seems that this incident was a least safe for the responders. Looks like Atlanta FD handles the job well.
From Fox News Atlanta: There was a trench collapse in Atlanta near I-75 with one worker left dead. This incident was aided by the use of a vacuum truck, probably the best way to remove dirt from a collapse. My Fox Atlanta has some videos and a report on the story

I have used this system and it really works. (I am in no way associated with Rescue Vac) From their web site, the Rescue Vac is the fastest and safest collapse, entrapment, and engulfment rescue system in the world. Info here at Rescue Vac Systems They also have some video on their site on how this system works.

Worker Rescued From trench

 

A worker with an independent contractor was rescued by firefighters from a trench Friday after he was pinned by some heavy equipment along 24th Street in Rock Island.

Rock Island Fire Department Battalion Chief Doug DuBree said the workers were installing a fire hydrant in the 2500 block of 24th Street.

Workers were attempting to lower a line tapper into the trench using an end loader when the piece of equipment fell into the trench, DuBree said.

“It’s a pretty heavy piece of equipment,” DuBree said. “It hit him on the back. We’re not sure how seriously he was injured. He didn’t lose consciousness or anything. He was conscious and alert and he was talking to us. But, he was in pain.”

The fire department was dispatched to the scene at 2:14 p.m. and arrived on the scene at 2:16 p.m., he said. The man was out of the hole by 2:44 p.m.

The victim was taken to Trinity Medical Center-West Campus, Rock Island. His condition was not available Friday night.

“We put him on a backboard and collard his neck,” DuBree said. “We put him in a stokes basket and set up a rope rescue and slid him up a ladder. Everything went real well.”

He added that the construction company “followed the regulations and had the trench shored up.”

DuBree said the Rock Island Arsenal and Moline fire departments were called in to assist. “We need so many technical rescue team guys who are qualified,” he said. “Our guys go through a lot of training for this type of rescue. Last week we went through rope rescue drills. Not long ago we practiced trench rescue.”

DuBree said members of the technical rescue team go through about 700 hours of training for rescue from a confined space, trench rescue, building collapse, high angle or rope rescue, and vehicle and machinery entrapment.

There have been four or five other rescues from trenches in the last 30 years in Rock Island.

A worker with an independent contractor was rescued by firefighters from a trench Friday after he was pinned by some heavy equipment along 24th Street in Rock Island.

Rock Island Fire Department Battalion Chief Doug DuBree said the workers were installing a fire hydrant in the 2500 block of 24th Street.

Workers were attempting to lower a line tapper into the trench using an end loader when the piece of equipment fell into the trench, DuBree said.

“It’s a pretty heavy piece of equipment,” DuBree said. “It hit him on the back. We’re not sure how seriously he was injured. He didn’t lose consciousness or anything. He was conscious and alert and he was talking to us. But, he was in pain.”

The fire department was dispatched to the scene at 2:14 p.m. and arrived on the scene at 2:16 p.m., he said. The man was out of the hole by 2:44 p.m.

“We put him on a backboard and collard his neck,” DuBree said. “We put him in a stokes basket and set up a rope rescue and slid him up a ladder. Everything went real well.”

He added that the construction company “followed the regulations and had the trench shored up.”

DuBree said members of the technical rescue team go through about 700 hours of training for rescue from a confined space, trench rescue, building collapse, high angle or rope rescue, and vehicle and machinery entrapment.

There have been four or five other rescues from trenches in the last 30 years in Rock Island.

Related Video

Rock Island worker rescue

(1:31) A worker with an independent contractor is rescued by firefighters from a ditch …