Local Firefighters Train in High Angle Rescue

Submitted by Carol A. Clark
on August 6, 2013
- 3:30 pm

Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com

Staff Report

Firefighters with the Los Alamos Fire Department spent several hours Monday training with experts from a private Arizona company in advanced high angle rescue.

The training was conducted in White Rock Canyon. High angle rescue operations involve unique hazards and require special training and equipment to be able to perform them safely. Rope rescue operations are frequently defined in terms of the type and steepness of the terrain they are to be performed in.

The steeper the ground, the more difficult and the more technical the rescue becomes. Ropes may have to be relied upon to gain access to the victim, to support the team members and the victims during the rescue and remove them from the rescue site.

High angle rescue is considered to be terrain that has a slope angle of 60 and higher. Rescuers are totally dependent upon the ropes used to keep them and the victims from falling and to gain access to and egress from the rescue location.

The LAFD Training Division provides for and maintains the department’s preparedness for high angle and confined space rescue, incident management, fire suppression and investigations, wildland and urban interface fire fighting, emergency medical services, hazardous materials response, incident reporting and computer training, and other emergency and non-emergency services that occur in the local service delivery area.

Fire suppression training is developed and implemented using NFPA, IFSTA, Los Alamos Fire Department Training Academy, and New Mexico Firefighters Training Academy curriculum as guidelines.

The Department has two full time training officers with fire service, instructional, methodology training. They coordinate the centralized and decentralized performance-based training, drills, evolutions and exercises.

Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com