​Escaping a ‘life-threatening’ situation

Situations do not always go as planned. “When things go badly, we have to be very, very good,” said Spring Fire B-shift District Chief Chris vonWiesenthal. “When you’re a firefighter and must self-rescue from a second floor or higher, you have to do so in a survivable way.”

To make that self-rescue possible, all Spring firefighters are equipped with a special “bailout” system. This system is only used when there is no other safe alternative to escape the burning structure.

To make that self-rescue possible, all Spring firefighters are equipped with a special “bailout” system. This system is only used when there is no other safe alternative to escape the burning structure.

The rope is threaded through a descending device that is also attached to a harness worn under all Spring firefighters’ Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). That descending device allows a firefighter to self-lower at a controlled descent rate very similar to rappelling.

Recently, B-shift crews from Spring Ladder 75 and Engines 74 & 77 trained (utilizing a red fall-protection rope) in high heat conditions for several hours until they could not get it wrong.

“We hope to never have to use it; but we’d rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it,” said Chief vonWiesenthal. “Even the best bailout system does a firefighter no good if they don’t have the necessary training to use it quickly and efficiently.”

“There is no compromise when your life hangs on a line,” concluded vonWiesenthal.

Photos courtesy of Captains Wade Lawrence, Shannon Stryk and Noel Webber.