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Let's examine to see why entrapment is so prevalent of a statistic, especially with the common practices of Rapid Intervention Teams in today's fire service. There is one case that comes to mind almost immediately, Adams Way, Memphis Tennessee. Firefighters their became trapped by wiring and other devices that fell from the ceilings of the apartment building. I can think of two that have direct effects on myself where as I was the one who was trapped. Trapped by hanging wires that had fallen from the ceiling during fire operations. The fact is that many of these wires are extremely small and hard to see.

Just what produces these wires and where do they come from. Most buildings today have either dropped ceilings or sheet rocked ceilings. Behind these areas are a vast number of electrical wires, electronic networking systems, telecommunication networks, and the non-obvious flexible heat ducts. All of these even though they are normally hid come out of hiding when the integrity of the ceiling is lost due to fire, water or other fire ground operations. Under smoke conditions they are not easily detected until you as a firefighter engaged in operations have found yourself tied up and a hostage of these entrapment hazards. So how do we get loose from this entangling maze? There are several ways; forced yourself loose, cut your way free or undo the tangled web that you have woven.

Firefighters each year loose their lives due to being unable to get free from these hanging obstacles. The use of a small pair of wire cutters is a fast and efficient way to free the wiring from your person. The knives with serrated edges will cut most of these wires. So what happens if you loose these tools during operations or you get tied up and can't reach them. This is one area we do not address often enough, the training of self-survival techniques with out the extra advantages of tools. I am a firm believer that if you can free yourself through dis-entanglement then you are surly able to free yourself with a few added advantages. But how do we train people in this skill? One way is through development of training aids or props. Here you can see a prop that I designed and use in Self-Survival Training and Rapid Intervention Team Training. As firefighters we are destined to found ourselves all tied up. The key aspect is to be able to facilitate our own escape.

Building a Disentanglement Simulator

Building a prop is easy. First do you want it to be portable or stationary. If you want to be able to move it from place to place you must think of the ergonomics of moving the prop. In the development of this particular prop I acquire a cage off of a silo and cut it at 8 feet. Two people easily move this cage and could even have wheels put on it. May industrial plants may have these laying around in salvage areas due to the change in the standards that doesn't allow the ladder rungs to be made with rebar steel. These older caged ladders were removed.

Once a cage is found or built the simulation part of fallen wires is next. In this case small gauge rope utilized by boaters for tying up was used. This style of rope was chosen for its flexibility. Then loop the rope in your own design tying the loops with clove hitches to facilitate the assistance of disentanglement should an emergency arise with the student. Each time this prop is assembled it is a different maze if you want it to be. To accomplish this just simply rearrange the rope configuration.

What if your needs are for a permanent simulator. Well those are not difficult either. Just take a look at the at the simulator used at Massachusetts Firefighting Academy . It is designed to be stored up against the wall. During specific exercises the instructor can easily lower it to the floor and you now have changed the scenario instantly. The simulator is nothing more than a frame with a legs on one side and the other side secured to the wall on hinges to facilitate the movement from stored to being in active use. Again this simulator can be utilized at the three difficulty levels mentioned earlier.

Training with the Simulator

The object of this is not to have the student cut their way through, but to have them attempt to get through without becoming tangle. One area that has been reciprocated time and time again in evaluating firefighters is the ability to know and work with their Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). If the student becomes tangled in the simulator they should manipulate their PPE. The most come piece of PPE that becomes tangled on wires is the SCBA. The firefighter should remove or doff the SCBA and untangle the entrapment hazard and move to safety.

Once at a safe location, free of entanglement hazards, the Firefighter will then don the SCBA. This exercise can be administered in 3 levels of difficulty. The low difficulty level is in a lighted atmosphere without any visual imparities. Moderate Level is done with visual impairments such as darkness or non-toxic training smoke. The Hardest level we add the external factor of heat to the moderate level. A kerosene torpedo heater in area can raise the temperature considerably to simulate the effects of fire without the extreme risks or the toxic smoke.

Students should always begin at the lowest levels and work up. The mastery of self survival skills is imperative to the survival of firefighters.

About The Author

Douglas Cline, is a 22-year veteran of the Fire Service and a Captain with the Chapel Hill (NC) Fire Department. He is a North Carolina Level II Fire Instructor, National Fire Academy Instructor for the Office of State Fire Marshal and a EMT-Paramedic instructor/coordinator for the North Carolina Office of Emergency Medical Services. Cline is a member of the North Carolina Society of Fire Service Instructors and the International Society of Fire Service Instructors where he serves on the Board of Directors as The Eastern Regional Director . Cline is also a member of National Association of EMS Educators (NAEMSE).