03/06/2011 – RIT Training
A three day Fire Department Training Network RIT Class was held at the Saint Andrews Fire Department (Charleston County) over the weekend, with the third day being conducted at the Breland Building in Walterboro. Charleston Area firefighters along with local firefighters Ben Rice and Brian Drew spend the first two days learning from the intense training exercises designed to teach firefighters how to rescue down or trapped comrades. The exercises teach firefighters to breach walls, safely crawl through small openings, navigate entanglements, effectively extricate a down firefighter from various situations; bail out procedures, air management, team work, accountability and Incident Command. The third day brings all of the training together as the crews work together in zero visibility to conduct rescues. The two story, former office building (Breland Building) is ideal for this type of training. With its multiple rooms the instructors are able to easily configure the building into a maze with the use of pallets. Using three large smoke machines, the building appeared to be well involved, lacking the heat, of course. Most of the same types of props used in the Charleston training classes were also used in the building. The final exercise involved all of the teams working to rescue multiple firefighters on each floor. It required a great deal of communication and coordination between the various crews to accomplish the goals. The experienced firefighters from Charleston, North Charleston, Saint Andrews and Colleton County learned from each other, taking away new skills and knowledge to improve their departments.
