Structural Search and Rescue Flashcards
What are the seven skills required in search and rescue operations?
- Primary and secondary search
- Use of standardized markings to indicate searched areas
- Working as a team
- Best methods for removing victims
- Emergency servival techniques
- MAYDAY protocol
- Removal of incapacitated firefighters
What three skills are critical for firefighter survival in search and rescue operations?
- Recognizing and avoiding hazards
- Escaping unavoidable hazards
- Rescue lost or trapped firefighters
What conditions of the incident should be reported to your supervisor?
- Location
- Changes in heat levels
- Changes in behaviour
- Visibility changes
- Changes to the structure
- Smoke colour
- Volume of fire
- Locations of victims
- Number of victims
- Your and your team’s starting air levels
- Locations of safe havens and exits
- Indicators of ceiling collapse
What can you do to increase your chances of survival in firefighting?
- Practice sound firefighting techniques
- Practice situational awareness
- Anticipate the survival techniques you might need
- Practice MAYDAY and self rescue
- Check your air supply and those of your team
What is air management?
The conscious conservation of air for increased work length and for more time to escape a hazardous situation. It is important to know how much air will be required to exit a particular building. Do not wait until the low-pressure alarm is activated if you are in a large, complex structure.
What psychological effects does impared vision have on firefighters and what are the best ways to prevent them?
- Disorientation
- Fear
- Claustrophobia
- Panic
The best way to prevent them is to practice in these conditions. During practice, firefighters must try to remain calm by controlling breathing, maintain situational awareness, keep in contact with team, focus on task, and rely on senses other than your vision.
What are some MAYDAY situations?
- Air emergencies
- Disorentation
- Entanglement
- Rapid fire development
- Collapse/entrapment
True or false, environmental tenability is whether or not a person is able to evacuate the structure without the help of a firefighter.
False. tenability is whether or not an environment is safe for a person to be in. Untenable environments for unprotected civilians is different from that of protected firefighters.
What is a safe haven?
A room away from the main fire that is protected by a door. Victims may hide in these areas, so it is important to look inside them. If the environment becomes untenable and you must seek shelter in a safe haven, be sure to notify the IC.
What are the three principles of air management?
- Always know your air levels
- Know the point of no return
- Inform IC if you need to leave the structure.
When do you need to check your pressure gauge during an incident?
- Before entering IDLH
- Moving from one area to another
- After heavy work
- Specific intervals
- Resting
- Before new assignment
How do you determine your point of no return?
- Know how much air is required to exit the IDLH
- Go by the lowest gauge reading of any firefighter on the team
- Department SOP
- Environmental conditions
- Physical and mental condition of the team.
True or false. It is always better to try to make it out of the IDLH if your air is low and you are uncertain if you will make it out in time.
False. Based on your judgment of the situation, it could be better to find a safe haven and control your breathing while awaiting rescue than to exhaust your air trying to get out in a panic.
Is air management solely your responsibility?
Yes, however there are accountability personel on scene that should be keeping track of how long you have been in the structure. They can advise you on when to get out of the IDLH.
If you have 25% air left in your tank, how many minutes of air do you have left if you are moving vs at rest?
4 minutes moving and 10 minutes at rest.
How do you determine your air consumption rate?
Test your consuption rate at rest and at while working during training.
What is the most important thing to do when an air emergency occurs?
Stay calm and look for the problem
If your SCBA is malfunctioning, what can you do to breathe as a last resort ?
Breathe the outside air as little as possible. Create a small gap in the face mask and keep the protective hood in place to filter some of the air.
What steps do you take if your only option is to stay in place and await a rescue?
- Slow your breathing
- Activate your MAYDAY procedures
- Get low to the ground where air is cooler
- Get to a safe haven
- Shine flashlight through a window to get the attention of firefighters outside.
- communicate your condition and your location to the IC
- Activate PASS
What is the difference between air management and air monitoring?
Air management involves keeping track of your SCBA air pressure, while air monitoring is evaluating the condition of the air for toxic gases with and air monitor.
Who’s responsibility is air management?
The firefighter’s
Why is air monitoring important?
- Identifies hazards in the air
- which determines appropriate PPE, tools and equipment.
- It determines the perimeter of the IDLH
- determines if SCBA is required
What are the three types of atmospheric hazards?
- Low or high oxygen
- Flammability
- Toxicity
What are the maximum and minimun oxygen levels that a firefighter can experience without a SCBA?
23.5% and 19.5%
Why are high oxygen levels dangerous?
It increases the fire activity and poses a potential for explosions.
Why is a low oxygen atmosphere dangerous?
Firefighters become at risk of collaps and it suggests that the oxygen in the air is being displaced by something else that could be toxic.
When can a firefighter know that the airborn combustible grain dust has reached the ELE (Lower explosive limit)?
When you cannot see more than five feet in front of you.
In what three ways can we measure combustible gases?
They measure the amount of flammable gas in the air by:
- percentage of the LEL
- parts per million
- percentage of gas per volume of air.
Can you use a methane calibrated CGI to measure the amont of propane that is in the air?
yes, but it needs to be converted to be accurate
True of false, toxic gases and vapors automatically dissipate once the fire and smouldering is extinguished.
False, toxic gases and vapors can linger for a long time after extinguishment.
Where can toxic gas and vapor exposure limits be found?
- Safety Data Sheets
- Emergency Response Guidebook
- National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
If there is no CGI available for a certain gas, what other indicator can be used to determine if there is combustible gas, toxic gas or vapor in the atmophere?
If there is a low oxygen concentration it is usually because it is being displsced by another gas. Call Hazadous material unit if this happens.
What is a bump test?
A test of the air monitors before placing it in on the apparatus.
What is a clean air environment?
An area upwind from the incident and the exhaust of the apparatus that is used to calibrate a baseline for the air monitor.
before entering a structure for search and rescue operations, what six checks must you make?
- Know to who you report
- Radio is on and on proper channel
- SCBA is on with full air cylinder
- PASS is on
- Know your duties and the objectives of your crew
- Be aware of the alternate means of egress
Are you as a firefighter allowed to access floor plans of your local structures?
Yes, when they are submitted to the AHJ for approval
What are preincident surveys?
They are surveys done to structures that are determined to be likely to have an incident. The firefighters study the floor plans to make a plan of action for various incident types.
What are target Hazards?
They are structures that are likely to be part of an emergency incident.
True or false. Firefighters are allowed to enter construction or renovation zones to become familiar with the layout and materials.
Yes, but only with permission of the AHJ.
What are some things that you can do on your free time to familiarize yourself with the local construction methods and materials?
Attend zoning meetings, attend open houses, get to know building officials.
What equipment must firefighters use during search and rescue?
- Flashlight
- Thermal imager
- Portable radio
- Forcible entry tools
- Charged hoseline
- Rope for search lines
- Ladders
What are Thermal imagers used for?
Finding hidden fires in walls and finding victims in the dense smoke.
True or false. You should always enter a structure even if it is very unlikely to contain survivors.
False. That is considered unnecessarily dangerous.
True or false. You should always close doors that have been cleared to avoid any fire spread.
True
True or false. It is not necessary to maintain control of exterior doors for ventilation.
False.
True or false. If there is a possibility of rapid fire development, it is important to enter the building to save victims as quickly as possible less they die.
False, Coordinated fire control and ventilation must be implemented before anyone can enter a burning structure.
True or false, If you think that you are capable of quickly and safely enter a burning structure to save a victime, you are allowed to do so.
False, in order to maximize firefighter safety, it is important that all firefighters follow the Incident action plan.
True or false. If you encounter a fire in a room, you are allowed to try to extinguish it with hand tools or the charged line.
False, close the door to the room to control ventilation and report the fire to the IC.
True or false. during a search and rescue operation, if visibility becomes difficult, firefighters must exit the structure immediately.
False, if vision is obstructed, use the wall, searchline or hoseline to guide you and stay low.
True or false, if a room cannot be searched because it is blocked, you can ignore it and move on.
False, you must report it to the IC
Do you want to place door markers on the top third or the bottom third of the door or wall?
Bottom third
What are your duties during a primary search?
Search all known or suspected locations of victims while noticing the fire conditions around you. Report your finding to your supervisor. Always use buddy system
When do we conduct a secondary search?
When the fire is under control we perform a slow thorough search of the structure.
True or false. The team that performs the primary search is also the one to perform the secondary search because they already know the layout of the structure.
False, a different team is sent in to conduct the secondary search because they have fresh bodies and fresh eyes to look for things that the primary search might have missed.
True or false. If you enter a room by turning left, you must turn right to leave and continue your search.
False. you must turn left.
True or false. On the fire floor of the burning structure, it is important to search the rooms as close to the fire as possible in order to rescue the victims that are in the most danger. then you work your way back to the exit.
true
How do you ascend the stairs and how do you descend the stairs?
Ascend with head first, descend with feet first while scooting
What is a Oriented-search method?
Team leader stays at the doorway with a thermal imager, other team members spread out on the floor if visibility is limited. They search the area for victims and fire.
True or false, during a wide area search, the lead carries the light or TI.
False, the navigator has the falshlight or TI, the lead has the search line.
What do the searchers carry during a wide area search?
Tether and a forcible entry tool
What does the navigator have to update the IC on, during a wide area search?
- Fire conditions
- findings
- number of knots layed out.
What is VEIS?
Vent, enter, isolate, search
Should only be used in low hazard incidents, those unlikely to flashover or be fatal.
If you have a fire in a bedroom and the IC has determined that the risk of flashover is minimal, what kind of search will you conduct and how will you do it?
- Vent, break the window to release the smoke in the room.
- Enter, searching firefighter enters and the attending firefighter stays at the entry point. Searcher identifies the source of the smoke.
- Isolate, close the door to the room where the fire is located
- Search, the attending and searching firefighters look for survivors
Are victims allowed to evacuate themselves?
Yes if the danger is low and they are able to walk out themselves.
When is it appropriate to use shelter in place?
- Hazard is low
- safer to keep them inside
- victims incapacitated
- Limited staff to assist in evacuation
- Structure has the ability to protect victims
Are you allowed to make the dicision to shelter in place?
Only if you are the IC or the supervisor
True or false. You should always drag a victim by the feet as it provides better grip
False, drag them by the clothing around the shoulders to protect against spinal injury.
True or false, an Incline Drag is best used when carrying an unconscious victim up an incline or up stairs.
True
True or false. the Extremities Lift/Carry requires only one firefighter lifting all the victims limbs.
False, two firefighters lift all the victims limbs
True or false, the webbing drag is most usefull when a single firefighter must move a victim and must keep them low to the ground.
true
True or false, the Craddle-in-arms Carry is best used for unconscious children and small conscious adults.
True, small unconscious adults are too large to provide adequate neck support.
True or false. The Seat Lift can be used for conscious and unconscious victims of all sizes.
True
When does a firefighter declare MAYDAY and what must they do afterwards?
When they are entrapped or lost or in serious danger. They must communicate the situation and give their location as best they can, and activate the PASS, give air supply info and your name.
What do LUNAR and LIPS stand for?
Location Unit Name Assignment and Air supply Resources required
Location
Indentification
Problem
Survival
True or false. When a MAYDAY is declared, all radio activity except that concerning the MAYDAY must cease, and all firefighting activities must stop and everyone must search for the firefighter in distress.
False, while all radio not concerning the MAYDAY must cease, only nonessential firefighting must cease. It is the Rapid intervention crew that is primarily responsible for searching for the firefighter that has called MAYDAY.
What is a personnel accountability report?
All units call in to confirm that all their personnel are safe and accounted for.
What is the leading contributor to firefighter death in MAYDAY situations?
Panic
What five things can you do in a MAYDAY situation that will help your chances of survival?
- Stay low
- Use hose stream for protection
- Close doors between you and fire
- Use tools to shore collapse
- Filter toxic air through protective hood if you run out of air in SCBA
What equipment must RIC crews carry?
AWARE
Air, water, A Radio and Extrication
Spare SCBA
Hoseline
Radio
Forcible entry tools for extrication
Why is it important for RIC members to sometimes be very quite?
So they can hear the downed fiefighter’s PASS
What information goes on the bottom of the X in search and rescue operation?
- Total victims still inside
- How many are dead
- How many are alive
- X= no victims
What information goes on the top of the X in search and rescue operation?
-Date and time the search team left the roon/structure
What information goes on the left of the X in search and rescue operation?
-Search team name
What information goes on the right of the X in search and rescue operation?
-Hazards
