Harvard firefighter Paul Morris bores through a slab of concrete with a core drill during search and rescue training at Devens, May 1. (Photos by Lisa Aciukewicz)
While there may be few concrete and steel structures in Harvard, a team of 32 firefighters in central Massachusetts, including Harvard’s own Paul Morris, are now trained to search for and rescue victims of structural collapses. Spec Rescue International held an eight-day, 80-hour training course in Devens two weeks ago for firefighters in mutual aid Fire Districts 7 and 8, which comprise the cities and towns of southern and northern Worcester County respectively. The course consisted of lectures and fieldwork and taught the firefighters how to search for and safely extricate victims from a collapsed building using a variety of techniques and equipment.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) maintains 28 Urban Search and Rescue Task Forces in the U.S. to provide disaster assistance, and Spec’s structural collapse technical program is based on the urban search and rescue course taught to FEMA’s task forces. Firefighters learn to shore up walls, cut steel reinforcing bars, and lift two-ton concrete barriers. Lunenburg Fire Chief Patrick Sullivan, the leader of the northern Worcester County District 8 team, said, “This training is new for us.” He explained that the fire academy teaches firefighters how to do rope rescues and rescues from confined spaces and trenches, but it doesn’t teach structural collapse rescues.
Sullivan said that the training and equipment is funded by the Department of Homeland Security and is intended to provide disaster assistance at the state and local levels. Massachusetts is divided into five Homeland Security regions of first responders, and Fire Districts 7 and 8 are in the Central Homeland Security Region. Sullivan said that the three regions in eastern Massachusetts already have quite a few technical rescue teams, but training and equipment have been slow to reach the central region. Once the training is complete, the districts will get rescue equipment for their teams.
Physics, math, fieldwork
In the classroom, Sullivan said, the firefighters learn a lot of math and physics, such as how much things weigh, how buildings are supported, and how a collapsed building might behave. Then the concepts are applied in “the field,” which in this case was a parking lot in the middle of the abandoned Vicksburg Square complex in Devens.
In addition to using motorized equipment, firefighters learned to use traditional modes of moving heavy objects. (Photos by Lisa Aciukewicz)
One day in the middle of the course, the Press watched as the teams learned how to lift debris. One team used air bags to try to lift a concrete barrier 3 feet, a time-consuming process that involved repeatedly pumping air into the bags and inserting wooden supports so that the barrier wouldn’t tip and fall. Another team was using a hoist to move its barrier, and a crane was standing by for the next portion of the training. Sullivan said that the equipment and techniques used depend on the space available and the location of victims, so teams must learn techniques for every possible scenario.
On the last day of the class, the firefighters took a final exam in the morning and then arrived at the parking lot for the “final scenario,” where all the skills they learned would be put to use. The scenario consisted of piles of debris 30 feet long, 4 feet wide, and 3 feet high, and the debris contained pieces of concrete as thick as 10 inches, steel bars, and possible “victims.”
According to Sullivan, the first step in a search and rescue of this type it to use a core drill to drill a hole 2 inches in diameter through each concrete barrier, allowing a special camera to be inserted to search for and communicate with victims. If a victim is found directly under the concrete, the team has to perform a “clean breach,” which involves removing small pieces of concrete with a saw that doesn’t penetrate the entire thickness of the concrete.
While the Press watched Paul Morris run the core drill, everything came to a halt when the drill ran out of gas. After the gas tank was filled, the drill refused to start. “Just like in real life, something breaks,” said Spec lead instructor Dennis Macedo. But another team had finished with its core drill, so Morris was soon back in business. “We always have a Plan B … and a Plan C and a Plan D,” joked Macedo.
Harvard Fire Chief Rick Sicard said in an interview that there have been only two technical rescues in Harvard since he has been chief, and both were horse rescues. He said that Harvard firefighters have been trained to do these types of rescues, which involve learning where to lift, but they don’t have the special equipment that would make it easier, safer, and faster. “We have to use more rudimentary methods,” Sicard said, but when the district gets its technical rescue equipment, “we’ll activate them.”
