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Back to Basics: The rescue sequence, part 2

Last month we started to examine the rescue sequence as it relates to residential structures and the occupants inside them. The sequence as starts with entry into the structure and then searching the areas within. The next step of the sequence is to locate the occupants. 

 Focus on the floor.
The key fact to remember when trying to locate occupants within the structure is to focus your attention and efforts mainly on the floor. The floor of the structure is where we will find the majority of the occupants as they fall or succumb to the effects of the smoke and heat while trying to escape the fire. 

When searching the structure, the search team needs to sweep the floor as opposed to patting the wall. Wall patters are going to miss the occupants on the floor as their attention in focused elsewhere. Occupants are not going to be hanging on the walls; they will be lying on the floor. 

 Key location areas.
The primary search needs to be a rapid but organized operation. How can it be both rapid and organized? Through knowing where we are going to locate our occupants. There are common areas to start your search based on statistics collected from successful rescues as well as from death investigations when occupants cannot get out of the structure.  

One category is exit points, which include the doors, windows, stairs and hallways. With doors, many occupants are located just behind or at the door of the structure as they are trying to get out. Be mindful when opening the front door of the house; if there is resistance, there may be a person behind it. 

With the windows, occupants are going to try and get out by any means necessary which will include windows. They may be located right below the window or just in reach of it. 

Sometimes we do not think of hallways and stairs as exit points, but they are because they are the pathway leading to the exits of the structure. Occupants will succumb to the effects of smoke and heat in the hallway or on the stairs going down to the first floor. On the stairs, they may be located anywhere: top, middle, or bottom. 

Another area of focus is the fire location, as sometimes the occupant was trying to put the fire out themselves but were not able to. This is more prevalent with men as opposed to women. Other times, they may have been trapped there as the fire began or are present at the fire location for reasons unknown to us at the time.   

The other area will be dictated by time of day. During the daytime, we are going to find the occupants located in the above-mentioned areas, but at nighttime we are going to locate the occupants primarily in their bedrooms and in their beds. There are going to be people who work shift work and may be in their bed during the daytime, but predominantly the populus sleeps at nighttime. 

Photo 2
Check both the upper and lower portions of bunk beds when sweeping bedrooms for children.

 Children, toddlers and infants
There are some key differences to be mindful of when locating this group within the structure. Parents are protective of their children and, in the case of a fire in the home, the mother or father will try their best to grab their child or children and take them out with them. With infants and toddlers, they can be carried in the arms of the parent, which means when the adult falls down to the ground due to the effects of the smoke, they will land on top of the infant or toddler. 

When locating the adult, take the extra second or two to look and feel under the adult to see if there is another person to be rescued, and scan around the adult in case the infant or toddler spilled out from or was lost from the arms of the parent and are lying on the floor nearby. 

This will sometimes involve lying on top of the adult to feel around as well as sweeping your hands underneath the adult’s body. What may assist is to roll the adult’s body towards you to get better access underneath. 

With infants, they are typically going to be placed into a crib of sorts when they are sleeping during the day and night. Be sure to sweep inside the crib when you locate one in a room to determine if the infant is present. If they are there, do not pick the infant up and raise them up and out of the crib. Instead, roll the crib towards you as shown in photo 1. There is going to be high heat at ceiling-level along with the nastiest smoke, and if we lift the infant up out of the crib we are placing them into that upper environment. Rolling the crib keeps the infant in the lower environment where it is cooler and more tenable. 

Some babies, toddlers and small children will sleep in the same bed as with their parents, so when locating beds in the rooms, be sure to sweep the bed to locate the adult and any children that may be there. Do not pat the bed, but rather sweep it with your whole arm and hand. 

Some children will have trendy bedrooms that contain bunk beds or loft beds. As shown in photo 2, we need to check the upper portion of the bunk bed as well as the lower portion. If there is only a loft bed, there will be no lower portion but there will be support posts that, hopefully, will trigger the searching firefighter to feel up above their head to locate loft bed. 

The points detailed in this month’s article are good training points to practice on a regular basis. These simple drills can be conducted in any training facility with the proper props to reinforce skill mastery. 

Next month we will look at the rescue portion of the rescue sequence. 

Mark van der Feyst has been in the fire service since 1999 and is currently a firefighter with the FGFD. Contact him at Mark@FireStarTraining.com