A few days ago, Linda from "Are We There Yet?" tagged me with a Meme, that unfortunately I had missed. Thankfully Linda noticed that I was behind the 8 ball on this and reminded me of such a tag. So here you go Linda. ;-)
Unfortunately(or maybe fortunately, because I happen to not have any books at home), I read this Meme at work. Now other than phone books, list of phone numbers, zetron codes, and computer programs, the closest "reasonable" book for this Meme was the Quinebaug Valley Dispatch resource binder, which was in a roll out drawer behind me. Page 46 happened to fall on the last page of a list of Chief's contact information, and I'm quite sure they wouldn't want me to publish such information over the world wide web. However, the next was a letter from February 1, 2000.
This was two months after the Worcester Cold Storage Fire, in which six City of Worcester firefighters became lost, trapped, and eventually perished in the maze like building, looking for "reported" trapped homeless people, that had fled un-noticed, before the fire department arrived. The events of that horrible night, led to a national recognition of what firefighters do, and re-established firefighting as one of the most dangerous, yet heroic professions to the public. After this incident, fire departments from all over the nation took a step back to re-evaluate firefighting proceedures, and ways to prevent such tragic events from happening again.
This led many departments to re-enforce the "two in-two out" rules, along with developing safety and survival classes, and the concept of "F.A.S.T." or "R.I.T." teams. FAST or RIT teams are a group of firefighters, that are specifically committed to firefighter rescue, should any "mayday" be called on the fireground. They are not to be used for ventilation, extinguishment, or overhaul operations. They are to sit near the command post in front of the building, and stand fast with their equipment. Some departments do allow a few members(depending on the amount of personel available) to take a "360" of the building, and commandeer any available ground ladders to make secondary means of egress from the building. Meaning, while most personel on the fireground are busy doing other things, FAST/RIT members will go around and put up ground ladders at windows, on every side of the building(if it is more than one story).
Anyways, enough babble. Here's the Meme.
Memo from: Town of Plainfield FAST team.
Starting with the 5th sentence.
"For example, a structure fire in the Village of Plainfield, may result in a response from Plainfield Fire, Moosup Fire, and Central Village Fire. If a FAST team is required, the Atwood Hose Fire FAST team members will be requested, and the team will be filled out with other FAST team members on scene, along with the group from Station 96(Atwood Hose) if needed. Each department will handle the FAST deployment differently on a call by call basis, depentant on alarm response, time of day, and personnel available on scene."
Plainfield was one of the first towns in Northeastern Connecticut to develop and train certain members of their four "village" departments in FAST/RIT team tactics. Now, several years later, just about every town in Connecticut has a department with certified FAST/RIT members. I found it intersting reading this, and looking back at how one event can affect an entire profession. Thanks for tagging me Linda!!
8 years ago
