Tech Rescue / USAR

[Luminoki]

Following from the announcement that GMFRS are taking in IBTs for tech rescue, it got me wondering, what does your service do with the above?

In West Mids we have the Tech Rescue units ( aka USAR ) based at Bickenhill and Wednesbury. The units are made up of a specialist tech rescue prl carrying short term USAR/heavy rescue kit, a sprinter van with line rescue and few other bits and bobs and a water rescue pod loaded onto a prime mover. Bickenhill also houses the USAR prime movers. Tech rescue attend only catergory A calls ( life risk ) as well as what they would regard as their bread and butter jobs. They get alot of use for water rescue jobs in West mids and my station meet up with wednesbury on occasion for training and the odd RTC

[Jet]

I don’t know a great deal about our TRU’s only that we have two that run with two vehicles each (a modified pump and a sprinter van). They have dedicated crews/watches that don’t ride the pumps (unless detached).

They take care of the USAR side of things plus the usual heavy rescue stuff. They are big on rope rescue, I think that’s what they consider to be their bread and butter along with RTC stuff. I’d like to see them utilised more at fires. I believe they are being more incorporated especially with the new BA guidance being big on emergency teams. But I think they would be wasted just standing at an entry control point waiting for nothing to happen.

I personally think they could be used in a similar fashion to how rescue trucks are in the states with regard to operating at fires. 

[Dyson]

Quote

I personally think they could be used in a similar fashion to how rescue trucks are in the states with regard to operating at fires. 

that's an interesting comment, Jamie  

[Jet]

Call me sad or fire pissed or whatever, but I breifly dropped in to a rescue truck station in New York and was in awe of their setup. Their trucks are very reminiscent of the old school style emergency tenders we had here (with the extended stand up cabs at the back). The inside looked more like an iron mongers than a fire engine such was the extent of their breaking in tools and other gear. They’re also very, very respected in the FDNY and I think a lot of that comes from that their bread and butter isn’t rope or RTC but rather working at fires (but they are very good at the other stuff as well!)

Anyway, anorak post over 🤪

[Dyson]

Yes, I like that model of work too. It's common in the US to have a similar set up. One element of their duties that is clearly not cool is their insistence on entering buildings that are on fire with no hose line, because that is another trucks job......

[Jet]

Yes indeed, there’s lots of ideas I’d like to see brought over from the states. But there’s also plenty they can keep! Don’t fancy aggressively venting a building that’s already, ahem, vented. 

[Luminoki]

Especially when youre on top of it

[Lummox]

In Hampshire we have just moved the majority of the skill sets previously done by Usar (previously a mix of wt and rds) to a fire station where they are now to be accomplished by the fire crews under the name STR. Depending on who you ask that’s either the name of the station or a skill set the station now does. (Specialist is a dirty word)

The breakdown is as follows and currently is a bit messy as were still working out how it’ll actually work properly.

USAR is now 100% rds 1hr response. 

Usar will attend national resilience jobs as well as make ups in hampshire.

airline (make up for numbers)

trench rescue (make up for numbers) 

chainsaw (now purely crosscut and rescue saw as per Usar kpi)

hot cut (petrogen and the new one as per Usar kpi) 

Also currently providing interim back up for chainsaw, petrogen and manitou till the station is fully upskilled

 

STR eastleigh

All normal fire service duties for 

rescue pump, water carrier, Land Rover, foam unit.

in addition now doing

Tech rope level 3

Manitou forklift

Riding the search and rescue unit 

trench rescue 

airline/ confined space

chainsaw (crosscut, tree on car/building, felling and wind blown)

hot cut petrogen

rumoured to be arriving soon a drone as well.

As I’m sure you can see the workload is HUGE, not sure we’re going to stay on top of it to a professional standard, but we’ll try despite some people’s best efforts.

 

 

[Jet]

And this is crewed solely by RDS firefighters?

[Lummox]

Sorry should have been clearer.

All usar duties are now 100% rds previously 9 x wt and 21 rds.

the str duties are a wds riding 6, watch of 9 consisting of 1 x wm, 2 x cm and 6 ff’s on a 4 watch system.

There is a proposal by an exterior person  to the station element to go ‘self rostered shifts’ only a tiny number on station are interested in that but it will probably be forced through anyway.

[Luminoki]

33 minutes ago, Jamiejet said:

And this is crewed solely by RDS firefighters?

In H&W the USAR is crewed by WT firefighters who also ride a rescue truck for their standard shift. There is also a contingent of WT ffs who are on call for USAR. As far as im aware no RDS are also USAR trained unless they’re on temp WT contracts. Is is similar to that @Lummox

[Jet]

Sorry, still lost. Are USAR crewed by FF's employed on a wholetime contract or an RDS contract? That's the point I'm getting at.

[Luminoki]

The two at my station are employed as WT ffs and have a secondary contract to provide on call cover for USAR. Cant say if it mirrors a normal RDS contract of the Ts & Cs but if their pager goes off they will respond to Droitwich where USAR is based. I must state that H&W trucks only ride 4 now so that would be the numbers for the initial response

[Jet]

Yeah that makes sense and is quite common in most services now. I'm just a bit confused by Lummox's original post that states that USAR is 100% RDS but used to be WDS which is why I wanted to clarify who was fulfilling the RDS response.

[Carl]

On 27/01/2019 at 20:01, Jamiejet said:

They take care of the USAR side of things

Not sure they touch the USAR side now Jamie, think it's all over to Lancs.

[GK.]

Which service is being discussed Carl?

[Jet]

@Carl I thought the USAR side of things was why the sprinter vans follow the TRU everywhere they go? And I’m sure in the TRU job advert it mentioned USAR with the prospect of being involved with ISAR? 

@GK. this is GMFRS.

[Luminoki]

I remember reading on the old forum that GMC have/had a group of firefighters who are USAR trained and can provide support to Lancs if required?

[Carl]

1 hour ago, GK. said:

Which service is being discussed Carl?

We are talking in general but the reference to USAR is in respect of the GMFRS TRUs

I may well be wrong Jamie, but @GK. is the person who will know 100%

[GK.]

8 hours ago, Carl said:

We are talking in general but the reference to USAR is in respect of the GMFRS TRUs

I may well be wrong Jamie, but @GK. is the person who will know 100%

@Jamiejet @Carl GMFRS used to provide personnel as a joint capability for USAR with Lancs under the guise of National Resilience. National Resilience funding was cut to all USAR teams by an amount. That amount was roughly the funding for the on call response that GMFRS USAR team provided to Lancs. Lancs chose to train a number of personnel up (I think it was 2 stations - Chorley being one). At the same time risks were being identified in GMFRS from a number of incidents around the country - rope rescue and confined space operations being two. GMFRS then funded the creation of the Technical Response Unit (TRU) (not Turnaround Unit 😂🤦🏻‍♂️). All members of the TRU get trained to the same standard as National Resilience USAR assets as well as all other disciplines. The difference with GMFRS TRU is that it is locally costed and funded and therefore not at the mercy of national funding and provided 24/7 by Wholetime TRU technicians. I’m confident that once the timber unit was made operational GMFRS became the first stand alone USAR capability in the UK. R2 (the TRU) carries most equipment for Day to day activities. R4 (the van) carries water rescue and rope ppe amongst other things. R6 (USAR truck) carries USAR equipment. The TRU is also still available as a life risk pumping appliance unlike other capabilities around the UK.

Sorry for the long winded reply.

On 27/01/2019 at 20:01, Jamiejet said:

I don’t know a great deal about our TRU’s only that we have two that run with two vehicles each (a modified pump and a sprinter van). They have dedicated crews/watches that don’t ride the pumps (unless detached).

They take care of the USAR side of things plus the usual heavy rescue stuff. They are big on rope rescue, I think that’s what they consider to be their bread and butter along with RTC stuff. I’d like to see them utilised more at fires. I believe they are being more incorporated especially with the new BA guidance being big on emergency teams. But I think they would be wasted just standing at an entry control point waiting for nothing to happen.

I personally think they could be used in a similar fashion to how rescue trucks are in the states with regard to operating at fires. 

GMFRS TRU provide an enhanced safety role. This means that on larger fires they attend to create means of access and egress by utilising stihl saws, chainsaws (they carry a rescue saw capable of cutting through roof structures, thin gauge metal, glass etc) and provide support for OiC’s with any other knowledge they possess. Not exactly how Rescue Trucks are used in the US, but there is the potential depending on what the plan is from the OIC.

[Jet]

Thanks for that @GK.. I take it you are on the TRU then, or had some involvement with it? Most of the guys on my watch are new to GMFRS whether as probies or inter service transfers so I'd like to get a visit arranged to the TRU for some familiarity.

Quote

Not exactly how Rescue Trucks are used in the US, but there is the potential depending on what the plan is from the OIC.

My understanding is that at fires they act as the emergency teams (known as rapid intervention teams or RIT) and they also assist with conducting searches and what is regarded as 'truck work' (all the stuff we don't do over here!).

[GK.]

RIT is a big piece of work that has been looked at for 4-5 yrs in GMFRS and is ongoing.

For a familiarisation and any joint training just contact the watch officers, they’ll gladly do show and tell and training.

[Carl]

Jamie, I used the TRU crews regular. When line rescue was due on our MOS, I would invite them down. I felt that there was no better people to use when training than those who do it all the time, so they would come down and we would go through it in slow time ensuring everyone got every part of it and became confident in its use. 

I also got them down for a full morning to show us through every bit of kit they had. Makes life easier as an OIC if you know there's a specific bit of kit on there when you need it. 

[Lummox]

17 hours ago, Jamiejet said:

Sorry, still lost. Are USAR crewed by FF's employed on a wholetime contract or an RDS contract? That's the point I'm getting at.

In Hampshire all Usar are now rds. 

In order to have a Usar rds contract you must also be a whole time competent firefighter up to wm.

However all Usar work, training etc etc is done away from that (incidents aside).

 

A large amount of the work carried out by the old Usar section (previously 9 wt, 21 rds) is now the responsibility of the new STR (specialist technical rescue) station. 

 

In summary 9 wt Usar got transferred back onto station to reallocate their wages under a service redesign (funding cuts).