Tech Tip: The Purcell Prusik knot

Ever thought that a single knot and a few feet of cord could do so much? Yes. Definitely the ¨Purcell Prusik¨ knot, is an extremely useful tool for all types of vertical works. Follow an stretcher in vertical terrain, having an adjustable attachment point for helicopter operations, use in a ascension system or simply as anchor point.

ATTENTION: This is not a self-arrest system/absorber. Use with proper instruction.

News: Swiftwater training

As part of the annual training of all members within the CIRO, one of the specialties that members should handle is the Swiftwater rescue skills.

This time we show you one of the last training sessions of our members through this video kindly edited by our team member Shawn Hare.

News: From the field. CIRO at Logistics Training Course in TEEX

Only six months with the team and I find my self on my way to TEEX Disaster City in College Station Texas for a one week course. We land in Houston and drive one and a half hours to College Station. The heat is intense and humid 46C° degrees with the humidity. I am on a Logistics training Course with my teammate Randi Butler.

We get to Disaster city and I am at a loss for words. We are met with a derailed passenger train, overturned tanker trucks, collapsed building and collapsed parking parkade.

The class consists of Search and Rescue people from Canada, United States and South Korea. The thing we all have in common is a strong desire to do the job we do just a little bit better, this class makes that goal a reality. Even though we come from all over we have a common goal, a better way of doing our jobs without re inventing the wheel.

The information comes to us fast and furious, it is like trying to take a sip of water through a 2 ½ inch fire hose. The instructors tailor the class to meet all our needs, I walk away with wider eyes and broader perspective of how I can do my job better and more efficiently.

Thank you team for sending me.

Bill Gibbons
Logistics

Technology: New PETZL Vertex Best 2 helmet

The French firm PETZL presented a few months ago their latest model of helmet specifically designed for working at height and rescue, the Vertex Best 2.

In addition to its famous predecessor, the Vertex, this new generation has brought some progress over the previous model thanks to the result of experience and needs of users. PETZL has always being one step ahead of technology equipment and systems of this type remained the same safety standards in electrical conduction, incandescent particles and internal harness, this time redesigning the head restraint as well as attach a practical system (with just one ¨click¨) in the front to their new flashlight, Pixa 3.

Elected by the many USAR teams around the world as an issued helmet for its members, undoubtedly PETZL helmet marked a standard in security and protection that have made this model a favorite of all professionals in the world for both work and rescue.

Technology: New PIXA 3 flashlight from PETZL

Petzl recently announced the launch of a new flashlight specifically made for work and rescue tasks, which is already available in the market; the Pixa 3. According to its intended use, this model has features that differentiate it from other headlamps of the same brand: for example, has an important resistance to shock during accidental falls and compression (more than 80kg. of compression resistance!). Thanks to its construction materials, possesses a remarkable resistance to aggressive substances such as solvents and others.

The ability to rotate on itself and "hide" in this way the main lens, allows protecting and lengthening the life of it, avoiding unnecessary damage to the lens of the flashlight while you keep in your backpack or toolbox. When placed in ¨save¨ position, simultaneously it blocks the function knob to avoid unexpected turn on, resulting in accidental discharge of the batteries.

Here are some other features:

- Supports the use of batteries Li / NiMh.

- IP-67 level protection against water.
- ATEX / HAZLOC certification for use in potential explosive environments.

Three versions are substantially different from the Pixa far as regards its lighting capacity. Pixa 1 model is designed specifically for close work, where good lighting is required, but diffuse. The second model (Pixa 2) allows a focal and diffuse illumination at the same time permanently, covering distances (short and medium). Finally, the model Pixa 3 (in our opinion, the model most suitable for intensive use and versatile) includes two different types of independent LED lighting, providing one diffuse lighting and lighting proximal focal distance on the other, with the possibility of combine both. We consider it important to emphasize the sizes of these 3 models are slightly different from each other.

Unlike the previous line of Petzl headlamps, this new model lacks the ability to regulate the intensity and focus separately, thus preventing increase or decrease the intensity of use near or far. Also, it lacks of ¨ Boost ¨ mode, which is very useful in situations where we must and we need to look beyond a short period, the maximum power that the LED can give us.

An excellent performance flashlight incredibly useful for work or urban rescue, good versatility and self-hardness and resistance to any test.

Technology: Be identified by Road ID

The story began in 1999 when the father of a professional marathon runner, concerned for his son to see him train for hours a week when he came out to do his daily exercises for tens of kilometers on the road, he thought what would happen if he got hit by a truck or a car? That's where he recommended carrying some form of identification with him.

This really made sense, but the dilemma began when the son thought that more than carry identification; his medical information was not available in any hospital and the time to contact his family and then their doctors, would be key to saving his life.

A few months later, father and son released ROAD ID, in order to unify these two concepts: One is the personal identification and the other patient's medical history.

Today, Road ID is one of the most effective identifications worldwide, used by hikers, joggers, cyclists, travelers, children, people with disabilities and why not rescue personnel to be not only identified, but also by a code engraved on the back of identification, medical personnel can access via internet 24 hours to your medical data from anywhere in the world, knowing your entire medical history quickly, which can be loaded on your own, accessing the Road ID's database  and keeping up with medical data, telephone numbers and emergency contacts, expanded details  and more personal information you decide to upload.

This service has an annual fee and really tiny despite being a very simple idea, Road ID has hundreds of actual cases where they have saved many lives.

If you do not want to also subscribe to the database Road ID, don’t worry. The company also lets you engrave with any of your choices Laser Stainless Steel Dog Tags, Bracelets, etc. with a number of characters and lines more than enough for you be identified in an emergency plus select a nice image from their photo base to engrave on the back your country flag, favorite sport logo and more of your choice.

These are some of the reasons the company states on why wear a Road ID:

1.  If you can’t speak for yourself, Road ID will speak for you.

2. Road ID enables First Responders to immediately contact family members and friends.

3. Road ID enables family members to provide additional details about your health or give consent for potentially lifesaving procedures.

4. Road ID enables hospital staff to locate vital medical records.

5. Road ID can communicate medical conditions or allergy information to medical staff.

6. Road ID can prevent serious delays in treatment by saving crucial time during the “golden hour” of medical treatment.

7. It’s far better to have Road ID and not need it than to need Road ID and not have it. It’s not just a piece of gear, it’s peace of mind.

8. Accidents happen far more than you think they do. Each year approximately 450,000 of us are taken to hospitals unconscious and without identification.

9. Road ID looks good on and makes a statement about your athletic lifestyle – not to mention that studies would probably prove that people that wear Road ID are considerably smarter than those that don’t.

10. Road ID can save your Life. Period.

News: What Rescue Management means?

Regardless of how large or complex a search mission becomes, the proper initial actions are identical and crucial to success. Effective initial actions can maximize subject survivability and detection, minimize cost and establish a firm foundation for those incidents that become unusually complex.

A search is defined in general terms as the act of searching for, rescuing or recovering by means of ground, air and water search any person who becomes lost, trapped, injured or killed while outdoors or as a result of a natural or man made disaster.

The definition for CIRO purposes also includes the search for evidence (CSI).

CIRO Search Managers

The role and overall mandate of the CIRO in relation to the search of lost persons is to investigate and coordinate all activity associated with lost and missing persons. That role of managing a formal search is done by a person called a Search Manager.

Background

The CIRO Search Management Program started in 1996 to meet operational and community needs in the city of Red Deer, Alberta when the RDSAR (Red Deer Search & Rescue Team) begun.
Search Managers are high experienced rescue operators who are trained and certified in Search and Rescue Management, which is based on a scientific and lost person profiling approach. Search Managers work in various areas of the rescue team and have search management as an additional duty.
Search Managers are support services to most CIRO operations. They fall under the responsibility of the Team Leader. Search Managers assume overall control of Search and Rescue operations, and liaise with the incident commander during an operation.

Key factors for a successful search

Expertise
Formalized Operational/Strategic Processes
Resources
Networking/Partnerships
Through investigations and subject background

Rescue management
Anyone can learn to lead a rescue operation by using a simple model.
The model can also be used as a tool to build an effective evacuation plan for a building or an area. The following items are not necessarily a chronological sequence but a guideline for a rescue operation, where each items can be interchanged or omitted depending on the accidents extent.

Make an overview
Any rescue operation big or small always begins with the leader creates an overview. First of all, the leader must ensure that he avoid to be injured himself. In addition, the leader make an overview of what has happened, how many people are injured, how big is the damages on the buildings or the area and other possible hazards. These details should later also be used when calling 9-1-1 (US) or 1-1-2 (Europe).

Stop the accident / decrease the accidents development
The leader must try to ensure that the accident do not develop. A major fire can probably not be extinguished, but it is possible to ensure a slower diffusion by closing windows and doors to reduce the oxygen flow.

Acting / paralyzed
Major accidents has to be solved by a "team" and the leader must therefore determine which of the bystanders, he can use in the rescue operation.
Based on each bystanders reaction to the accident, we can put the bystanders into the following four categories:

a) Those who exhibit an appropriate behavior
These are those who can lead the entire or a part of the rescue operation.

b) Those who respond by being shortly paralyzed
Typically people, who have never learned first aid or where it is a long time ago
since they have been on a first aid training course. But these people are also characterized by that they will perform a subtask in the rescue operation, if it
is exactly defined what to do.

c) Those who will respond whit greater psychological reactions

d) Those who respond so violently that they lose the control.

The last two groups (c and d) should not participate in the rescue operation. The successful leader will use the people from group b to perform psychological first aid to these two groups.

The management of different tasks in the rescue operation
In major accidents, there are many tasks to be solved depending on the accidents type and extent. eg. evacuation, calling 9-1-1 (US) / 1-1-2 (Europe), treatment of' injuries, delegating responsibility to people to manage the assembly points, finding access routes for emergency vehicles, etc.. The best leader is the one who enters a step backwards, keeps the general view and place other people/bystanders into different "taskforces".

Prioritizing the injured people
If it is necessary to evacuate the building or area, the first priority is to find out who can be evacuated based on how much injured each person is. We can be in a situation where someone not can be moved without danger for the taskforce.
Only when we have placed the injured people safely in the assembly area, we can prioritize the injured people, and here we prioritize the casualties with life-threatening injuries first.

Roads for rescue vehicles / escape routes
The leader must also have an idea of how the rescue vehicles are coming to the burning building, injured area, assembly points for injured people. He must also have en idea of which escape routes to be used through the building/area by evacuating to the assembly points.

Assembly points for evacuated people
By evacuation the leader must have an idea of, where he will place the assembly points, where it is safe to be until the rescue vehicles arrive, and where the further first aid can be implemented.

Psychological first aid
During the entire rescue operation psychological first aid must be given all time and as much as possible. After the rescue operation should all have psychological first aid - also the leaders. Here it can be necessary with a psychological debriefing by a psychologist.