A vehicle plows into your living room. Your roof collapses on the car and the driver inside of it. A quick call to 911, and Chattanooga Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) could be dispatched.
On Thursday, November 7, USAR team members practiced using a heavy crane such as this one on unique rescue scenes. The USAR team responds to emergencies in a ten-county area that require special training and equipment, such as high-angle rescues, trench rescues, and confined spaces. To prepare for situations in which verbal communication might not be effective, the USAR team members practiced using hand signals.
They also practiced setting up a “gantry,” which involves arranging a wooden frame with ropes and pulleys to lift heavy objects in a remote locations where vehicles like cranes can’t be used.
Of the 35 students last week’s USAR class, about half were Chattanooga firefighters. The other students came from Bradley County Fire-Rescue, Cleveland Fire Department, Signal Mountain Fire Department, and two medical personnel from Erlanger Medical Center.
The training got intense on Friday, November 8, when the team used a donated house located at 3407 4th Avenue in East Lake to practice collapsed structure rescue. (See photo.) In the training scenario, the house had partially collapsed around a car that had driven into the residence with several mock victims (mannequins) still inside. It was up to USAR team members extract the victims without becoming victims themselves.
After shoring up the house with lumber and other materials, they worked to extricate the victims from the car.