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Firefighters Prepare To Join Rescue Team

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By VALERIE KALFRIN

vkalfrin@tampatrib.com

Published: March 28, 2009

TAMPA - St. Petersburg firefighter Tanya Pritchard clipped a red rope to the harness around her torso, extra carabiners dangling at the ready.

A hard hat and sunglasses shielded her head and eyes from the bright sun recently atop a four-story concrete-block building at the Tampa Fire Academy. Other firefighters on the roof checked the rigging holding the other end of the rope and a yellow safety line.

"T, you ready?" asked Lt. Eric Dinan, prepping her for the drop over the side. "When you go down, you cannot touch the ground."

"Gotcha," she said.

Pritchard, 39, is one of about 25 students preparing to join Urban Search and Rescue Florida Task Force 3, a multi-agency team dispatched across the area and the country for building collapses and disaster relief, instructors said.

The current team of 220 includes personnel from Tampa Fire Rescue, Hillsborough County Fire Rescue and St. Petersburg Fire & Rescue, as well as doctors and structural engineers. Members have searched for and extricated people from the wreckage after Hurricane Katrina and a garage collapse in Jacksonville.

Each trainee interviewed to join the task force, which undergoes rigorous training. The recent exercises capped an 80-hour class learning how to anchor and manipulate ropes and climbing gear. The ropes have a breaking strength of 9,000 pounds, and the carabiners hold up to 18,000 pounds, said Hillsborough County Fire Rescue Capt. Clint Roberts, the lead instructor.

Other training over the summer includes working in trenches and confined spaces.

"A lot of what we do is put them into stressful situations," Roberts said. "They learn at all costs to protect that rope. That rope is your lifeline."

The scenarios aimed to recreate precarious plunges both off the side of the building and into a series of shipping containers. Rescuers had to locate a 185-pound mannequin patient and coordinate how to transport it back to the roof and then down to the ground.

A crew lowers a rescuer by threading the rope through a belay device that allows them to control the descent, said another instructor, St. Petersburg Fire Rescue Capt. Alan Rosetti.

Hoisting the rescuers and the patient involves rigging a block-and-tackle to redistribute the weight by calculating the height of the building and the number of crew members.

"Sometimes you might not have 10 people to pull on a rope," Rosetti said. "Simple knot-tying is huge."

Once Pritchard was ready, the instructors asked the team to sound off. A chorus began.

"On line."

"On the rope."

"On safety."

St. Petersburg firefighter Jon Blinkey, 27, followed Pritchard over the side to a first-floor doorway, where their mock patient awaited. They cinched the mannequin into a carrier and attached the main rope, safety rope and a third line to help them guide the patient from below. Then they signaled those on the roof to pull.

"Take it slow, please," Pritchard said over a radio.

The challenges of these rescues and the teamwork hold tremendous appeal, said Pritchard, a three-year veteran.

"It's fun. I have no fear of heights," she said. "You trust your crew that they've done their job right."

Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800.

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