Rope rescues are rare for Longview firefighters. But that doesn’t stop the department’s rope rescue team from constantly honing its skills.
“It’s a low-frequency, high-risk event,” Battalion Chief Troy Buzalsky said Tuesday.
Buzalsky was standing at the bottom of an eight-story staircase at Campus Towers near Lower Columbia College. The senior living home is the city’s tallest residential building.
Above him, firefighter Mike Scott used a safety rope to carefully rappel down from the eighth floor, where firefighter recruit Mike Lewis simulated a victim.
Scott used a special “pickoff” technique to bring Lewis safely to the ground. The entire exercise took less than five minutes to complete.