In early 2001, a firefighter died in the line of duty in a small supermarket in a metropolitan city in the Southwest. The loss of this firefighter sparked a significant amount of discussion in the fire service about how we operate in mayday situations, as well as how we utilize rapid intervention teams (RITs).
Most importantly, it exposed what an enormous task it is to successfully remove a downed firefighter from any type of structure, and revealed the lack of training many fire departments had in this area.
Rescuing a downed firefighter from an involved structure is difficult even with the proper training, but without any form of training, it can quickly turn into a disaster. Departments should train annually on firefighter removal in a controlled training setting to ensure that everyone is comfortable with gaining access to the downed firefighter, packaging and removal.