I'm lost...Now What???

[E229Lt]

You’ve been separated from your team, your air is getting low and the last three paths to the exit you tried were wrong. Is it time to give an urgent message for help? Is it time for a Mayday? No, the guys will give me hell for it back at quarters!

Have you ever wondered what your point of no return will be? When you’ll ask for help? Or will you get yourself out of trouble on your own? Are you ready for the moment you hope will never come?

What are the determining factors that will make you ask for help?

[FiremedicMike]

Ugh, a topic that no one likes to talk about because we'd all like to pretend that it'll never happen to us.

Contributing factors for me,

1. Building type. If I'm lost in a house fire in this area, I'm gunna find a wall and breach it (I hope). If I'm in the middle of a blackout in a warehouse, then I have a whole new set of problems to deal with
2. How much air do I have left
3. How bad is this fire cooking

Certainly there many more which will be pointed out, those are just the big ones that came to mind.

[Medic162]

Scary

It's really quite simple if you love life... If all of the above criteria you've stated have happened or are happening - Give the mayday, trigger your PASS, beat on something or whatever you have to do to get your guys to you or you to them. Only a fool will worry about getting ribbed when it's life or death. Hopefully, everyone here drills for this so they'll know how to handle this when it happens - and rest assured, it will happen eventually.

[BCmdepas3280]

The minute that you think you are in trouble the mayday should be given...I would rather have the guys laugh and chuckle over a mayday than get a hernia from carrying me at my funeral Seriously, When you think your in trouble call the mayday. After you call the mayday remain as calm as possible activate the pass alarm than let your training take over...In my younger days I would have most likely gone beyond my limit because I thought I was invincible...now Im older and would not hesitate to call for help. I been to too many other brothers citys and have seen there pain.

[dfdex1]

Re: I'm lost...Now What???

Originally posted by E229Lt
Is it time for a Mayday? No, the guys will give me hell for it back at quarters!

It is better to get hell than goto hell.

[ff7134]

Like what has been said above, calm down assess my situation then act from their. If its a residential and I'm lost worst case scenario find a window and pop it. If its a commercial and I am unfamiliar with the layout; its time to hit the pass, MAYDAY and start making alot of noise.

[distchief60b]

Take a deep breath and collect your thoughts.

Think:

1) Where am I? (what kind of building)
2) How did I get here?
3) How much air?
4) Where's the wall?
5) Listen for sounds...
6) Activate PASS Alarm for few minutes and then turn it off...continuously
7) Where's my radio? (If I have one use it and say "listen for PASS"
8) Pick a direction (right or left) and keep wall on that side...
9) Work toward an outside wall and find a window

Better to have them give you crap than have someone be throwing dirt in your face.

[RyanEMVFD]

the RIT crew much rather come in for a live firefighter then a dead one.

at the first second i notice i'm lost and can't find the hose or my sense of direction, activate the pass. better safe then sorry.

[MalahatTwo7]

I concur with CaptStan and Ryan.... To add a personal thought:

if the situation deteriorates to where you are thinking of activating the PASS, then you probably should have 5 minutes ago.... but I also deeply understand the

the guys will give me hell for it back at quarters!

But has been also stated.... better they find a live firefighter than a dead one, and I infinitely prefer to hear the teasing later than the silence of the dead.

I hope I never run into this situation... EVER.

[blancety]

You’ve been separated from your team, your air is getting low and the last three paths to the exit you tried were wrong.

Ding Ding...Time to go. Do whatever you have to to, but if you have tried 3 times to leave, chances are you are more lost than you first were. "Nobody ever died from embarrassment", so call in the troops find a nice quiet place to sit, and see how long you can make that air go.

Hey LT. Ever drilled on how long 500lbs can last? When I was in school in CT my Deputy Chief went 45 minutes. Gave a whole new meaning to the words "Skip Breathing".

[gfowlston]

Here is another problem to go along with this, we had this senerio last summer during a drill in a whse. You are the RIT team you follow a hose looking for a lost crew. You reach the end of the hose you can hear the pass alarms going off, you continue on by the time you reach them one guy is dead the other is almost out of air, you start to drag them out, the second guy runs out of air and your partner is almost out then he runs out. What do you do? do you keep dragging the other two? do you drop them and try to save yourself? then when your partner goes down what do you do? Oh yes forgot to mention you got far enough off the hose line you did not find it again you have no clue where you are in this whse.

[kghemtp]

That's a tough one, gf. I haven't been in that situation, but here is my thought: 2 in 2 out. The same two that go in should come out by whatever means possible. I DO want the fallen brother to come out, but I think I should get my partner out first, telling the firefighter we were attempting to rescue that we're going to get back to him ASAP. I will call a mayday giving last known location, activate his & our PASS devices, and attempt to get my partner out for air. If I've missed anything important, let me know!


~Kevin
FF/Paramedic

[WTFD10]

Originally posted by gfowlston
Here is another problem to go along with this, we had this senerio last summer during a drill in a whse. You are the RIT team you follow a hose looking for a lost crew. You reach the end of the hose you can hear the pass alarms going off, you continue on...you got far enough off the hose line you did not find it again you have no clue where you are in this whse.

I would hope that their RIT training would be good enough that they would use a tag line instead of just continuing on with no guide!

then when your partner goes down what do you do?

I save my partner.

As for the original question, I agree with everyone else: I'll take the b@ll-busting over the dirt nap. I'd call Mayday.

[CJMinick390]

Unfortunately, most of us by nature will wait to long to call a "mayday." I personally would probably get mad as heck at myself for getting lost. If you're in anything larger than a SFD, you're in deep doo doo at this point.

What we should do, In my opinion, is call a mayday, activate the pass, and settle down to conserve air. Don't move around so that the RIT crew can find you more easily. It's not a good feeling, but at that point, things are of out of your hands and you're going to have to rely on the brothers to come get you.

By the way, Loo, thanks for starting some serious posts about important things. I was getting tired of the lights on the POV's discussions.

[Halligan84]

I vote for calling the Mayday early too, sit tight and wait for help while conserving your air.

As far as the second scenario, I'd probably follow the hoseline also if I thought that was the crew I'm looking for. You can tag off of the nozzle or station a member there to get you back to your reference. Hopefully there was an idea of how many brothers were trapped and sufficient emergency SCBA were brought in. Once you have them breathing fresh air again, the urgency decreases slightly. The recent study out of Phoenix pretty clearly shows its a team effort, plan on 12 - 15 guys for something like that. A relay rescue is what they called it, I'd like to see some more specifics on how they implement it.

I agree wholeheartedly on the return to some actual firefighting discussions!