Pittsburgh Drill---RIT

[dfd3dfd3]

Hey, ive been hearing about the Pittsburgh drill, but I havent read or found out about what it actually entails. Does anyone know what it is, and if you do what are the events and format of the drill?

[firenresq77]

The Pittsburgh Drill was developed by the Rapid Intervention Training Associates staff to force train your RIT to work as a team. If any one of the team members that have entered the obstacle course fail to give anything but 100% the entire team will fail the drill. The obstacle course is 50 ft in length with 3 obstacles to encounter (under/over/through). The first is a small wall breach (low profile), the second is an A-frame, and the third is a 10-12 ft tube (three 55 gallon drums welded together) and another low profile. A section of 1 3/4 inch hose is stretched from the entrance of the course through all 3 obstacles to the firefighter victim at the end (preferrably a 150 lb dummy in fire gear, SCBA, and facemask on rather than a live victim, they will get beat up). A minimum of a 4 person, to a maximum of 5 person team will enter the course with facepieces covered (wax paper works great and simulates a smokey vision, thanks Sendelbach!). The catch here is the team only gets a maximum of 20 minutes to complete this course. They have to maneuver all three obstacles to the victim then work as a team to bring the victim back through the obstacle course while on air. At the entrance to the third obstacle (the tube), two team members will low profile through the tube to the victim while the remaining crew waits in place at the entrance of the tube. Once through the tube, the victim has a good air supply but is unconscious. The two team members must prepare the victim for a low profile back through the tube using a handcuff knot. The victim is rolled out of their SCBA, the handcuff knot is tied to the victims arms, victim SCBA is tied off in front of the victim on the handcuff knot rope. The rope has been thrown through to the team members waiting. These members will pull the victims SCBA and victim back through the tube. The two members will now low profile back through. Once everyone is back through the third obstacle the team works together to maneuver the victim over the second obstacle (A-frame), then on to the first obstacle (wall breach). The team must send two members through the breach first to pull from the opposite side. The remaining team positions the victim into the breach and pushes the victim through as the team members on the opposite side pull the victim through. The rest of the team must get themselves through the breach and assist getting the victim to the starting point where the time will stop. The victims facepiece must remain on the face the entire obstacle course. If it dislodges, the team is stopped to fix it (which eats up time). The team is on air through the entire course. Spare SCBA or SCBA cylinders may be kept at the entrance to the course and if (sorry, when) a team members low air alarm sounds, they must be escorted by another team member to the spare cylinder to change out and get back into the obstacle course to continue to help with the extrication. The faster you change out, the faster the team works as a group again. If you elect to peter out and stay out, the team must continue without you. Once the clock hits 20 minutes the drill is terminated regardless of where the victim is in the obstacle course. The average time I have recorded is 18 to 20 minutes. A lot of teams are stopped at the 20 minute mark at the first obstacle on the way back out with the victim. If it weren't for a few screw ups, they would have made it. A good time is 18 to 20 minutes. A great time is 16 to 18 minutes. An exceptional time is 14 to 16 minutes. Anything under 14 minutes is superman status and you can come be my RIT anytime. The current record time is 13:48 held by the Guilford, Connecticut Fire Department. It was an honor to watch this team encounter this drill. Truly top knotch. This by far is the most difficult RIT team drill out there that covers a wide range of skills. The importance of the Pittsburgh Drill is not in completing the course in under 20 minutes but to make the team work together in an urgent capacity while sharpening important RIT skills at the same time. Make it a competition. It can be fun to train too. We have put the RIT combat drills seminar on at the Firehouse Expo in Baltimore and will be doing it in Houston next month. Look for it at some major conferences in 2003 as well. It is most definitely not an easy exercise but it is not impossible. It's a training tool that teaches teams to work together and share the load. It will show you how important physical fitness is in RIT operations so that we can rescue our people and not recover them. If anyone has any questions on the Pittsburgh Drill feel free to ask. You can also see it done on "Working Fire" training videos on RIT advanced operations done by the RITA staff. Stay safe...

This is from the RIT guru Jim Crawford from Pittsburgh Fire. I got this from www.rapidintervention.com forums. Here is the link for the forum.

Pittsburgh Drill