The Daviess County Fire Department has a technical rope rescue team to safely extract patients from difficult, hard-to-reach situations.
Typically, they respond to industrial settings. However, due to mutual aid agreements with surrounding counties, the team must also be prepared for a wilderness response.
Assistant Chief Eric Coleman says the rigging equipment is the same, but the anchors are different. For example, instead of I-beams for anchors, the team must use trees or large rocks. Additional consideration is given to negotiating edges and putting protection on the rocks to keep the ropes in-tact.
In this scenario, firefighters Casey Hamilton and Sam Henderson rescue two victims trapped in the woods. One of them had fallen from a large cliff. The other was suspended in the air due to a mechanical failure of his equipment.
The haul team must raise both victims and the two firefighters to safety.
