Monday night firefighters gathered for a regional training session with the Westwood and Modena Fire Companies. Gathering at the Westwood Fire Company, almost 30 firefighters trained on rescuing one of their own from a basement.

This scenario is critical for all firefighters to experience on how to make this rescue. Lifting a firefighter up stairs in full protective equipment and connected to an emergency air supply is by no means easy.

Firefighters entered a second floor window by an extension ladder where they found a hose line and had to navigate their way to the downed firefighter based on the direction of the coupling. Once they found the down firefighter crews had to get them on an emergency air supply and package them using their air pack as a harness which will later aid in lifting the firefighter up the two flights of stairs.

Many evolutions of this scenario were completed by members of all companies involved and critiqued afterwards on how we can do it better the next time. We will only get one chance to do it right, so firefighter survival training is critical.