Emergency escape tool helps save Brooklyn fireman

[Monty 35]

Surpised I didn't see this elsewhere on here. sounds like a good ending to what could have been a real bad one.

Newsday.com

Emergency escape tool helps save Brooklyn fireman

BY LAURA RIVERA

laura.rivera@newsday.com

January 1, 2008

Click to learn more...

Nearly three years after two New York City firefighters jumped from a burning building and plunged to their deaths, a 24-year FDNY veteran yesterday became the first to use a widely hailed safety device to escape from a Brooklyn house fire that almost engulfed him.

Raymond Pollard, 50, of Brooklyn, reppelled away from searing flames that had trapped him near a fourth-floor window of an apartment building on Willoughby Avenue, fire officials said.

The fire was reported at 3:41 a.m. Pollard drove the second unit to arrive at the scene, Ladder Company 102 from Bedford Avenue.

Within 10 minutes, officials said, Pollard broke three fourth-floor windows facing the street and entered the building to look for occupants. When he moved to the hallway, fire surged up the stairway and over his head, blocking his exit. He moved to the next room, where the fire forced him to retreat to the window.

"Just as the fire was blowing over his head, he took the hook out and jammed it into the windowsill," said Stephen Raynis, safety command battalion chief.

Pollard reppelled two feet below the ledge and firefighters slid a bucket ladder toward him and lowered him to safety, Raynis said.

Around 5:50 a.m., the roof collapsed onto the fourth floor.

Pollard, who declined to be interviewed, was treated for second-degree burns on his left hand, officials said. Three other firefighters suffered minor injuries.

The emergency device, called a personal safety system, was developed by FDNY members in the wake of the deaths of Lt. Curtis Meyran and firefighter John Bellew, who jumped from a window of a burning Bronx building in January 2005, when they could not find the fire escape. Four other firefighters who also leapt from that building were critically injured.

The lifesaving invention consists of a forged aluminum anchor hook that can penetrate brick, a 50-foot rope, a descending device operated by a trigger, a carabiner, and a waist belt with leg loops.

Since January 2006, it has been distributed to about 11,500 FDNY members, including all 8,500 firefighters, officials said.

Fire marshals deemed the fire suspicious and are investigating.

Fire escape

Trapped by a fast-moving fire inside the fourth floor of a building in Brooklyn, a firefighter yesterday used a new safety rappelling device to escape.

As flames shot over his head out the window, he hooked the rope to the window frame and lowered himself 2 feet below the ledge. His colleagues used their ladders to bring him to safety.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/...0,7885138.story

[SgtGumby311 0]

A great way to start the new year....

[M' Ave 1,466]

A great way to start the new year....

It is! Take away the positive. A member performed an emergency bail out with a new device that had never yet served it's purpose. Itseems to have worked well and certainly saved him from serious injury and possibly worse.

Huge kudos to the members of the P.S.S. team. They work hard training everyone with device.

[Guest]

http://emtbravo.net/index.php?showtopic=22579

[Guest LAGRANGEFF40]

Thank god for a great device. That is the reason you need to know and train with your equipment !

Edited January 3, 2008 by LAGRANGEFF40

[Monty 35]

http://emtbravo.net/index.php?showtopic=22579

Kudos to roofsopen - I did a quick search in the forum but missed this thread (must be all the activity on the staffing issues - or maybe the last partying of 2007)

Thanks for the detailed info on what went down. Great job by all involved.