Firefighters hit the pit to brush up on rescue techniques

By Martin B. Cassidy
Staff Writer

Published May 18 2007

Town firefighters practice trench rescue techniques at their North Street training facility yesterday. (Bob Luckey Jr./Staff photo)
May 18, 2007

More than a dozen firefighters huddled around a muddy trench yesterday as others worked inside the hole to secure a dirty yellow mannequin to a stretcher during a trench collapse drill.

After the drill, Tim Kelly, a trench rescue instructor and retired New York Fire Department rescue specialist, praised their quick work to shore up the trench and make the rescue in good time, but underlined that in a real life trench collapse firefighters could have to saw planks at top speed to keep a trench stable, or end up rescuing their fellow firefighters if it caves in further.

"You're trying to anticipate what you might need next," said Kelly, who works for Safety Consulting Inc., of Massapequa, N.Y. "If we let things slide and things start to go wrong we have a problem."

This week and next Greenwich career firefighters are practicing their trench rescue techniques at the fire training center on North Street to prepare for mishaps that could occur on construction sites and utility installation projects. The department's 101 career firefighters as well as various volunteer firefighters train in the skills yearly to meet U.S. Department of Labor certifications for trench rescue technicians.

Trench collapses are often caused when inexperienced contractors take lucrative excavation jobs and fail to reinforce a trench properly, firefighters said.

Mark Dawson, a career firefighter from Cos Cob who helped start the department's technical rescue program, said that homeowners should be careful to hire a safety-conscious excavator.

"Today we're seeing a lot of new companies starting to perform excavations that don't have the experience," Dawson said.

This year at the Tamarack Country Club when a White Plains construction worker was killed in a trench collapse, firefighters faced several potential hazards, including the bucket of a construction vehicle near the trench.

The country club was fined $20,000 for safety violations in the death of Jose Medina, 59, because the trench lacked any sidewall supports or other safety measures that could have prevented the collapse.

Fire Training Capt. John Sabito said trench rescue scenarios often require other technical knowledge gained from hazardous materials and confined space training. When trench rescues involve utilities such as gas lines, firefighters will use instruments to check for fumes and vent the area if necessary, Sabito said.

"Those three types of training are separate but often intertwined," Sabito said. "Confined space and trench rescue both involve hoisting and hauling, and working in risky situations."

In this round of training, 11 volunteer firefighters from Sound Beach brushed up their trench-rescue certification, Sound Beach Volunteer Chief Alan Yantorno said.

"There is always a lot of building in town so there are people working in trenches every day," Yantorno said.

Ideally, about 20 firefighters would respond to a real life trench collapse, said Deputy Chief Thomas Zack, to handle the tasks of reinforcing a crumbling trench with pneumatic struts and standing by to assist with the rescue.

"You're working against the clock because someone's life can be slipping away," Zack said.