Technical Rescue Team

Rescue Training
In 2005, the Stevens Point Fire Department (SPFD) formed a local resource technical rescue team. In the event of a disaster requiring technical rescue services anywhere in Central Wisconsin, this team is prepared for situations out of the norm of day-to-day firefighting and emergency medical services response.

Specialties that are the focus of this response capability include Collapse Rescue, Confined Space Rescue, Rope Rescue, Trench Rescue, and Water & Ice Rescue

Collapse Rescue

This discipline brings all previous training and equipment into concert.
Due to the highly unstable environment associated with a collapse, a rescuer must be prepared for secondary collapses, hazardous atmospheres, biological contamination, and any number of other problems.
Shoring materials have to be placed to stabilize rubble and debris to allow rescuers to safely remove patients. If proper stabilization is not completed, a secondary collapse is highly likely to occur.
Ropes are used to traverse such a chaotic environment.
Well known collapse rescue incidents include the World Trade Center in New York and the federal building in Oklahoma City.

Confined Space Rescue

The need for confined space training is one that is commonly seen and not always recognized.

When you drive past a utility worker entering a manhole cover, that person is entering a confined space that has the potential to contain oxygen deficient, toxic, flammable, or other dangerous atmospheres. If the worker becomes injured or overwhelmed by that atmosphere, only trained and competent rescuers will be able to safely enter that space.

These actions are regulated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Since some of these spaces have no ladder to use for entry, ropes must be employed to enter the space to assess and begin treatment of the patient.

Once the patient is prepared to be removed, ropes will again be required to remove them from the space.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration estimates that 53 fatalities and approximately 10,700 injuries could be prevented each year if competent and comprehensive Confined Space entry programs were implemented. These entry programs must educate employees and rescuers to the unique hazards of asphyxiation, entrapment, and exposure to toxic atmospheres.

Because 60% of all fatalities in confined space rescues are the rescuers, the Stevens Point Fire Department is committed to adequately training and equipping all members in performing rescues safely.

Members of the Department are trained in safely and effectively entering spaces like boilers, underground lift stations, sewers, and above and below ground storage tanks, to perform a rescue.

The Stevens Point Fire Department Confined Space Rescue Program was developed at the request of local industry to assist in complying with the rescue requirements of OSHA standards 29 CFR 1910.146 and ILHR Chapter 32, subchapter VI.

Equipping and training members for these unique rescues requires the financial support of not only county and city governments, but also private industry. This county wide support has made it possible for the SPFD to respond not only within the jurisdictional boundaries of the city, but throughout the entire county, per mutual aid requests.The need for confined space training is one that is commonly seen and not always recognized.

Once the patient is prepared to be removed, ropes will again be required to remove them from the space.

Because 60% of all fatalities in confined space rescues are the rescuers, the Stevens Point Fire Department is committed to adequately training and equipping all members in performing rescues safely.

Members of the Department are trained in safely and effectively entering spaces like boilers, underground lift stations, sewers, and above and below ground storage tanks, to perform a rescue.

Rope Rescue

Proficiency in rope rescue is the initial phase for all technical rescue programs.
This class utilizes ropes, webbing, pulleys, and other hardware and software to overcome steep angled terrain, high buildings or cliffs, and other troublesome obstacles.
Rope rescue lays a foundation for the technical rescue mindset, especially since it is utilized to varying degrees in each of the other three disciplines.

Trench Rescue

Trench rescue is another often seen but rarely realized hazard.
OSHA defines a trench as a hole in the ground that is deeper than it is wide.
Similar to a confined space entry, hazardous atmospheres and possible injuries while in a trench may cause the need for trench rescue techniques.
Other hazards specific to trenches include trench wall collapse causing engulfment, objects rolling or falling onto the victim from above, or any number of other injuries or situations.
Along with techniques learned in ropes and confined space, specialized training and equipment is used in trench rescue.
If the person in the trench was not utilizing shoring equipment, the rescuers will first place it in order to make the trench safe to operate in before entering.
Once the trench is made safe, assessment, treatment, and removal of the patient/victim will then take place.

Evacuation & Emergency Assistance for the Stevens Point and Portage County

The Stevens Point Fire Department / Portage County Ambulance Service has 36 full-time, trained ice/cold-water rescue personnel available, of which a minimum of 10 are on duty 24 hours per day, 365 days per year.
We will respond immediately with a two-person rescue squad equipped with three water rescue suits and all necessary equipment to perform an in water rescue. Also responding will be a minimum of one Advanced Life Support Ambulance with two support personnel.
Within the response area of the Stevens Point Fire Department / Portage County Ambulance Service (including mutual-aid agreements), there are approximately 135 bodies of water and two major rivers, the Wisconsin and the Plover. There is public access for swimming, boating, fishing, ice fishing, snowmobiling, and other recreational activities on most of these waters, with usage increasing yearly.