About you
This manual has been written for emergency responders and vertical rescue professionals . The manual has been designed to link the rope skills and work methods of arborists ( tree climbers ) and those utilised by rope rescue professionals .
It is expected that this manual be utilised by persons skilled in the following areas :
• Ascending , descending and pick-off style rescues .
• Anchor building for individual and team-based rescues .
• Hauling and lowering operations .
• Tower rescue training including climbing towers ( access ) and tower worker rescues .
• Experience at managing incident scenes and management of people .
With those skills this manual will provide an insight into the nature of tree worker rescue and the complexities of access and management of casualties . Whilst the rescuer ’ s skill development is critical , it is intended that some of the procedures outlined in this manual are adopted by the communications centre , regional management and resource coordinators for organisations formulating an incident response .
Safety
The activities in this manual are high risk , and as such standard vertical rescue safety philosophies need to be included in any rescue training or operations . These should include :
ABCDE checks
Critical point
Two-point philosophy
Rescuers must conduct a full inspection of :
Anchors and Angles ( tree structure , ground anchors etc ). Belts , buckles and bits ( harness belt , etc ). Connectors and Cordage ( karabiners and ropes etc ). Devices ( prusiks , belay devices , descenders etc ). Edges and Everything else ( PPE , tag lines , etc ).
Critical point analysis requires that no single component in any rescue system is ‘ critical ’. In other words , any single component ( karabiner , sling , rope etc ) could be cut or removed without a rescuer or patient falling .
All rescuers working at height must always maintain two completely independent points of attachment .
Test loading
Whistle test
Safety officer
Incident controller
Rescuers must visually inspect and test load every connection before committing .
The whistle test or ‘ hands-off test ’ is a hypothetical safety check that considers the behaviour of a rope rescue system if the entire team were to let go of all components at the same time . If this was to occur , no rescuer or patient must be exposed to a fall .
One of the rescue team must be the designated safety officer . This must be a competent person who remains ‘ hands-off ’ with the rescue operation and conducts ABCDE checks of all systems at ground level before commitment .
If numbers permit , one of the of the rescue team should be the designated incident controller . This should be a competent person who remains ‘ hands-off ’ with the rescue operation , performs tactical risk analysis and designates rescue tasks and teams .
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