SAN ANTONIO – Members of the San Antonio Fire Department assisted in the response to a recent fire at the Wedgwood Senior Living apartments in Castle Hills, in which several people had to be rescued from windows and balconies, several stories above ground.
The fire claimed six lives and forced 350 people from their homes. SAFD trains for those exact scenarios.
"We want to reassure them that everything is going to be OK," said Stephen Ruston, SAFD Training Division chief. "We're there to help them, to save them."
One of the biggest challenges of executing high-rise rescues is positioning ladder or platform trucks where they can reach trapped victims, Ruston said.
"We're going to make eye contact with them. We're going to begin to coach them," he said. "We're going to grab on to them, but all the while we have to maintain contact with our ladders so that we don't lose our footing or our handle."
They also have to predict where the fire will spread.
"What direction of travel, wind direction, where the fire may be going, so we want to get ahead of it and rescue those victims," Ruston said.
As with the case of the Wedgwood fire, some victims were unable to walk onto a ladder on their own.
In that situation, crews can use a platform truck that allows a victim to step into a bucket which lowers them to the ground.
An unpredictable challenge of high-rise rescues, added Ruston, is the state of the person inside the burning building.
"We could have children, handicapped, hard-of-hearing, maybe even blind," he said. "So it's imperative that we read that first and try to figure out what the situation is."
And firefighters have only seconds to make that judgment.
"If the room is fully involved and we have to get them out right then and there, we have to grab a hold of them and whatever's available, be it clothing, arm, leg and get them out," said Ruston. "We have to get them ready mentally to make that move to us."