Roco Chief Instructor, Pat Furr teaches a three-man team from Anchorage, Alaska. This Tower Work & Rescue course was conducted at the Roco Training Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Despite the summer heat of the deep south, team members Tom Savage, Nathan Munford and Jeremy Waltz learned some great skills and had a memorable time. Thanks for choosing Roco for RESCUE!

The rescue team from the BP deep water oil platform Nakika trained last week at the Roco Training Center in Baton Rouge. Pictured below is the team with Roco Instructors Russ Kellar and Keith Pridgen and Roco President/CEO Kay Goodwyn. The Nakika is only 8 miles from the Deepwater Horizon, the site of the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

 

38 students representing 11 companies from around the United States participated in Roco’s Rescue I Plus class last week in Baton Rouge.

Here’s a class photo with our six instructors (from left to right) Bobby Kauer, Robert “Soup” Campbell, Mike Adams, Dwaynne Ardeneaux, Troy Gardner and Terry Addison. Also pictured is Equipment Manager Lisha Ezell (left) and Kay Goodwyn President/CEO of Roco (center). To date this was the largest class Roco has put on at our training center.

Tom Vines, rescue author, shares this incredible report posted on FireFighter Nation.

Firefighters often arrive at the scene of a rescue only to find that the situation is completely different from what the 911 call reported.

This was the case on June 2, when the Fort Worth (Texas) Fire Department responded to a 911 call that reported a fallen construction crane with persons trapped. Although this wasn’t exactly what responders found when they arrived on scene, the incident shows how with the right training and preparation, it’s easy to switch gears and successfully handle any situation.

Read more at FireFighterNation.com

TARRYTOWN, NY (WABC) — A fire department official says oxygen levels were dangerously low in a manhole where a sewer worker and a firefighter died.

No cause of death has been established in Monday’s deaths of sewer worker Anthony Ruggiero and Tarrytown firefighter John Kelly. At firehouses throughout Tarrytown, there are the ceremonial displays that no department ever wants to have to put up: black and purple bunting and flags at half staff.

Inside the headquarters there’s a memorial for one of the fallen men, John Kelly. “Our prayers all go out to the families of these two men, who were doing their jobs,” Tarrytown Mayor Drew Fixell said. “One of them a firefighter, acting heroic and trying to save the other one.”

Ruggerio was trying to clear a backup of sewage as part of his full time job in the village’s Public Works Department. He was overcome by fumes and collapsed. Kelly had tried to save Ruggiero, but also the fumes overwhelmed him as well.

Assistant Fire Chief John McGee said Tuesday that a hazardous materials team measured the oxygen level at 14 percent. The normal amount of oxygen in air is about 21 percent. He said he did not know if other, deadly gases were detected. Those are life threatening conditions that may have taken the men by surprise.

Village Administrator Michael Blau said neither of the men who died had put on a protective masks before entering the manhole. He said autopsies were planned. The deaths were being investigated by federal, state and local agencies.

“It’s very, very sad,” resident Susie Poore said. “I’m speechless, because…I don’t know even what to say. I don’t know what to say, other than I must have said ‘Oh my God’ 100 times already.”

Both victims spent over 20 years as volunteer firefighters. Ruggerio was a supervisor in the DPW by trade. Kelly worked as a state Department of Transportation worker.