Christopher Peak
Firefighters assemble at the shipyard.
After a man “fainted” in a barge hull being repaired in the Buchanan Marine shipyard, New Haven firefighters sped to the scene to execute a treacherous “recovery.”
They checked for highly explosive oxygen acetylene that could be leaking from welding torches. Avoiding falls in the dark, unfamiliar vessel, the squad knotted ropes to pull the victim up through a narrow, 18-inch manhole to safety.
At Buchanan Marine, the “victim” was trapped 30 feet past the barge’s bulkhead.
Or at least, that’s the scenario firefighters pretended was happening this past Friday afternoon at the shipyard in the Annex. To practice rescues in confined spaces, 16 firefighters sent their smallest member, Peter Loomis, into the barge to play the trapped victim. Then, over the course of an hour, the multi-company team methodically ran through the drill.
Firefighters rarely encounter these types of recovery. But that’s not to say retrieving someone from a duct or manhole isn’t unheard of. Frank Ricci, president of Local 825 union, called rescues in confined spaces a “low-frequency, high-risk operation.”
Terrence Rountree and Ricci oversee the operation.
State and federal law requires the department to practice such an operation at least once annually. “Within the City of New Haven, we have workers operating in confined spaces every single day, be it at arenas, utility companies,” Ricci said. “The department is working to ensure that all our members are ready to answer that call.” He thanked the shipyard owners for allowing this team to practice in a real-life course.
Rope stretches across the shipyard.
To retrieve the Loomis, the firefighters rigged an elaborate system of pulleys that could drop a two-person team inside the darkened barge and pull three men back out.
Jayne, kneeling in the middle, pays out rope.
After the knots were tied and the ropes ready, Ryan Jayne slowly fed slack out, as Matt Thomas and Jeff Seward descended into the darkened barge.
Every five minutes, Mike DeMennato dropped a gauge into the hull to check the air for the presence of hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide and explosive gases. Thomas and Seward breathed in a supply of compressed air delivered through snaking black tubes, while a ventilator pumped more oxygen in for the victim.
Greg Boivon directs Cannon to raise the bucket.
Once they reached Loomis, the tag team hooked him into an LSP Half Back, an immobilization board designed for vertical extraction, then hauled through an 18-inch manhole in the bulkhead. How? “Very carefully,” Ricci explained. “A little bit of rescue ingenuity goes a long way.”
Outside, the firefighters outside readied to mechanically lift him up 13 feet out of the ship. Patrick Cannon raised the fire engine’s bucket.
Peter Loomis, suspended for a cause.
The ropes tautened. The sight of white helmet emerged, then a whole body. Loomis dangled in the air, smiling.