They didn’t know it would be so hard to lift two bodies up from the banks of the West River.
Jerrad Pullen’s fellow firefighters from Squad 2 and Engine 9 were able to “save” him just the same.
The two Ellsworth Avenue-based companies were practicing rope-rescue skills when they sent David Tortora down some 15 – 20 feet over the Edgewood Avenue bridge Wednesday to “save” Pullen, then hoisted the pair back up onto the street.
They gained new experience to put into their emergency skills toolkit in the process.
Click on the play arrow to watch highlights of the “rescue.”
The nine firefighters involved in the practice session have worked with ropes before, dating back to their days at the academy. Wednesday’s session at the bridge was part of a regular biweekly training cycle.
Each time they set up in a new spot, the challenge is a little different, said Capt. Julian Garay. Hence the need to keep drilling.
Garay said Wednesday’s drill — sending a firefighter to rescue someone from the riverbank — also served as practice for descending, say, the face of East Rock to save a climber or an office building to retrieve a stranded window washer.
When they set up at the Edgewood bridge, the companies used both their trucks as anchors for the ropes. A nearby light pole served as a third anchor.
Capt. Garay (at center in photo) instructed the crew in constructing a “four to one” pulley system. It consisted of two pulleys and two ropes. That would make it easier for the firefighters to lift two bodies. Four hundred pounds feels like 100 pounds with the four-to-one, Garay said.
As Pullen, a two-year veteran of the force who loves his job, waited by the river bank …
… the crew attached two lines to “rescuer” Tortora, who’s been in uniform for 12 years.
They lowered him with no problem to the ground below the bridge …
… where Tortora placed a rope around Pullen.
Four firefighters on Edgewood Avenue pulled, and pulled, and pulled …
… slowly raising the entwined pair in the air. It took a few minutes.
“Watch your head, Dave!” one of the firefighters called as the helmeted pair approached the concrete bridge.
“What are they doing now, Phil? I’d have bled to death,” Pullen joked at one moment of limbo.
“That was harder than I expected,” another firefighter declared as Pullen arrived safe, sound, and celebratory.
Reviewing the rescue, Capt. Garay said he, too, expected the four-to-one to allow for an easier pull. It does take more strength to pull up bodies suspended in the air than along a slope or a building wall that can bear some of the weight, he noted.
In a real emergency, more than two companies would have responded to the rescue, Garay said. Six to eight firefighters would have been pulling the ropes. One lesson of Wednesday’s “rescue”: If for some reason only four firefighters are on hand, they can still do the job.