Monday, November 21, 2011

Anybody Wanna Take a Guess...

...at what these guys are doing?


I'll give you a few hints:

  • It does not involve exercise, stretching or anything like that. 
  • It is a critical part of an injury prevention program. 
  • Some of you may have participated in something similar, but were taught in a different fashion. 

For what it's worth, I have never done this, but I recognize the need for this action and think it's pretty clever.

Comment if you think you know what they are up to. Sorry, I don't have any prizes this time.

Thanks for reading,
Schmoe
Posted by at

5 comments:

  1. AnonymousNovember 21, 2011 at 9:35 PM

    Looks like they are practicing ladder bail technique before actually performing it on the ladder. Thus the safety harnesses and the angle of the ladder pictured left. Not sure what this would have to with injury prevention, more like firefighter safety.

    Thats my guess

    ReplyDelete
  2. BGMillerNovember 22, 2011 at 12:26 PM

    Well.....
    Given that all of the participants save one are rigged in what appears to be some form of field expedient climbing/fall arrest web harness and the nearest participant's helmet is labeled T1 which I'm going to assume denotes a truck company (tower/ladder as a straight ladder would be L1?) I'm guessing this is a "walk through" of a procedure for moving equipment on a steep pitched surface or a flat surface that has been weakened. Laying prone like that provides maximum surface contact so they wouldn't be concentrating their weight on any one area and creates maximum friction so they're less likely to slide. The position of the right hands makes me think they are advancing while holding a line attached to the equipment being moved.

    Mind you, I'm just a cook some this is a complete guess. And as long as I'm guessing... The FF in the black bunker gear is the instructor for this drill.

    BGM

    ReplyDelete
  3. JohnNovember 22, 2011 at 1:12 PM

    Practicing body positioning and how to place the hands on the rungs for a head-first ladder slide out a window?

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousNovember 23, 2011 at 9:13 AM

    Capt: Not a common task in our area but a guess would they be practicing deploying a fire shelter?
    Tim

    ReplyDelete
  5. Capt. SchmoeNovember 25, 2011 at 4:37 AM

    Good answers all. By now the follow-up post has been published and the correct answer is known.

    "Ground school" was not part of the curriculum when I was first exposed to this procedure, I am glad it is now.

    Thanks for the comments.

    ReplyDelete

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