# DLA Installation Management Susquehanna conducts Confined Space Rescue Training with local and regional fire department personnel

/ Published Dec. 28, 2022
NEW CUMBERLAND, Pa., 
Defense Logistics Agency Installation Susquehanna, Pennsylvania’s Fire Department hosted a Confined Space Rescue Training event on the New Cumberland installation Oct. 26.

Nearly 40 highly trained fire department special operations personnel from across the region participated in the daylong event which featured several confined space rescue scenarios taking place throughout the day.

“This is an event we are hosting through our partnership with the South Central Region Urban Search and Rescue Taskforce,” said DLA Installation Management Fire Chief, Barry Shughart. “The training agenda includes five scenarios where rescue personnel will conduct emergency operations to evacuate injured or unresponsive casualties from confined spaces.”

According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, confined spaces are considered a physical hazard in terms of rescue and recovery operations.OSHA defines the three characteristics of a confined space are:
      - Limited Openings for Entry and Exit.
      - The Space is not Intended for Continuous Human Occupancy.
      - The Space is Large Enough for You to Enter and Conduct Work

The scenarios included rescuing a small child trapped underneath a building, an unconscious 56 year old male overcome with fumes while cleaning a vault at a sewer plant, a conscious adult male working in an outside vault near a high rack area with arm stuck in vault machine rollers, an adult male working on a steam line leak suffered an injury when a pipe ruptured in their face and suffered respiratory tract burns and was struggling to breathe with burns to his airway, and a victim climbing the ladder inside the water tower slipped, fell and hit his head and injured his leg. While hanging from harness on rope grab fall arrest system, he cannot self-rescue or climb down and has no strength left. He has been hanging for approximately 15 minutes yelling for help.

What makes this kind of training challenging is access to spaces. Most if not all the scenarios included enough working space for one person. Emergency personnel had to figure out how to get to the injured for rescue and treatment within a very short timeline.                 Defense Logistics Agency Installation Susquehanna, Pennsylvania’s Fire Department hosted a Confined Space Rescue Training event on the New Cumberland installation Oct. 26, 2022. Nearly 40 highly trained fire department special operations personnel from across the Pennsylvania South Central region participated in the daylong event which featured several confined space rescue scenarios taking place throughout the day.                            DLA Installation Management Susquehanna conducts Confined Space Rescue Training with local and regional fire department personnel                            Defense Logistics Agency Installation Susquehanna, Pennsylvania’s Fire Department hosted a Confined Space Rescue Training event on the New Cumberland installation Oct. 26, 2022. Nearly 40 highly trained fire department special operations personnel from across the Pennsylvania South Central region participated in the daylong event which featured several confined space rescue scenarios taking place throughout the day.            SHARE IMAGE:Download ImageImage DetailsPhoto By: DLA Distribution Public AffairsVIRIN: 221026-D-WD427-0839

South Central Task Force in partnership with, Harrisburg Bureau of Fire, Lancaster Bureau of Fire, York City Fire Department, DLA Susquehanna Fire & Emergency Services, and Manheim Township Fire Rescue, has created a multi-jurisdictional response element organized to provide a coordinated, robust, and reinforced response to complex search and rescue incidents in support of local first responders throughout the South Central Region and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Modeled in accordance with the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Urban Search and Rescue Response System, South Central Region Urban Search and Rescue Taskforce provides personnel and equipment to safety and efficiently conduct urban search and rescue operations. Their mission is to assist the authority having jurisdiction with complex technical rescue incidents, natural, or man-made disasters by arriving quickly enough to providing relief to initial first responders, fill extended operational mission capabilities, and ensure continuity of search and rescue operations until the arrival of additional state or national search and rescue taskforces. The taskforce is staffed and equipped to be self-sufficient for the first 24 hours and can work for multiple 12-hour operational work periods.

Urban Search and Rescue is the process of locating, extricating, and providing initial medical treatment to victims trapped in collapsed structures or rescuing or removing persons threatened or stranded in harm’s way by any emergency or hazardous event when they cannot remove themselves.

“Accidents can happen at any time and in any place,” said Division Chief Carl Weiss, “Sometimes accidents happen in hard-to-reach places, so it’s imperative to train to those scenarios so we are prepared to act when or if they do happen.”