Over the past few weeks the Honey Brook Fire Company hosted a 16 hour Rapid Intervention Team Course that members from Honey Brook, Martins Corner, Modena, Twin Valley and Sadsburyville attended. In 2010 there were 87 Firefighter fatalities in the United States, of those 22 died while engaging in activities at the scene of a fire.

Rapid Intervention Teams or RIT is a tactic commonly used today that dedicates a group of firefighters at a structure fire, technical rescue or other high risk incident to be dedicated to rescuing a FF should they declare a MAYDAY. Mayday's can be declared for any number of reasons ranging from a FF having a medical emergency, becoming trapped, disoriented, lost, separated from their crew or having an equipment malfunction. If a MAYDAY is declared, it becomes the job of the RIT to extract the FF from the entrapment/hazard and get them to EMS crews in a safe environment.

Throughout the course members learned the responsibilities of a RIT Team, each member's position, and techniques for extracting firefighters from a structure using lessons learned. Some of the drills involved extracting members from a 2nd story window, removing a FF from a hole in the floor (Nance Drill), removing FF's from a high window in a room with limited space (Denver Drill), taking a FF up and down a flight of steps and general drags and carries.

Congratulations to the following members for completing the course:

Fire Chief Barry Messner, Jr.
Captain Levi E. Stoltzfus
Lieutenant Aaron Stoltzfus
FF2 Aaron King
FF2 John King
FF2 Ivan King
FF2 Amos King
FF2 Reuben J. Stoltzfus
FF2 Dave Delrossi
FF3 Joey Bellon
FF3 Dan Mellinger

**Photos courtesy of Tralaina Blankenship