Team Meeting Highlights
February 20, 2023
During our ICSSAR Monday evening meeting, we received a special training provided by members of the ICSSAR Ropes Team. The Ropes Team is a specialized segment of the ICSSAR. The Ropes Team is often activated for search and rescue operations that involves rescuing individuals from steep terrain. It’s important for all ICSSAR volunteers to be familiar with how the pulley system works and the verbiage used by the team. The verbiage is very important to ensure safe and effective extrication. There is always a preparatory command given to the team and then a secondary command that initiates the action. For example, the preparatory command, prepare to raise, informs the volunteers of the action to take. The secondary command is raise slow. It’s important for team members to communicate correctly. If a team member needs the rope to be tighter, they need to know the command word is tension. And if they need less tension, they should use the command word, slack. We also reviewed the proper utilization of a new piece of equipment called the CMC Clutch. The clutch allows the team to lower rescuers and equipment to the injured person(s) in a controlled manner. On the opposite, when it’s time to raise the people and/or equipment, the clutch acts as a progress capture, which basically means it helps us to control the lift by locking the portion of the rope that is pulled up.
#IronCountySheriffSearchAndRescue #ICSSAR #WeWillAlwaysComeToYou #SoThatOthersMayLive #RopesTeam
