Rescue Service - Specialized Rescue Operations
Rescue Service - specialized rescue operations
This domain tests technical rescue thinking: vehicle extrication, confined space, water, height and rope, trench and structural collapse. The exam rewards rescuer safety and stabilization before access, not speed.
Core rules
- Size-up first - number of patients, hazards, access and egress, resources, and whether specialist teams must be called. Rescue is a team activity; a solo entry is a liability.
- The rescue sequence - assess, secure and stabilize, gain access, disentangle, extricate, treat and transport. A stabilized vehicle, trench or space is what makes a safe extrication possible.
- Vehicle extrication - chock and crib the vehicle, switch off the ignition, disconnect the battery, manage glass, then displace doors or roll the dashboard. Keep manual in-line stabilization and extricate along the patient's long axis.
- Confined space - work to a permit, test the atmosphere before entry and continuously: oxygen 19.5–23.5%, flammables below 10% LEL, carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulphide within limits. An attendant stays at the entry with a retrieval line. Never use a filter mask in an oxygen-deficient space.
- Water - reach, throw, row, go. Untrained rescuers do not enter the water; use flotation and a line.
- Rope and height - redundant anchors, a belay, helmet and gloves.
- Trench - never enter unsupported; spoil heaped at least a metre back from the edge; shoring before entry.
Worked example
A car rests on its side with the driver trapped. Reasoning: stabilize the vehicle with cribbing, ignition off and battery disconnected before anyone reaches in. Gain access through the rear door, control the glass, maintain in-line stabilization, then extricate along a long axis once the vehicle is stable - treating life threats during the rescue, not afterwards.
Traps that cost marks
- Entering an untested confined space, or trusting one reading taken at the entrance.
- Pulling a patient through a window instead of creating a proper path.
- Standing on the spoil pile of a trench.
- A single anchor with no belay.