Pete Hall

Five minutes into a seemly routine fire in a small two family you hear a crew on the floor above you call a MAYDAY. It’s a quick transmission and you were not quite ready to hear it, you didn’t hear the details and there is no follow up….

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This is potentially one of the most stressful and challenging moments we can come across in our career. Hearing, or worse having to call a MAYDAY.
First up let’s deal with the stigma of even calling a mayday in the first place. We all know we work in an environment where peer pressure is at its highest, it’s what makes us want to improve ourselves, impress our peers with our skill set and knowledge. But could it hurt us? Could we be put in a situation that has all the potential to go bad and be reluctant to call for help at the fear of a bit of healthy ribbing after? Sure we could, sitting here reading a witty blog its easy to see that’s a bad idea, and a little (or even a lot) of teasing down the road is worth going home to our loved ones. Another reason we may not call is thinking we can fix the issue and get out alone. Wouldn’t it be better to have the help coming early and turn them away if they are not needed? The take away is, if we think we are in trouble, or could be in trouble soon, we should make the call. OK, I think we all get the message.

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Pete Hall

We never know what we are going to find ourselves doing here at CTR. We could be running boats in the Long Island sound, crawling through a deliberately collapsed house in Vermont or standing by to drag someone from a permit required confined space. Back in the spring however we got to take on a new job, one for which we had not been tasked with before, we stood by, ready to save Bacon!

Kevin Bacon and his friends (when I say friends, I mean the production company and staff) were filming a chase scene for the season finale of the TV show “The Following” in downstate New York. They had worked up an exciting stunt that involved a potential fall in the Croton River, and had nicely asked us if we could come play also. How could we say no to Kevin Bacon?

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Cliff Freer

Over the years we’ve had the opportunity to train in some great facilities.  We’ve been given access to a kiln in a concrete plant, a pulp digester in a paper mill and a 60 ton gantry crane in a container port, just to name a few.  We’ve also struggled to find good training sites to ensure that the training would be realistic, informative and challenging. With those lessons learned we started making plans to build a training facility that we could host clients in that would provide a realistic and challenging environment.

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Cliff Freer

There are a lot of great products out there. There are a lot of inspired, very smart people out there that have this knack for design and function that, well to put it simply, can make our jobs easier and safer.  That being said, we need to cautious about buying in to every new piece of equipment on the market.

Pete Hall

So today you’re riding the jump seat of Engine 6  and you take in a call for a “man down”, “no further info”. On arrival you see a utility truck parked next to a manhole with no one around. On further investigation you see two men slumped over at the bottom of the hole.  What do you do next?

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With an average of 67 deaths a year (1 every four days!) coming from confined spaces and almost 60% coming from would be rescuers, its clear that letting your guys dive into the hole is not the answer.

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So lets back up, what is a confined space?

Pete Hall

So you are paddling your IRB in some class 3 rapids and suddenly things go sideways, your boat flips. Thankfully the equipment is all secured safely to the craft per your Department’s SOPs. But now you find yourselves in a defensive position heading downstream clinging to an upturned craft. How will you right it?

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Ok, so this is not as dramatic as it all sounds, righting your craft can be done quickly and easily following a few simple steps