Fire Chief's Report ¬– Rapid Extraction Module teams rescue firefighters

Steve Abbott

North County Fire Protection District

The North County Fire Protection District in September deployed its brand new Rapid Extraction Module (REM) team to several fires in the Crater Lake National Park area in Oregon.

REM Teams are units that can be assigned to large campaign fires. Teams like these are a newer addition to the wildfire arena and the intent of this team is to have firefighters available with equipment and training to rescue other firefighters that are injured while operating in areas not accessible by conventional means (vehicles or helicopters).

Teams like these carry a large compliment of technical rescue gear to navigate low angle, high angle, and even vertical rescue. They work in conjunction with fire line paramedics and hand crews to treat and rapidly extricate injured firefighters to waiting air or ground ambulances, who in turn complete the transport to the appropriate hospital given the extent of the injury.

North County Fire is one of the few fire agencies in the state that equips such teams, which it maintains given the propensity for technical rescue incidents within our jurisdiction.