In the early-morning hours of Friday, July 10, 2009, vacationers and commuters attempting to escape from Long Island were presented with an astounding image. Visible from the westbound Cross Island Parkway, just past Fort Totten, was 50 feet of flames, originating approximately 10 feet below the roadway and extending 40 feet above the roadway of […]
Search operations are the foundation of FDNY collapse rescue. If victims can’t be located, then they cannot be rescued. It is imperative that every piece of equipment in the FDNY arsenal be considered during a collapse search and rescue operation. Understanding all available search methods and devices that can be used is essential to collapse […]
On January 12, 2010, at approximately 1653 hours EST, Haiti’s ground shook for the first time in more than 240 years with a magnitude 7.0 earthquake. What followed during the next hours, days and weeks, can only be described as both predictable and miraculous. Shortly after the earthquake, NY-TF1’s Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) team […]
This article focuses on some of the search operations and tactics employed by New York Task Force 1 (NY-TF1) during the Haiti earthquake deployment. Search operations are the foundation of a US&R Task Force mission. In the simplest terms, if victims can’t be located, they can’t be rescued. US&R Task Forces must be able to […]
If you are a baseball fan, you will never forget the 1989 World Series in San Francisco, California. The Loma Prieta earthquake occurred during the warm-up for the third game of the World Series, featuring the Oakland Athletics and the San Francisco Giants. Images of collapsed buildings and highways, along with uncontrolled fires throughout the […]
The City of New York has numerous bodies of water–rivers, lakes and the Atlantic Ocean–that present the potential for water emergencies, including drowning. Water recreation–including boating, jet skiing and kayaking–passenger ships, cargo ships, planes, helicopters and suicidal emotionally depressed persons (EDPs) dictate the need for FDNY rescue divers. Before the SCUBA program was initiated, water […]
This past year, the FDNY responded to two major water incidents. (See “Airbus in the Hudson Results in a Happy Ending,” by Deputy Chief James D. Daly, Jr., and Battalion Chief Michael Buckheit, on page 4, and “Air Tragedy Above the Hudson River,” by Deputy Assistant Chief Ronald R. Spadafora and Deputy Chief Daniel Donoghue, […]
A tranquil, sunny, summer Saturday was marred shortly before noontime on August 8, 2009. A fixed-wing private aircraft–leaving Teterboro Airport and headed for Ocean City, New Jersey–with three members of a Pennsylvania family collided over the Hudson River with a Liberty Tours helicopter– carrying a pilot and five Italian tourists, including a family celebrating a […]
In the early-morning hours of Friday, July 10, 2009, vacationers and commuters attempting to escape from Long Island were presented with an astounding image. Visible from the westbound Cross Island Parkway, just past Fort Totten, was 50 feet of flames, originating approximately 10 feet below the roadway and extending 40 feet above the roadway of […]
Search operations are the foundation of FDNY collapse rescue. If victims can’t be located, then they cannot be rescued. It is imperative that every piece of equipment in the FDNY arsenal be considered during a collapse search and rescue operation. Understanding all available search methods and devices that can be used is essential to collapse […]
On January 12, 2010, at approximately 1653 hours EST, Haiti’s ground shook for the first time in more than 240 years with a magnitude 7.0 earthquake. What followed during the next hours, days and weeks, can only be described as both predictable and miraculous. Shortly after the earthquake, NY-TF1’s Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) team […]
This article focuses on some of the search operations and tactics employed by New York Task Force 1 (NY-TF1) during the Haiti earthquake deployment. Search operations are the foundation of a US&R Task Force mission. In the simplest terms, if victims can’t be located, they can’t be rescued. US&R Task Forces must be able to […]
If you are a baseball fan, you will never forget the 1989 World Series in San Francisco, California. The Loma Prieta earthquake occurred during the warm-up for the third game of the World Series, featuring the Oakland Athletics and the San Francisco Giants. Images of collapsed buildings and highways, along with uncontrolled fires throughout the […]
The City of New York has numerous bodies of water–rivers, lakes and the Atlantic Ocean–that present the potential for water emergencies, including drowning. Water recreation–including boating, jet skiing and kayaking–passenger ships, cargo ships, planes, helicopters and suicidal emotionally depressed persons (EDPs) dictate the need for FDNY rescue divers. Before the SCUBA program was initiated, water […]
This past year, the FDNY responded to two major water incidents. (See “Airbus in the Hudson Results in a Happy Ending,” by Deputy Chief James D. Daly, Jr., and Battalion Chief Michael Buckheit, on page 4, and “Air Tragedy Above the Hudson River,” by Deputy Assistant Chief Ronald R. Spadafora and Deputy Chief Daniel Donoghue, […]
A tranquil, sunny, summer Saturday was marred shortly before noontime on August 8, 2009. A fixed-wing private aircraft–leaving Teterboro Airport and headed for Ocean City, New Jersey–with three members of a Pennsylvania family collided over the Hudson River with a Liberty Tours helicopter– carrying a pilot and five Italian tourists, including a family celebrating a […]
