PHOTOS: The heads of several firefighters poked out over the edge of the highest roof of Intermountain Health St. Mary’s Regional Hospital, above the 12-story patient tower, Tuesday morning looking down at the sheer brick wall below them.
Throughout the morning, those firefighters practiced anchoring ropes to the building, attaching safety systems and ultimately throwing their legs over the edge of the building and rappelling down it.
These were the first group of Grand Junction Fire Department firefighters to go through a specialized training this week to prepare local first responders for rescues on the side of a building.
“We’re doing rope rescue training called pickoff rescues,” Grand Junction Firefighter Paramedic Josiah Brown said. “We’ll be going off the top of St. Mary’s using rope systems to lower a rescuer part way down the building to access someone that is suspended from the side of the building either from ropes or on scaffolding — whether they’re doing window washing, maintenance work, installation, things like that.”
These types of rescues are considered “low-frequency, high-risk incidents,” Brown said, which makes training for them important. He said they often practice the necessary skills, but rarely at the height of the St. Mary’s building.
Grand Junction Sentinel
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