FRIDAY FORUM: Baselines

You can’t see.  You can’t Feel.  Your pulse is 180+.  You think you or someone else might die.

This is the baseline.  This is the standard that we design gear for, because this is reality.  If your equipment or techniques don’t work in these conditions, they don’t work at all, because when you really need them these are the conditions you may very well be working in.  

This is a photo of the front of my turnout coat, where a carabiner lives on my mic clip to fulfill whatever need I deem it fit for.  I use this photo to discuss real world stress in a presentation about the 2018 LODD of Lt. Matt Letourneau, who was killed in a spontaneous interior collapse while fighting a rowhouse fire in North Philadelphia. In the midst of a very challenging extrication, I looked down at that carabiner, wanting to use it, but I was too exhausted to unclip it; what should have been an incredibly simple maneuver.  I clearly remember the thought, “I need that, but I’m so taxed, I need to save every ounce of energy I have.”  It was one of the most humbling experiences of my career…

This is where the rubber meets the road, and this is the mission of ARS.  Designing gear and teaching techniques that work when it gets real.  Our baseline is high.  Is yours?  Or does your equipment only work on the bay floor?