China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
*
Published in Michael L. Madigan, HAZMAT Guide for First Responders, 2017
The first step in an extrication is to stabilize the vehicle to prevent aggravating the injuries of the entrapped and to protect rescue workers. This is done by stabilization tools: Hydraulic and nonhydraulic jacks—designed to lift the vehicle, so cribbing can be placed. A vehicle must never be supported by just a jack and must be supported by cribbing. One inch of cribbing must be placed for every inch the jack lifts.Buttress Tension System—a buttress tension system is used to stabilize a vehicle resting on its side or top. It may consist of a minimum of three 4 × 4 inch posts wedged between the vehicle and the ground, or it may be a system composed of metal rods and straps. The exact placement varies by the condition and weight of the vehicle as well as what the vehicle is resting on.Wheel chock—Wheel chocks are used to stabilize vehicles resting on their wheels. They can support vehicles of a 10%–15% grade. They are commonly constructed of aluminum, hard rubber, wood, or urethane plastic.Cribbing—Cribbing consists of wood or plastic blocks that are made in a variety of shapes and sizes.Pneumatic Lifting Bag—Pneumatic lifting bags are air-pressurized devices that lift objects. They come in three basic types: high pressure, medium pressure, and low pressure. They are usually made with a rubber exterior reinforced with steel wire or Kevlar. When deflated, they are about one-inch thick.Winch—Winches are mounted on vehicles and are typically faster, stronger, and have a greater pulling distance than other pulling devices. They are used in conjunction with chains or cables.
Terrorism Resources and Response Training
Published in Robert A. Burke, Counter-Terrorism for Emergency Responders, 2017
Terrorist incidents such as the Oklahoma City bombing, involving explosions in buildings with trapped victims, will surely result in the activation of one or more of FEMA's Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) teams. The teams are a component of the National Response Plan (NRP). Twenty-eight teams are strategically located in 19 states around the country (Figure 15.20). US&R teams, or “task forces,” are trained to assist with structural collapse as the result of natural or human-made disasters, including acts of terrorism. A complete listing of teams and their locations can be found in Appendix B. FEMA established the US&R Response System in 1989. When a Governor requests assistance from the President and the request is approved, task forces are activated or placed on alert for response to a major disaster within a local community. Teams have also been activated and sent to foreign countries to assist at American facilities or to assist the country itself with a disaster. Each task force must be able to have its personnel and equipment mobilized, and at the point of embarkment, within 6 hours of mobilization. Task forces are composed of 62 specialists and divided into 4 major areas of expertise: search, rescue, technical, and medical. Task force components are equipped with over 58,000 pounds of specialized search, rescue, and medical equipment, much of which is purchased with grant money provided by the federal government (Figure 15.21). Individual equipment includes communication, locating, rope, rigging, hauling, and pulling tools. Additionally, they carry with them shoring, structural movement sensing victim extrication, cutting, and drilling equipment. A medical team, composed of four medical specialists and two physicians, accompanies each taskforce. Medical specialists are usually paramedics and firefighters. The medical team is designed to bring the hospital emergency department into the field. They have all of the advanced life support equipment that would be available in an advanced life support ambulance. The following is a list of capabilities identified by FEMA for each task force within the US&R system: Physical search and rescue operations in damaged/collapsed structuresEmergency medical care for entrapped victims, task force personnel, and search caninesReconnaissance to assess damage and needs and provide feedback to local, state, and federal officialsAssessment/shutoff of utilities to houses and other buildingsHazardous materials survey/evaluationsStructural/hazard evaluations of buildings needed for immediate occupancy to support disaster relief operationsStabilizing damaged structures, including shoring and cribbing operations
Hybrid roof standing supports in underground mining: concept and behaviour
Published in Geomechanics and Geoengineering, 2022
Hongchao Zhao, Ting Ren, Alex Remennikov
The application of pumpable support systems in underground coal mines can date back to the development of the packwall for advancing longwall operations in European mines (Barczak and Tadolini 2008). The fabricated packwall was then developed to be the alternative secondary supports for conventional wood cribbing and concrete cribbing due to its cost effectiveness and easy to construct (Barczak and Tadolini 2005). From then on, a large amount of pumpable standing supports have been developed to prevent ground falls and other related fatalities in underground mines. These investigations on the critical parameters affecting the performance of pumpable standing support did demonstrate that the compressive behaviour of pumpable standing support is not only closely related to the properties of inner backfill material but also the behaviour of the exterior container (Batchler 2017). Compared with conventional infill material such as the foamed cement (aerated cement), Portland-fly ash cement and Portland pozzolana cement, the ettringite-based cement such as calcium sulpho-aluminate (CSA) cement is accepted by more and more pumpable standing supports due to its high water-to-powder ratio and designable settling time associated with sufficient compressive strength (Batchler 2017, Yu et al. 2019).