Technical Rescue

Technical rescue refers to those aspects of saving life or property that employ the use of tools and skills that exceed those normally reserved for firefighting, medical emergency, and rescue. Members of the Chehalis Fire Department are qualified in Swift Water and Rope Rescue. Technical rescues will often require the need for multiple jurisdictions or agencies operating together to effect the rescue, and will often use the Incident Command System to manage the incident and resources at scene.

NFPA standards 1006 and 1670 state that all rescuers must have medical training to perform any technical rescue operation, including cutting the vehicle itself during an extrication. Therefore, in most all rescue environments, whether it is an EMS department or fire department that runs the rescue, the actual rescuers who cut the vehicle and run the extrication scene or perform any rescue such as rope or low angle, are medical first responders, emergency medical technicians, or paramedics, as almost every rescue has a patient involved.

Swift Water Rescue

The Swift Water Rescue team was founded in 2004. Today, the Chehalis Fire Department's team works closely with the Lewis County Sheriff's Department to provide hasty identification for the need for rescue and response.

Rope Rescue

The Technical Rescue team was founded in 1996. The team's capabilities include high angle rope rescue (removal and packaging of victims from the side of a mountain cliff or multi-story building and also building a tension high line for removing victims from building to building or across a large ravine) and low angle rope rescue (removal and packaging of victims down an embankment).

For more on Technical Rescue and the definitions of the many rescue disciplines, click here.