Photo By Petty Officer 2nd Class Zhiwei Tan | 191105-N-LG762-1094 YOKOSUKA, Japan (Nov. 06, 2019) Members of Commander, U.S. Naval...... read more read more
YOKOSUKA, Japan (NNS) - Yokohama City Fire Bureau presented a letter of appreciation to Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Japan (CNFJ) Fire and Emergency Services Department Nov. 5 in recognition of the training it received.
CNFJ Fire and Emergency Services Department has been teaching about Rapid Intervention Teams (RIT), a search and rescue team for firefighters who are trapped or incapacitated inside burning buildings, to Yokohama City Fire Bureau since October, 2014.
"Yokohama City Fire Bureau is the first Japanese municipal fire department to fully implement Rapid Intervention Team training into their fire operations at the beginner," said Adam Corwin, CNFJ Fire and Emergency Services Department assistant chief of training. "This training is designed for rescuing our own firefighters in the event a responder has an emergency while conducting firefighting operations.
This approach to firefighting is still new to Japan, but recent factors have made it necessary.
Historically the main concern of firefighters in Japan would be preventing fire from spreading between houses said Yuuhei Hino, CNFJ Fire and Emergency Services Department regional training officer. "Firefighters try not to risk fighting fires from the inside, but with new construction techniques, more and more firefighters will have to go inside to fight the fire."
With the increased risk of fighting fires inside, training has been prioritized for firefighters to prepare for worst-case scenarios during emergency situations.
CNFJ Fire and Emergency Services Department firefighters and Yokohama City Fire Bureau special advanced rescue team "Super Rangers", an elite RIT, trained together in hopes that in the worst-case scenario this training will help save the lives of their fellow firefighters.
Participants ran a gauntlet of different scenarios like having to escape from emergency conditions such as a flash over using a ladder, removing a downed firefighter from a narrow second-floor window, and searching for downed firefighters and moving them to safety.
It's a great opportunity for our firefighters, said Takanori Hibiya, Yokohama City Fire Bureau special advanced rescue team "Super Rangers" fire captain. "They learn those techniques not from Japan, but from the United States."
While this will have an immediate impact on the Yokohama City Fire Bureau, Hisato Hayashi, Yokohama City Fire Bureau executive director, hopes that this program will be the start of something greater.
"Today we are here to show appreciation for the training and facilities provided to us," said Hayashi. "When Admiral Perry came to Japan, he introduced the formal firefighting station program, before that we only had Edo period firefighting techniques."
Hayashi said he hopes the training will spread across Japan the same way the techniques Perry brought did.
Due to the success of this program, Yokohama City Fire Bureau plans to formally publish RIT training procedures in their training operations manual for use at their recruit academy and in training all their operations personnel. Additionally, other surrounding city fire departments, like Fujisawa City Fire Bureau, have requested training from CNFJ Fire and Emergency Services Department to integrate these concepts as well.
| Date Taken: | 11.05.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 11.07.2019 00:04 |
| Story ID: | 350823 |
| Location: | YOKOSUKA, KANAGAWA, JP |
| Web Views: | 207 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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