Firefighter Survival Pocket Tools

A significant link in the chain of fireground survival is to "have a plan" to respond to the various unexpected events that lead to Mayday situations.  Part of your plan should be preparing yourself to initiate either your own self-rescue or the rescue of a crew member once the Mayday has been issued and RIT is on the way.  What tools do you carry in your pockets to help initiate that process?  There are many options.  Here are some suggestions...First, carry your own fire-service rated flashlight.  Light inside the hostile fire environment is invaluable, especially when lost and/or trapped.  Second, a good door choke.  Doors of all kinds are one of the most frequent & frustrating obstructions we encounter (think of the issues they create with just hose line deployment).  Third, a 15' section of webbing with a life safety caribener attached to one end.  Webbing has many life safety uses such as firefighter drags, rescuing a downed firefighter up out of a collapsed floor, etc.  Fourth, a personal escape rope of a length of your choosing.  I carry 50' (this length will allow me to bail out of a fourth or fifth floor window which covers most of the residential and some commercial buildings in my city).  I can also utilize this rope for large area search (if necessary).  Lastly, I strongly recommend, a good, substantial pair of wire cutters with a piece of either webbing (as pictured) or rope attached to both handles.  The idea is to store the cutters upright in your right bunker pants pocket with the webbing hanging just out of the pocket (as pictured).  The rationale behind this setup is...remember the process of disentanglement from your entanglement training...as a last ditch effort to disentanglement we were taught remove the SCBA.  When you remove the SCBA, we were taught to grasp the left SCBA harness shoulder strap and never let go (remember this was for maintaining orientation to the harness for re-donning and so that we did'nt drop the SCBA through the floor).  Therefore, if you are in this worse case scenario, the only hand left to cut with is your right hand, obviously, it is easier to reach down to the right pocket than it is to reach across your body to the left pocket.  Leaving the end of the webbing hang out of the pocket eliminates the need to manipulate the flap of the pocket and reach into the pocket and fish around inside the pocket trying to grab the cutters.

I hope these suggestions are helpful to you.  Remember, one of the keys to surviving a fireground emergency is being well organized, educated, trained, proactive (not reactive), and make sure you "have a plan" to react...expect the unexpected!! STAY SAFE!!