The Effectiveness of Current Fire Fighter
Rapid Intervention Teams
Jim Carter, PhD

Steve Wright

INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND

DISCUSSION

The research problem investigated was to evaluate the effectiveness of current
Rapid Intervention Team protocols and then provide practical recommendations
that fire departments can use to improve current RIT policies and practices.

Fire service organizations should be aware of the limitations of a two person Rapid
Intervention Team.

The study specifically tried to determine the effectiveness of a 2 person RIT
team compared to a 4 person team during various downed fire fighter
scenarios. Some research suggests that current RIT teams staffed with only 2
fire fighters may be dangerously inadequate.

During a fire attack the initial RIT team should consist of at least 2 members. In
the event that a rescue is required, the Incident Commander should immediately
increase the original RIT team to 4 members.
The current study has found that it is more effective to divide a RIT team into
positions with specific areas of responsibility. A two person RIT team should have
a team leader and an air management position.

METHODS

Fire service organizations should consider using 1800L (45 min.) air cylinders as a
minimum cylinder size for interior entry operations.

Controlled RIT scenarios were conducted in the burn building at the JIBC Maple
Ridge campus using 80 students from the JIBC Career Fire Fighter PreEmployment program . During the RIT scenarios, times were recorded for
f
individual tasks and the total time to complete the scenario.

Fire Service Organizations should conduct RIT training at least annually, with a
focus on both theory and practical hands-on drills as part of fire fighter job
performance requirements.

In the second phase of the study RIT training scenarios were conducted in
career fire departments in Port Coquitlam, B.C. and Grande Prairie Alberta.
There were 80 career firefighters that volunteered to be monitored during the
RIT scenarios that were part of their normal training program.

RESULTS

APPLICATION
There is very limited data available on the effectiveness of current RIT protocols.
The objective of this research was to provide some general recommendations for
developing more effective and efficient RIT protocols, and to outline the limitations
person RIT team. Future research must expand
p
on these g
general
of a 2 p
recommendations and study the effectiveness of specific rescue techniques and
tools.

The average time for a 2 member RIT team to locate, package and remove a
victim was: 11.62 minutes (+ 1.77 min).

KEY REFERENCES

It took a 4 member RIT team 16.67 min (+ 1.02 min) to remove 2 victims. A RIT
team that started with 2 members and then asked for 2 more members took
22.03 min (+ 1.18 min) to remove 2 victims.

CARTER, J.B., BANISTER, E.W. and MORRISON, J.B. 1999, Effectiveness of
rest pauses and cooling in alleviation of heat stress during real and simulated fire
fi hti activity.
fighting
ti it Ergonomics,
E
i
42(2) 299-313.
42(2):
299 313

The average time for a 2 member RIT team to safely bring an unconscious fire
fighter up one flight of stairs (14 steps) was 1.66 minutes (+ 0.32 min).

NATIONAL FIRE PROTECTION ASSOCIATION STANDARD 1407 - Standard for
Training Fire Service Rapid Intervention Crews, 2009.

The average time for a 4 member RIT team to package and remove a downed
fire fighter through a window (3’ x 4’) was: 4.62 minutes (+ 0.76 min).

U.S. FIRE ADMINISTRATION. 2003, Technical Report Series, Special Report:
Rapid Intervention Teams and How to Avoid Needing Them, March

The average time for a 2 member RIT team to package and remove a downed
fire fighter through a window was: 6.71 minutes (+ 1.05 min). 2 teams were unsuccessful

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This project was funded by Worksafe BC and supported by the JIBC.

JUSTICE INSTITUTE OF BRITISH COLUMBIA