Final report: the effectiveness of current fire fighter rapid intervention teams

The purpose of a Rapid Intervention Team (RIT) is to locate and rescue lost, trapped, and/or injured fire fighters at an emergency scene. The main research goal of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of current Rapid Intervention Team protocols and then provide practical recommendations that fire departments could use to improve current RIT policies and practices. This study set out to determine the effectiveness of a 2 person RIT team compared with a 4 person team. Results from the study demonstrated that a 2 person RIT team may not be able to rescue a downed or trapped fire fighter, and will not be able to rescue two or more trapped fire fighters.