Bridging Drills

[Frankie]

Hi,
   Can someone tell me what one is and how to do one?

F.

[Rich]

Frankie you seem to portray yourself as a Firefighter even a crew commander in one post so I am extremely dissapointed that you don't know what a bridging drill is.  This is a basic firefighting skill that if you were a ff you would have learnt at training school or at the very least covered during a probabtionary period.  Get your head in the training manuals and you never know you might come across it - clue: it has got something to do with ladders!!

[shaun9631]

Now this is interesting. Maybe "the new Nvq firefighter" doesnt have a bridging drill in their NVQ pack? As an "old school firefighter" as I am, it does seem a little odd for a firefighter to ask such a question, but is that me just being daft! I recently asked a fellow watch member, who is doing NVQs, what he would do initially at a high rise fire. The answer rocked me somewhat when he replied"its not in my NVQ portfolio to know". Not much help at 3am when you turn up to a flat on the 9th floor alight. Its obviously not his fault, but a glitch in the system? Hmm food for thought i guess.

[Frankie]

Ok, so it came across as a rather silly question. I am well aware it "it has got something to do with ladders!!". I am not a Crew Commander. And if you're so on the ball you'll realise that you shouldn't actually be doing bridging drills with ladders due to health and saftey unless the manufacturer has tested the ladder for that particular purpose. As for being a firefighter, yes I am. If I had to ask, do you think that I would have done a bridging drill before??

Now, I asked a simple question, may I please have a simple answer? or does everything in the fire service have to be a fight for information? or a soap box to highlight what's "wrong with the service"?

Simple answers only, on a postcard.

[fireftrm]

Sorry Frankie for seeming to be another pushing you into a 'fight for information', but as a Ff you should know where to find this out, I am extremely disappointed that you don't. The answer is in the training manual, the full drill is detailed there. I am not going to reproduce it here as it is not possible without the diagrams anyway.. Every station should have one, if not the service will somewhere.

PS the 'new NVQ Ff' will not do bridging as the drill is presently suspended as being unsafe. As to the Ff who said it wasn't in his portfolio to know - he is mistaken and worse still his assessor is obvioulsy c**p. The knowledge and understanding required is everything that a Ff needs to knwo to carry out their role in the FRS they work in, the assessor should knwo that and should be assessing against the role map int he context of the duties of that Ff, if their are high rise risks then the Ff MUST know them and the control measures. This is EXPLICIT in the NVQ - Units 6 (RA and controls/resources) and in 3 and 4 (technical knowledge definitley but also under H&S). There is no way that this should be overlooked. Feel free to PM me for futher information and advice on the way an NVQ should be run.

[Frankie]

Just to clarify to ALL and Sundry including my "helpful" friend RICH, I am a retFF I've been in less than two years, we get 2 hours a week on top of a 2 week initial course and a 2 week BA course. Thank you fireftrm I haven't seen a drill book kicking around that has one of these drills in. The book has plenty of valuable knowledge but not a bridging drill.

If anyone can email me a PDF or a book name etc then let me know on here and i'll send you my email address.

[kurnal]

The bridging drill has been suspended for a number of years due to safety concerns as Fireftrm points out. Its surely about time a decision was made - and the exact reasons why and in what circumstances it may be unsafe. Otherwise firefighters may be tempted to use it when operational circumstances dictate- and their dynamic risk assessment will be flawed because the potential hazards are not well known or understood. It may cover a range of rescue scenarios- bridging gaps between buildings, across ice, across water, unstable ground, across pits and shafts.

And Frankie- it is ancient history but I think I can scan a few pages from the old manuals or drill books if you want to see how it used to be done- of course all illegal techniques now but interesting none the less. mail me if you want me to look them out. I guess you may already know all this and may be  seeking to renew debate on the matter- if so best of luck !!

[Firewolf]

Cor blimey a man asks a simple quetsion and gets a raft of tutting huffing garble in reply!

Bridging drills haven't been carried out for yonks - so it's no wonder our friend here knows little about them!

And you so called "old school", 'seen it done it got the tee shirt ' experienced firefighters who tutted and huffed at him asking such a ridiculous question didn't know that it was considered bad practice these days?! tisk tisk

In answer to your question I don't think any of the existing training manuals now contain details of the bridging drill.

As someone else has already suggested the only place you may be able to get such details are the old fire service manuals.

Have to ask why you are intrested in the drill though - I strongly advise you not to try it, but thats my opinion only!

[fireftrm]

Fire Service Training Manual First edition December 1994 pages 17-19 covers bridging of 9, 10.5 and 13.5m ladders. Drills L6 and L7. these were withdrawn in the later versions, the mopst recent of which, 2004, is Volume 4 of the training manual. Bridging drills should not be carried out.

[Rich]

Well a few ruffled feathers hey!  Must be the hot weather!  Well this 'practice' may have been removed from the training manual, but would you still do it at an incident?  I would suggest so.  I have used this method several times without problem.  Just because it has been removed from the training manual doesn't mean we don't do it in the real world.  

Frankie, I apologise for expecting that at least someone on your station would know what a bridging drill is - did you not ask?

Now that you know what it is do you think it will help you as a ff (if you were allowed to do it)?

[Firewolf]

I give up !

[steve walker]

When is a ladder considered bridged?

If I pitch the 135 onto the 2rd floor window cill from about 7 meters away it will be at about 45 degrees. Is this a bridge?

[fireftrm]

No!

A bridge is when it is horizontal, or almost. Seems that the answer is in the title - how many bridges do you know of that are at 45 degrees? None that I can imagine. Any that angle, or greater, are either stairs, or ladders

Might I ask, as an aside, just why you would be pitching the 13.5m ladder to the second floor sill from 7 metres away?

[Mike Buckley]

I remember an old definition of the abilities required of a fireman (Massey Shaw I think) that he had to be able to get to the top of the chimney and to the bottom of the basement with or without the use of the intervening structures of the building, using the whatever was available to him and to take his equipment with him.

I always worked on the principal that it may be necessary to push people and equipment to the limit in order to save life and property, the art of fireground command was to know where the limit was and how close you could go to it.

I trained on bridging drills and fortunately never had to use them, in the same way I trained on carrydown and never used that either.

The whole thing about the operational FRS is that it deals with emergencies and by definition it does not know what is going to happen.

The emphasis should be on solving a problem such as how do I get people and equipment to where they need to be in the safest manner and making sure they are trained to do it. Not banning a drill and leaving it to people to improvise from dim memories.

[steve walker]

No!

A bridge is when it is horizontal, or almost. Seems that the answer is in the title - how many bridges do you know of that are at 45 degrees? None that I can imagine. Any that angle, or greater, are either stairs, or ladders

Might I ask, as an aside, just why you would be pitching the 13.5m ladder to the second floor sill from 7 metres away?

I think the point about bridging a ladder is that it behaves in a different way to the optimum pitch. A horizontal ladder has certain characteristics in the way it reacts to a person using it and in its ability to support a load. This, to me, is the important point about bridging. I would suggest that a ladder at 45 degrees would have some similar characteristics to the horizontal ladder.

To answer your aside: it might be necessary. Perhaps crossing basement wells, railings, parked cars etc.