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Collapsed Structure Rescue Class 2003

 

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Overview

In August of 2003 the NASA Ames Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team conducted its annual advanced Collapsed Structure Rescue Class. It was a six-day ~70-hour class. This year, 30 students were selected from the hundreds of students and instructors that have participated in the class over the last 11 years. All participants were selected based on experience, knowledge, and skills.

Students came from as far away as Delaware, Virginia, and North Carolina with the majority of them coming from the eight California US&R task forces. The participating rescue specialists are typically considered to be some of the best in the country.

This class was different from previous classes conducted in a couple of ways. The most important difference, and the primary reason for just inviting prior students and instructors, was that we were taking this opportunity to revamp the class. In light of the added difficulties posed by Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) in the collapsed structure environment and as a result of knowledge gained responding to the World Trade Center disaster, we felt that the prudent thing to do would be to get the experts back together to update our program. There were no "students" in this class with a limited number of instructors. For the most part we were all be participants. David Hammond, FEMA's senior Structural Engineer, and Holly Stone, Structural Specialist, CA-TF3, were two of the few instructors.

The final scenario was also a little different. It was a two-day, 24-hour (total) exercise. The second day included support from California Task Force Three. It also included a major WMD element. We had well over one hundred responders participating in the final scenario.

Sponsors

While this class is typically sponsored by NASA Ames, this year NASA Ames, NASA JPL, and California Task Force Three (CA-TF3) sponsored the final scenario. Approximately 30 members of NASA DART are currently members of the California Office of Emergency Services/FEMA's CA-TF3. JPL has an emergency response team that is somewhat similar to DART. NASA Ames and its partners wanted to use this opportunity to highlight how important technology development is to the emergency responder.

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The Collapsed Structure Rescue Class of 2003.

The Collapsed Structure Rescue Class of 2003

Click on a picture of the activities below to see an enlarged view.

Day 1 Activities

Day 1 Activity Pictures
Bob Dolci welcoming the participants and giving a briefing to the day ahead. David Hammond giving a presentation on Structure Awareness. Teamwork in the saw shop. Planning out the construction of the shores. Pre-building shores before installing in tight quarters.
Adjusting the shore to stabilize the aircraft. Installing the shore. Installing the gussets. The airplane is shored and well stabilized. Planning the shore.
A horizontal shore between two structures. Adding the finishing touches. The final horizontal shore ready for review. Building a vertical shore inside a small room. Mark Tangney reviewing the results.
Everyone reviewing the vertical shore.        

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Day 2 Activities

Day 2 Activity Pictures
Chief Dolci describing the day's activities. The class is intently listening. The squad leaders receiving their assignments. Designing the assigned shores. Heading to the collapsed structure site.
Building part of a horizontal shore before installing it. Teamwork in the trench. Using a palm nail driver to build the shore. It sure takes a lot of people to make sure the shore is level. Squad A and their horizontal shore.
John Preston taking notes to update the training course material. Starting on the offset horizontal shore. Progress. The shore is starting to take shape. Squad C and their offset horizontal shore.
Pre-building the basic parts for a vertical shore. Building the vertical shore. Ah, where does this extra piece of wood go? Squad B and their offset vertical shore. Building another offset vertical shore.
Measure twice and cut once. Squad D and their offset vertical shore. Chief Dolci reviewing the Offset vertical shores. Testing the offset horizontal shore under pressure. Roger is listening to the sound of the hammer on the boards under stress. Building a Tee vertical shore for the next day. Too bad someone gave the measurements two feet too tall.

Quicktime movies of the Day 2 Horizontal Shore load tests:

Squad A's
Horizontal Shore
load test
Squad A's Horizontal Shore load test.
Squad C's
Offset Horizontal Shore
load test
Squad C's Offset Horizontal Shore load test.

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Day 3 Activities

Day 3 Activity Pictures
Building vertical shores under the shadow of the 75-ton crane. The portable saw stations at work. Assembling the shore. The Tee vertical shore is almost ready. Building the vertical shore under the load.
Applying the heavy load until the breaking point. The shore has failed. Note the stresses put on the wedges. A close up of the force applied to the wedges. The nails pulled out and the header is clearly stressed. The weakest point in the shore was the knot in the 4X4 post.
The wedges on the right failed and allowed the load to shift. Close up of the failed wedges. Working on the rubble pile to creatively shore up the concrete. More stabilizing of the terrain. Note the expanding foam. The use of the recycled plastic wedges and expanding foam to stabilize the concrete.
Roger Miller describing the Petrogen cutting torch. A demonstration of how the Petrogen torch can cut through inches of steel.      

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Day 4 Activities

Day 4 Activity Pictures
Cutting through a simulated floor with a concrete circular saw and boring drill. This concrete is tough. It takes a lot of effort to breach it. Multiple breaching efforts going on. Attacking the 8 inch thick vertical walls. Core drilling the corner points of the breach.
Using the concrete chain saw. Using jackhammers to break up the cement. Jack hammering is tough work. Note the sling from above to help support the weight of the jackhammer. Using the Petrogen cutting torch to remove the re-bar. Plunge cutting with the concrete chain saw.
It takes teamwork to get through this wall. Another crew working on the wall. That jackhammer is heavy. Slow work, but progress is being made. Working on the metal pan floor slab.
Shoring up the floor slab with oversize Lego type blocks before starting to breach the lower floor. Talk about tight spaces to work in! This is hard work. Using the concrete circular saw to cut a opening in the bunker. Punching through.
The door is finished and ready for occupancy. Lifting a large block of concrete for removal from the bunker top. Just roll it down the ramp. Roger Miller discussing the new round air bags. Stacking the air bags together.
Using the air bags to move the concrete block. The round air bags shifted during the inflation process.      

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Day 5 Activities

Day 5 Activity Pictures
The call has come in and the two-day exercise has begun. Discussing the approach to the incident. Establishing the equipment cache. Checking out the search camera. Approaching the simulated collapsed structure.
Setting up logistics. The DART command post. Inside the command post. The HazMat team has arrived and is setting up. Briefing the HazMat team.
The responding teams interviewing the incident site representative. Dealing with the first victim found. Checking a room with the search camera and testing air quality. Search markings on the wall indicating the progress of the building search. Lynne Engelbert and Lucy searching for victims.
Lucy alerts on a survivor in a concrete pipe. The HazMat equipment is set up and ready to go. The HazMat entry team suiting up to go in. The HazMat entry team working the site. Decontaminating the entry team.
Shoring up a window. Pre-building shores needed inside. Logistics personnel discussing the situation. The first shores are going in place. The shores are starting to take shape.
More work on shoring up the collapsed ceiling. Entering the structure from the chimney. Breaching a wall inside the building with a concrete chain saw. Using a concrete circular saw on the wall. The rescue crew brings supplies to where they are needed, including ventilation.
Working in the hole. Night is falling, but the rescue work continues.      

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Day 6 Activities

Day 6 Activity Pictures
It's a new day and the squads are ready to go. The command post has everything under control. DARTCOM is on site and ready to assist with communication. DARTCOM's portable power generator is up and running. Working in a very tight space.
Shoring the ceiling in the basement. HazMat preparing to respond. HazMat brings a simulated "victim" to decontamination. The simulated "victim" undergoes non-ambulatory decontamination. Decon foam team entering the exclusion zone.
Foam team mitigating the site. "King of the Hill", Chief Dolci, overlooking rubble pile. The search dog teams searching the rubble pile. Extricating the packaged victim. Extracting the victim from the rubble pile is slow and dangerous work.
California Task Force 3's cranes at work on the rubble pile. Lifting a concrete block. Moving the block of concrete. The exercise is done and time to return and rehab, the equipment. NASA Ames research engineers demonstrating their technology related to rescue.
More technology demonstrations. And more technology demonstrations. Heart monitoring equipment. Starting to relax after a long week. Do we have to listen to Dolci speak again?
The joy of receiving a certificate from Chief Dolci. The new barbeque sure worked well.      

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