There are several classes of descent devices. One way of classifying these systems is by how much the person descending must use his or her hands to operate the system, either to stop, to go, or both.

Each has advantages and disadvantages in rescue applications. Let’s look at each…

1. HANDS-ON ALL THE TIME

This includes the figure-8 and ATC. The primary advantages of these types of descent devices are that they are extremely inexpensive (typically less than $50) and very light weight. In trained hands, they are very versatile and can be used with a range of rope types and sizes. The light weight and low cost make them the choice of rock climbers. They are also used by professional rescue teams because the people on those teams often have a rock climbing background.

A figure-8 descent device.

The disadvantages of these devices are that they require significant training, the consequence of misuse is disastrous, they cannot be used if your hands are injured, and they are not generally suitable for work positioning because there is no “stop” function.

2. HANDS-ON TO “GO” AND HANDS-OFF TO “STOP”

These systems, which include the Grigri, EXO, ID, Escape Artist and F4, all require the use of your hands to initiate and control descent. One hand is needed to release the brake and the other hand must be on the rope to control descent speed. They also have an auto-stop function that allows you to stop and hold position by removing your hand from the brake to release it.

The Grigi is one example of a descent device with an auto-stop function.

The common mistake people make with these devices is thinking that descent can be controlled with one hand -- just the hand that releases the brake. Descending with only one hand is how people get hurt because descent speed cannot be controlled with the brake release.

3. HANDS-ON TO “STOP” AND HANDS-FREE TO “GO”

A number of companies make gear-driven centrifugal-brake devices that fall into this category. Centrifugal brakes control and limit descent speed, so they are called “controlled descent devices” rather than just “descent devices.”

The advantage of controlled descent systems is that the “go” function is hands-free, which also means that free-fall is avoided (barring system failure). These devices provide a level of safety unmatched by the previous two types of devices. However, these devices do not have a fail-safe hands-free “stop” function. Rather, these devices typically require the user to hold the unloaded side of the rope and pull on it to stop or slow descent.

Other devices in this class have one or two stopping mechanisms.

• Some provide a “pigtail” around which rope can be wrapped in order to increase friction. Stopping or slowing descent with a pigtail still requires holding the unloaded end of the rope with your hands.
• Other systems provide a cam cleat as a stopping mechanism, like that used on sailboats. The cam cleat is not used to slow descent. Rather, it is used to secure the unloaded end of the rope once descent is stopped so that position is maintained without slipping. The problem with cam cleats is that they are not designed for life-safety applications.  It is an unsafe practice to put a rope in a cam cleat and then take your hand off the rope.

4. HANDS-FREE TO “STOP” AND HANDS-FREE TO “GO”

The models in the DEUS 3000 Series are the only controlled descent devices in this category. These devices use a direct-drive centrifugal brake to control and limit descent speed, allowing for fully hands-free operation. Like the devices in the previous category, DEUS 3000 Series devices protect from free fall. However, that is where similarities with devices in the previous category end.

DEUS 3000 Series devices have a control knob and an additional internal drum brake that can be used as a throttle to slow or stop descent. Once the control knob is turned to slow or stop descent, it holds that position, or holds that speed, hands-free. Pigtails and cam cleats used in the previous category are brakes that should not be used hands-free. By contrast, the control knob that sets the drum brake on DEUS 3000 Series devices is designed to be used hands-free.

The advantages of controlled descent devices that are hands-free both “stop” and “go” include:

• Significantly increased safety at any speed
• Less training required for safe operation
• Improved versatility because one device can be used for any situation'
• These devices can even be used by people with badly injured hands

The controlled descent devices in the DEUS 3000 Series are designed to be used hands-free at any speed: stop, slow or go. This makes the DEUS 3000 Series the ultimate solution for safe, reliable and versatile evacuation, rescue and work.

Back when rope was made of hemp, you wanted the diameter of the rope to be at least an inch (25 mm) if you were going to use it for work and rescue. The great revolution in rope was the invention of thermoplastic polymers (nylon, polyester and polypropylene). Suddenly ropes of only 12 mm were not only just as strong as thicker hemp rope, they were much stronger.

In the last few decades additional advances in polymer chemistry have produced even stronger fibers with additional characteristics (Kevlar, Technora and oriented polyethylene). As a result, the ropes mountaineers routinely use for rappelling have shrunk in diameter from 12 mm down to 11 mm, then 10 mm, and some are now as skinny as 8.5 mm.

For rescue, traditional hemp rope needed to be about an inch thick.

Pros and cons of using skinny rope

In the working world, the primary advantage of skinny rope is weight savings. Basically, the more we are able to reduce the diameter of the rope, while retaining the strength and other characteristics we need, we are able to drop pounds from the weight.

Less weight to carry climbing a tower means a technician can climb faster and do more work. Skinny rope also makes it possible for technicians to carry personal evacuation kits when they climb so they can potentially get out of trouble quickly, on their own, rather than waiting for help.

Skinny rope made of polymer fibers, like DEUS Fire Resistant Rope, is stronger and much more lightweight.

How big is the weight advantage of skinny rope?

Let’s take a look at the weight advantage as we reduce the diameter of rope:

• 100 meters (328 ft) of 25 mm rope weighs generally about 110 lbs. (It’s “about” 110 lbs because ropes can be made with different densities; the denser the rope the more it weighs.) That’s a lot to haul to the top of a wind turbine. For practical purposes, no one is strong enough to climb with that much weight.
• 100 meters of 12 mm rope weighs about 26 lbs. That’s a huge weight savings. But 26 lbs of rope on top of the weight of all the other gear is still a lot of weight for the person who climbs.
• Most rope access technicians work with 11 mm rope, and 100 meters of 11 mm rope weighs about 22 lbs.
• Many of the controlled descent devices used for emergency evacuation and rescue use 9.5 mm rope. 100 meters of 9.5 mm rope weighs about 16 lbs. 

You can see the impact that rope diameter has on weight.  We’ve gone from a one-inch (25 mm) hemp rope at about 110 lbs. of weight, down to a 9.5 mm rope at about 16 lbs., based on 100 meters of length.

How low can we go?

DEUS Rescue makes an 8 mm rope that can be used for rope access along with emergency evacuation and rescue. 100 meters of DEUS 8 mm rope weighs a sweet 11.5 lbs.

DEUS Rescue also makes a 7.5 mm rope that is exclusively for emergency evacuation and rescue that weighs an amazing 9.8 lbs for 100 meters. Even more impressive: these skinny new ropes are safer and stronger than the big ropes used by our grandfathers.

DEUS offers a number of kits for escape and rescue, including kits for tower technicians (wind, telecommunications, electrical and other utilities), Industrial Escape and Rescue Kits and Firefighter Bailout & Rescue Kits. Each is built around a DEUS 3000 Series controlled descent device, which ensures that our kits are the safest, easiest, fastest and most reliable kits available.

Common sense tells you that personal escape or bailout gear is only useful if individuals carry it with them at all times. But how do you make that happen? Let’s focus on firefighters for this discussion…

We all know that escape or bailout emergencies are rare. Rescue emergencies are a lot less rare.

DEUS offers kits that are great for firefighter bailout because they are built around the only totally hands-free bailout system, in this case the DEUS 3100. We know that when an emergency happens, a firefighter doesn’t have time to think or wait. Even 10 seconds is too long to linger when your gear is burning, your helmet is dripping molten plastic and your air line is gone. The DEUS bailout kit will get a team of firefighters to safety faster and safer than any other system:

• No other system is as simple or fast – bailout is reduced to “hook and jump.” That's it.
• No other system has the redundant brakes that guard against free-fall.
  
• No other system can be used completely HANDS FREE. If you have serious burns on your hands, operating complicated bailout equipment might not be possible. Remember, with the DEUS system, it’s just “hook and jump.” The system does the rest.

Even with these advantages, firefighters – and workers in other environments – are hesitant to carry anything extra with them, taking on additional weight (even though our kits are lightweight and compact).

This is where the “Rescue” aspect of our kits comes in. In addition to being the fastest, easiest and safest bailout solution, the DEUS Firefighter Bailout & Rescue Kit is also a complete rescue kit that can be used to help a fellow firefighter or civilian. The only additional piece of gear needed is a loop of webbing to tie a hasty harness. With that and a DEUS Kit, you can rescue everyone in a room when rushing back through flames isn’t an option. Because the DEUS 3100 operates hands-free in bailout or rescue mode, it’s both safe and fast. In fact, getting people out a window is often preferred to working them down stairs that are full of smoke.

So, why should every firefighter carry a personal bailout kit, and why should that kit be a DEUS Firefighter Bailout & Rescue Kit? Because it’s not just about you – it’s also about being able to save the members you work with and the civilians you serve. Having a DEUS Kit with you all the time means you are always ready and able to perform a rescue without waiting for help.

Carry a DEUS Firefighter Bailout & Rescue Kit for yourself, for your brothers and for the people you serve.

This blog series has been written to provide guidance on how DEUS Rescue approaches safety and rescue training. This approach is built around six distinctly different but inter-related areas: Decision-making, Concepts, Skills, Repetition, Testing and Re-certification. Each of these steps contributes to the student not only knowing and understanding products and how to use them, but ensures that he or she is actually capable of using them in an emergency situation, when tension is high and conditions are less than ideal.

Missed our previous entries in this series on The Effective Training Program?

• Read Part 1 – Introduction
• Read Part 2 – Decision-Making and Concepts
• Read Part 3 – Skills and Repetition

In our last entry, we addressed skills and repetition. Skills refers to developing the competencies necessary to do the job – to use equipment properly, and to implement particular techniques, to undertake a rescue or escape. Repetition is a matter of practice, practice, practice to take learned skills to the point of automatic responses so they can be done essentially without thought. This is important given the stress of a real emergency situation.

For our fourth and final entry in this series, we will address two aspects of training that are about verification of results. That is, they are designed to help you, the trainer, understand how well the student has learned what you have been training and continues to maintain the knowledge and skills. Let’s look at Testing and Re-Certification…

Testing

Testing is what closes the teaching-and-learning loop. Testing is proof that lessons were learned and skills acquired (and, perhaps, to what extent). It is about demonstrating the skills and knowledge. But while most testing situations are about the student demonstrating this to the instructor, DEUS takes a slightly different approach.

The DEUS testing process uses a system of checks-and-balances – called a “two initial” approach – to establish proof of competence and confidence. Training is broken down into logical blocks and requires a “two initial” agreement – one from the instructor and one from the student – before moving on from one block to the next.

The trainer “initials” a block as completed only when the student can demonstrate that he or she has achieved a satisfactory understanding and skill level for that block. And, when students are confident that they have learned the block and can repeat it on their own, then the student can “initial” the block as completed. It is only when a block has the initials of both trainer and student that it is truly considered “completed.”

The DEUS “two initials” process assures effective training. Trainers cannot rush through training and assume students learned all that is needed. Classes cannot be run by demonstrating a technique with one student while the rest watch. Trainers have to verify, with each individual student, that students have learned both the concepts and the techniques. Students do not add their signatures until they agree that they understand and have the necessary skills to work safely and do what is necessary in an emergency to save lives.

Re-certification

Safety skills are like riding a bicycle. Once you know how, it only takes a short ride every year to keep the skill. But, let years go by without riding and skills get rusty. Skills to effectively balance, corner, avoid obstacles and brake can all deteriorate. That’s how people get hurt. Re-certification is about revisiting and ensuring that knowledge and skills are maintained year after year.

There is another important reason to re-certify. Both preventive and contingent safety techniques and equipment evolve and can improve over time. Regular re-certification keeps you up to date on the latest and best gear and techniques.

DEUS certifications are good for one year and annual re-certification is required. Re-certification isn’t necessarily difficult, but it does require proving competence.

DEUS Rescue is not a training company. However, we are in the safety and rescue business, and we do understand the importance of effective training in this world. We also understand that safety managers and their organizations have multiple goals and multiple demands on time, money and other resources. That’s why we work with our customers to develop cost-effective train-the-trainer programs so their people can use DEUS controlled descent devices, kits and accessories effectively. For more information, contact us.

This series on training hopes to answer the following question: what makes for the most effective safety and rescue training? As we introduced in the first entry, at DEUS Rescue we have an approach to training that is built around six distinctly different but inter-related areas: Decision-making, Concepts, Skills, Repetition, Testing and Recertification.

Missed our previous entries in this series on The Effective Training Program?

• Read Part 1 – Introduction

• Read Part 2 – Decision-Making and Concepts

In our last entry, we addressed decision-making and concepts. Decision-making is about working to avoid injury through preventive action, and being prepared to act with contingent actions when something goes wrong. They represent the mental aspect of our training – the “what” we want you to learn.

Now let’s look at Skills and Repetition in training – the “how” of our training. Here we address the best methods for ensuring that the methods and approaches to rescue and escape are truly learned. These two aspects of our training approach are closely related, as you’ll see…

Skills

Getting your hands dirty “on ropes” is the best way to develop the physical skills to safely perform escape and rescue techniques. Talking about it and watching videos – basically, using a classroom and lecture approach – is no substitute for the real thing when lives are at stake. Using sandbags or dummies is not truly effective either. DEUS training includes lots of hands-on time performing specific escape and rescue techniques.

With hands-on training, we aim to build fundamental skills so they become second nature. During emergency situations, two attributes become the enemy: panic and acting too slowly. Practice and confidence are the antidotes. Confidence is the result of really knowing what to do rather than wondering if you can do something, and practice is the best way to really know.

A few actual escape and rescue skills can be learned with sandbags or dummies, but not many. The only way to know that you can slither over the edge of a wind turbine with a rope is to do it. The worst time to discover that you don’t have that skill is when the turbine you’re working on catches fire.

For some techniques, there is simply no way to demonstrate or learn the skill with sandbags or dummies. Absolutely the only way to learn the skill is to do it yourself. An example is evacuation from a “floating edge” using an anchor that is at the level of your feet. Sound difficult? That because it is – but you can learn it through effective training and practice.

So ultimately, learning skills – whether they are fundamental or advanced – is ultimately about practice. The goal with practice is to turn new skills into learned behavior. The key is practicing the particular maneuvers or techniques over and over again. In other words – the key is repetition.

Repetition

You’ve heard the old joke – what’s the best way to get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice!

No one learns to play the piano by listening to a lecture or watching YouTube videos. Are escape and rescue techniques like playing the piano? Absolutely!

If you expect to do things quickly and without mistakes, you have to learn the skills taking the same approach as a pianist…or a golfer learning to hit the good shots out of the sand…or the marksman hitting the target. Any skill is learned through good old fashioned practice. That means doing it over and over again until you know it, and then continuing to do it over and over again until it is second nature.

Repetition builds muscle memory (as well as confidence), which is the basis of a behavior or task being “second nature.” In emergencies, muscle memory allows you to get past the nerves, heavy breathing, elevated heart rate and the harsh conditions of fire, smoke and height. It allows you to do complex tasks correctly and quickly because you do not have to stop and think things through. You can just act.

Fortunately, at DEUS, we also design our controlled descent devices to be simple to operate, even under the stress and harsh conditions of emergency use. This way the behavior learned through repetitive training is simple, which also helps reduce the risk of mistakes and slow movement during rescue.

In our next and final entry in this series we will address the “insurance policy” aspects of our training approach - Testing and Recertification. These steps help to ensure that the training actually produced the result sought – a skilled worker.

This series on training hopes to answer the following question: what makes for the most effective safety and rescue training?
As we introduced in the last entry, we take a particular approach to training at DEUS Rescue. This approach is built around six distinctly different but inter-related areas: Decision-making, Concepts, Skills, Repetition, Testing and Recertification.

Let’s take a look at two of these areas – decision-making and concepts.

Decision-making

There are two ways to think about safety: 1) Preventive actions that design the potential for injury out of the job, and 2) Contingent actions that minimize injuries if something goes wrong.

Of the two, “prevention” is preferred over “contingent.” Preventive actions require training to ensure those action steps are conditioned and automatic, and completed effectively. Before a job starts, and while work is being done, how do we do a “continuous safety analysis” to prevent incidents and injuries? How do you conduct an instantaneous risk assessment to make the best possible decision to save a buddy’s life, or your own life? 

Of course, we can’t be assured that prevention will always be effective. As a result, contingent plans are required. Contingent plans, and the techniques to execute them, require training too. In case of an emergency that requires putting into effect a “contingent” plan, what equipment and which techniques should be used?

Concepts

DEUS training is about understanding concepts and then putting those concepts into action. So, we teach the concepts of rescue and rescue equipment – in other words, we want students to understand the big picture of what they’re ultimately hoping to accomplish in a rescue situation, and how the tools can help them accomplish it.

To this end, we teach the differences between “escape” and “rescue.” We help people learn how each individual piece of safety equipment works, what it is good for and what other uses the gear may have. We also seek to explain the pros and cons of particular techniques, in addition to teaching how to implement them.

We will continue this series in the next entry, next week, when we discuss Skills and Repetition.

We like to believe that our equipment is the best in the world. We work hard to design, engineer, source and produce the very finest controlled descent devices, ropes, accessories and kits for safe, simple and reliable evacuation, self-rescue, assisted rescue, work and play.

But the equipment is only half the story. The value of any equipment, no matter how great it is, and regardless of how simple it may be to operate, depends in great measure on the competency of the person using it. This is especially true in harsh environments and in the stress and heat of an emergency.

In other words, is the user well trained? Safety training is intended to make proper care and use of equipment almost second nature, because adrenaline, nerves, injury and other forces at work during an emergency situation often impact thinking and recall. So the best training is that which makes deploying, rigging and executing techniques with a range of equipment a conditioned response.

Given this, one has to ask: what makes for the most effective safety and rescue training?

At DEUS Rescue, we take a particular approach to training. Our approach seeks to achieve the ultimate goal of maintaining a safe and effective work and rescue situation by developing safety and emergency decision-making skills. It helps ensure that people who use our equipment understand both equipment and techniques. It also ensures that students acquire both skills and muscle memory – that ability to physically do something almost without thinking. Finally, our approach is also designed to provide demonstrated proof that the student has been effectively trained.

So what is this approach? It’s built around six distinctly different but inter-related areas:

1. Decision-making
2. Concepts
3. Skills
4. Repetition
5. Testing
6. Recertification

In this blog series, we will walk through our approach to training, and we will address each of these areas in detail. Check back next week for part two.

As we turn the page on the calendar to 2012, it's time once again to make our New Year's Resolutions. So, here we go....

At DEUS Rescue, we resolve to work harder to make 2012 safe and prosperous for you and your businesses and departments.

We will work with our customers in every market, including the fire service, military, law enforcement, wind power, industrial safety, challenge course operations and more, so they can do their jobs with greater safety, and with greater efficiency. We will do this by continuing to develop new, innovative descent devices, accessories and tools that help make rescue and rigging easier and safer. We will make it our mission to assemble complete kits for safe, reliable escape, self-rescue, assisted rescue and work at height. We will provide effective - and cost-effective - training and support so their employees are prepared and knowledgeable in using our equipment properly, especially during emergency situations. And we will strive to exceed your expectations in every aspect of our business, including our products, our service and our expertise so your rescue and safety plans are easier and more effective, so your staff is safer and more productive.

In other words, we will continue to do what we always do.

Happy New Year.

On December 15, the US Occupation of Iraq officially ended. In 2011, we saw the deaths of Osama Bin Laden, Kim Jong-iL and Muammar Gaddafi.

But this should hardly suggest that the world is at peace. Throughout the World, conflicts rage on. Throughout Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, as well as South and Central America, many people woke up this Christmas morning to something all too familiar – the sounds and stresses of war.

This morning, more than 1.5 billion people, or about one-quarter of the entire world population, are living below the international poverty line. More than 900 million people will wake up hungry.

Today, about 450 million people wake up suffering from a mental illness in both developed and developing countries. Roughly 210,000 people will die from a drug-related cause.

Sobering facts on this Christmas morning.

Christmas is indeed a day to celebrate, and to join together with family and friends, to eat, drink and be merry.

It is also a day to appreciate our freedom, health and safety…and to remember those who may not be able to. 

Today, this Christmas Day, we pause to think of those in need throughout the world. And we remember those who worked in 2011 to help others in need – the men and women of the armed forces, the police, the fire service, plus industrial safety professionals…in other words, our customers.

Let’s also give special consideration to those who gave the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty. Our Happy Holiday is possible only because of the efforts of people who risk everything for the health and safety of others.

Thank you…and Merry Christmas.

Many companies do their escape and rescue training with sandbags or similar inanimate objects rather than real people. The argument for using sandbags instead of people is simple: Why put people at risk if you don’t have to?

Those with safety plans built exclusively on “assisted rescue” argue that “sandbag rescues” are all that is needed because you can always assume that the people you are rescuing are unresponsive, which means they act like sandbags.

The problem with this logic is that it assumes that “assisted rescue” is the only option. It’s not. In fact, in many cases, it is also not the best option.

Often, assisted rescues are slow and the “last man down” doesn’t have anyone to assist him. The best example to illustrate this is if a fire starts in the nacelle of a wind turbine. In case of fire, you have seconds, not minutes, to get out and down. In these circumstances, waiting for help to perform an “assisted rescue” can result in lost lives.

“Wait a minute,” you say, “our wind turbine technicians have the equipment to self-rescue in case of fire.” Yes, they do. Wind turbine technicians work in pairs. The rescue of the first person down can be done as an “assisted rescue.” What about the second person? The second person doesn't have anyone to assist him. Instead, he has to perform an “escape” all by himself. Unless you have actually done an “escape” in training, you will be slow to do it in an emergency. This delay can result in injury or death.

There is another problem with a safety plan built entirely around “assisted rescue.” Equipment designed purely for “assisted rescue” may not be appropriate for “escape.” The only safe way to perform an escape is to descend with your controlled descent device. That way, if a knot or kink in the rope gets sucked into the descent device, you have access to the device to fix the problem. Some descent devices used for rescue are designed to be attached in fixed position to an anchor so that you descend away from it during an escape. If a knot or kink in the rope gets sucked into the device during descent, you may be stuck. If fire reaches the rope you are hanging from before help can rig an alternate way to get you down, an unpleasant outcome is assured.

In your work, what is more likely? Is it a person falling who needs to be rescued where there is plenty of time to perform an “assisted rescue?” Or, is it a time-critical event like a fire that requires getting everyone out and down in a hurry? If time-critical emergencies are more likely in your work, training with people rather than sandbags will develop the skills necessary to get everyone out and down quickly enough to save lives.

What about the argument that training with sandbags avoids putting people at risk during training? At DEUS Rescue, we train with back-up belay using the DEUS 7300 back-up belay system. It works automatically, it does not require an operator to decide when to activate the system or to control descent, it is speed limited to protect from free-fall, and it uses beefy 12 mm rope. When the DEUS 7300 is used for back-up belay during training two things happen. First, no one gets hurt. Second, people learn the skills to keep themselves safe.

By reducing the risk of people getting hurt during training to virtually zero, training with people instead of sandbags increases safety.