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Working at Height

Due to recent legislative changes and modernisation developments, Hampshire has implemented a comprehensive working at height strategy. This also includes policies for non operational issues but operationally the following structure applies:

All retained stations are trained in and carry a ‘Retained Rope Pack’. This enables crews to instigate work restraint, fall arrest systems and a very limited degree of rope rescue (really only securing a casualty).(photo)
All wholetime stations are trained in and carry ‘Wholetime Rope Pack’, which enables crews to instigate work restraint, fall arrest and a higher degree of rope rescue. The rescue capability extends to lowering and raising systems where casualties can be accessed and retrieved. A wholetime crew and Rope Advisor will always be mobilised to a retained incident if they instigate fall arrest or any type of rescue.(photo)
From within the USAR team a Technical Rope Section (TRS) is available to respond to more complex working at height or rope rescue incidents. This team have the capability and equipment to deal with difficult access incidents, extreme heights and specialist casualty care and packaging.(photo)
One of the three TRS leaders is also always available in an advisory capacity

Technical Rescue Section (TRS)

The TRS consists of twelve specialist trained and equipped members of the USAR team, four of whom will always be available. Three section members are designated TRS leaders or ‘Rope Advisors’. They all carry specialist personal equipment and Hampshire’s USAR support vehicle carries the remaining rope rescue equipment.

All other USAR team members have been trained as support personnel for the TRS members to assist in providing a safe system of work in complex situations.

The mobilising options include the following:-

telephone advice from the TRS Leader direct to an incident
attendance of a TRS leader to an incident to advise the crews already there
mobilisation of just TRS members to an incident
mobilisation of a full USAR section (11 people, of whom four are TRS) to fully support the TRS

Some specific pre-determined attendances also dictate when the Rope Advisors or TRS are mobilised.

The TRS is configured and equipped to integrate fully with the rope equipment carried by all stations; they carry further equipment and are trained to carry out more advanced operations than is feasible for station crews to achieve.

This strategy has been adopted to fulfil our legal obligations but also allow all crews to carry out some form of rope rescue. The major factor in this area is the training time required to ensure competence. This has resulted in RDS personnel being trained to be ‘legally’ safe but with limited rescue capability. Wholetime crews have a fairly good rescue capability for most situations and for anything above that the Technical Rope Section is available. The system also has different levels of training to match.

The Civil Protection Manager oversees the system with a group of Rope Pack Advisors who have advanced knowledge and training to deal with policy issues. All wholetime watches and the Training Department have Rope Pack Instructors who are qualified to train and assess all Rope Pack Operators (crews).

Regular meetings are held with the RPAs and RPIs to manage any emerging issues. Internal and external audits of the system have also been carried out.