Pittsburgh Drill

Written by Scott Barfield (Oak Hill Fire Department)

1. Pittsburgh drill
Rapid Intervention Team Drill
By Lt. Scott Barfield
TCESD 3/ Oak Hill FD.

2. Purpose
•The Pittsburgh Drill was developed by the
Rapid Intervention Training Associates
staff to force train your RIT to work as a
team.
• If any one of the team members that have
entered the obstacle course fail to give
anything but 100% the entire team will fail
the drill.

3. Set Up
•The obstacle course is 50 ft in length with
3 obstacles evenly spaced out to
encounter (under/over/through). The first
is a small wall breach (low profile), the
second is an A-frame (3 pallets screwed
together), and the third is a 10-12 ft tube
(three 55 gallon drums welded together or
wood chute 10' long and 20" wide square)
and another low profile

4. Instructions.
•. A section of 1 3/4 inch
hose is stretched from the
entrance of the course
through all 3 obstacles to
the firefighter victim at the
end (preferably a 150 to
175 lb dummy in fire
gear, SCBA, and
facemask on - rather than
a live victim, they will get
to beat up).
•A minimum of a 4 person,
to a maximum of 5
person team will enter the
course with face pieces
covered (wax paper
works great and
simulates a Smokey
vision).
•The catch here is the
team only gets a
maximum of 20 minutes
to complete this course

5. Cont.
•They have to
maneuver all three
obstacles to the victim
then work as a team
to bring the victim
back through the
obstacle course while
on air
•At the entrance to the
third obstacle (the
tube), two team
members will low
profile through the
tube to the victim
while the remaining
crew waits in place at
the entrance of the
tube

6. Cont.
•Once through the tube,
the condition of the victim
is that he has a good air
supply but is
unconscious. The two
team members must
prepare the victim for a
low profile back through
the tube using a handcuff
knot or girth hitch.
•The victim is rolled out of
their SCBA, the handcuff
knot is tied to the victims
arms or girth hitch to the
chest, victim SCBA is tied
off in front of the victim on
the handcuff knot rope
keeping the victim in a
low profile.

7. Cont.
•The rope has been
thrown back through
to the team members
waiting. These
members will pull the
rope with the SCBA
and victim back
through the tube.
•The two members will
now low profile back
through. Once
everyone is back
through the third
obstacle the team
works together to
maneuver the victim
over the second
obstacle (A-frame).

8. Cont.
•Send two rescuers over
the A-frame before the
victim so that they can
pull from the opposite
side, then onto the first
obstacle (wall breach).
•The team must send two
members through the
breach first to pull from
the opposite side. The
remaining team positions
the victim into the breach
and pushes the victim
through as the team
members on the opposite
side pull the victim
through.

9. Cont.
•The rest of the team
must get themselves
through the breach
and assist getting the
victim to the starting
point where the time
will stop.
•The victims face
piece must remain on
the face the entire
obstacle course. If it
dislodges, the team is
stopped to fix it
(which eats up time).

10. Cont.
•The team is on air through the entire
course.
•Spare SCBA or SCBA cylinders may be
kept at the entrance to the course and if
(sorry, when) a team members low air
alarm sounds, they must follow the course
hose back to the spare cylinder to change
out and get back into the obstacle course
to continue to help with the extrication.

11. Cont.
•The faster you change out, the faster the
team works as a group again. If you elect
to peter out and stay out, the team must
continue without you.
• If you elect to peter out and stay out, the
team must continue without you. If you run
out of air while on the course you will be
pulled off the team reducing their
manpower.

12. Cont.
•Once the clock hits 20 minutes the drill is
terminated regardless of where the victim
is in the obstacle course. The average
time recorded is 18 to 20 minutes.

13. The Drill Field
•Drill field lay out of the
course.

14. Wall Breach
•The lay out of the wall
breach.

15. A-Frame
•A-Frame set up.

16. Average Times
•A good time is 18 to 20 minutes.
•A great time is 16 to 18 minutes.
•An exceptional time is 14 to 16 minutes.
•Anything under 14 minutes is superman
status and you can come be my RIT
anytime.

17. Fastest Time recorded
•The current record time is 6:30 held by the
Yakima, Washington Fire Department.

18. Summary
•It's a training tool that teaches teams to
work together and share the load. It will
show you how important physical fitness is
in RIT operations so that we can rescue
our people and not recover them.

19. Stay safe...