Despite it being an inherently dangerous job, members of the LAFD Swift Water Rescue Team bravely risk their lives to save others. Facing treacherous conditions and unknown obstacles, they encounter a number of potentially dangerous scenarios when deployed on rescue missions. Watch as we travel with this elite team for training on the American River in Folsom California. It is an unprecedented and rare look at what they really face and just how unbelievably challenging their jobs actually are.
Hidden Dangers create high risk for LAFD Swift Water Recue Team
The biggest and most dangerous challenges for the LAFD Swift Water Rescue Team often come when torrential rain causes the Los Angeles River to swell and rage with fast moving currents and wild waves. That’s when they jump into action. Being prepared for that moment means these dedicated first responders have to put in endless hours of grueling training. On the American River, they sharpen lifesaving skills, perfect maneuvers and techniques, and bond as a team.
Lessons include, how to pluck a person from the water with a helicopter, repelling from bridges and restraining a combative and panicking victim. But before any lifesaving training measures are taken, the team must conquer the environment by mastering the rescue watercraft. Hidden debris and jagged rocks under the surface of the water are unseen dangers made even more perilous by crashing currents. An inventory of hard and inflatable rescue boats, Jet Skis, and SeaStrikes gives the team a powerful advantage. They also sport an all-important supply of personal safety equipment. But in a city as large as Los Angeles, the team can always use more.
LAFD Swift Water Team: “We are all equals”
During a morning briefing, the Swift Water Team coordinator punctuated one major point: saying there is no rank on the water. He explains why:
“In the swift water arena, your rank is basically your ability and expertise to perform in the water or on the watercraft. In a rank structure, like in the L AFD, you have firefighters and firefighter/paramedics , engineers, apparatus operators, captain I, captain II and battalion chiefs, and there’s a chain of command when it comes to operations on the fire side. But in the swift water arena, just because you’re a captain on the fire department, that doesn’t mean that you have more ability or knowledge than the firefighter sitting next to you. So in the swift water arena, we don’t want rank to get in the way of putting our best people out there to affect the rescue. So that’s why we are very, very adamant about no rank structure, so that we don’t have someone who’s a captain telling a more experienced water member, who might be a firefighter that, ‘no, this is the way we’re going to do it because I’m the captain.’ That doesn’t work in the water. That’ll only get people hurt or killed. So, we’re all equals. We’re all team members.”
When it’s a race against time to save lives, training, in conditions that often exceed what happens in real-life, keeps the team at the top of their game and ready for action. Swift water rescue is considered one of the most dangerous missions in the life of a first responder. Fortunately, this training is taken seriously by the LAFD Swift Water Rescue Team, which is already second to none!
By Patrick Stinson