NFPA (Fire) 1670 Historical

Enhance the safety of emergency personnel responding to technical search and rescue incidents with NFPA 1670.

Consider the many natural and manmade disasters of recent years: Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. The 2010 Haiti earthquake. The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

With events like these seemingly on the rise, NFPA 1670: Standard on Operations and Training for Technical Search and Rescue Incidents is more essential than ever. This document identifies and establishes levels of functional capability for conducting operations safely and effectively while minimizing threats to rescuers.

NFPA 1670 is a must for professionals in organizations providing technical search and rescue at the awareness, operations or technician level. It regulates incidents involving rope rescue, structural collapse, confined space entry, floodwater, urban search and rescue, mines, tunnels, and much more.

The fundamentals of technical rescue covered in this document include:

• Conducting hazard identification and risk assessments
• Planning for incident response (e.g. addressing rescuer safety, operational capability, and equipment and training needs)
• Determining the level of functional capability for a rescue organization that could be involved in a technical search and rescue incident

New chapters in the 2014 edition of NFPA 1670 address:

• Tower rescue: the hazards of removing ill or injured people from manmade tower structures
• Animal rescue: the risks of rescuing injured or entrapped animals, and the adoption of the PETS Act