VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — More than 150 first responders from across the country are in Virginia Beach this week sharpening skills and learning new techniques on how to rescue victims in a building collapse. It’s the annual Structural Collapse Specialist School.
The training is being held at the Harry E. Diezel Fire Training Center on South Birdneck Road. It began on Saturday, Oct. 14 and wraps on Oct. 21 when trainees will put their skills to the test.
According to the Virginia Beach Fire Department, skills being taught in the weeklong course are the skills that Virginia Task Force 2 used when deployed to Surfside, Florida where they helped in the rescue and recovery efforts during a 12-story condo collapse. That was in June of 2021 when nearly 100 people were killed.
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Captain Jon Rigolo was recently given the “Senior Shield” for being the longest-serving firefighter in the VBFD.
He talked about new recruits learning from the more experienced firefighters.
“Many of the techniques we’re teaching them are lessons learned from previous deployments going all the way back to Oklahoma City, back to the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, more recently, the Miami condominium collapse.”
Firefighters will learn techniques like airbag operations, internal and external shoring operations, concrete breaching and breaking, and crane operations.
“I’m loving it. It’s a lot of fun. Lot a good work, lot of good training,” said Austin Turley, a firefighter with the Henrico County Division of Fire. “That’s the best thing you could ever ask for is have people that have not only been doing this for a while, a long time, but have been to these types of events before.”
Capt. Rigolo added, “Over the years, the skills have evolved. The equipment has evolved. The techniques have evolved.”
Ways to protect themselves while helping others have also changed.
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“If we’ve learned anything from the pandemic a number of years ago is that protecting the respiratory system is important,” said Rigolo. "So, dust masks, N95, half-face respiratory or even a full-face respiratory."
Turley, who’s been a firefighter for four years, is taking this building collapse training for the first time but also talked about protective measures.
“They teach us in the academy how to reduce our cancer risks with you know, showers after fires, we change our gear,” Turley explained.
The school will wrap up Saturday with a final simulation in which the students will be put through the paces and exercise what skills they learned throughout the training.
