Most of us feel safe in the world because of the way our military, fire, search and rescue and other highly skilled emergency personnel go about performing their duties every day. With that being said, the world is anything but safe as we are constantly faced with such threats as fires, natural disasters, wars, terrorist attacks and other scenarios which can lead us directly into harm’s way. One of the scariest scenarios and biggest challenges for rescuers when any of these events occur are people becoming trapped in buildings or other collapsed concrete structures. When this happens, it’s critical to get to the victims as quickly as possible to increase their chances of survival; that’s where Raytheon’s Concrete-Breaching Rescue Tool can often mean the difference between life and death.
Controlled Impact Rescue Tool
The Controlled Impact Rescue Tool (CIRT) was first widely distributed by Raytheon in 2012. It was designed for use by both the military and government entities that do search and rescue, such as fireman and the National Guard.
Conventional methods of reaching survivors trapped by collapsed concrete structures, up until the introduction of the CIRT, primarily involved the use of jackhammers, concrete saws, cutting torches and sledgehammers. CIRT’s are said to perform breaches up to four times faster than the conventional method. It can breach concrete as thick as 5 ½ inches and takes less than a day to learn how to operate it efficiently.
Just exactly how does the CIRT work? The tool is designed to be extremely portable and it only takes two individuals to transport and operate it. Once placed against a concrete structure that needs to be breached, it sends a concentrated, high powered shockwave into the concrete to severely weaken it. The shockwave is created by the use of powdered cartridge charges that are easily loaded into the CIRT. The charges are set off repeatedly until the concrete surface has been breached.
Hands-on CIRT Experience
Those who have hands on experience with CIRT claim it is much faster and less exhausting than the older conventional methods that were previously used. It is a rescue device that not only gets to the trapped victims quicker, but since it takes less effort, first responders and other rescue personnel have more energy left to go about completing their other critical rescue tasks.
Although all of us hope there is never a need to use the Concrete-Breaching Rescue Tool, it’s nice to know there is a tool like that available when tragedy unfortunately does strike.
Disclaimer: The content in this article is the opinion of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the policies or opinions of US Patriot Tactical.
