Crosby Hook vs. FESH

[cigars]

I'm going to be playing around with the Crosby Hook and the FESH hook as part of an evaluation of personal bailout systems for my department. My initial impression is that while the Crosby Hook may be well-designed for the water pipes FDNY encounters in city apartment buildings, it may have too small a bite to go around the window trim found on residential wood-frame windows. It seems to me the FESH may be a better application for wood frame buildings, but I haven't seen any articles or studies.

Any thoughts or experience with this? Has anyone seen a better option than these two hooks?

-John

[mpolletta]

I have a FESH hook and have used it quite a bit in training. I really think any brand would be fine. Don't get caught up on it needing to be big enough to grab the window sill or a pipe, there are other very quick ways to anchor it that work just as well, such as a haligan set in between the wall or the corner of the window or around the door frame, etc.

[cigars]

Thanks for the reply. What type of descender do you use with your system?

[mpolletta]

My educated opinion (I've been through 130+ hrs of RIT training with the best RIT instructors; James Crawford, Jim McCormack, Mike Mason) is there's no need for a descender or a harness. It's not taught in any of their classes. It's a waste of time and extra weight. You need to be proficient at doing window bailouts with the rope wrapped around your back, using you're body as the belay device. I keep my rope in my left bunker pant pocket with the hook at the top, easy to grab. I can take it, anchor the hook, throw the bag out of a window and out I go. Mason and McCormack have books to purchas on line and they show how to do these things.

[fireman605]

Do you wear an escape belt or anything? I guess I dont understand how you use your body to lower yourself.

[mpolletta]

Yeah bro, no problem. Again, if you can get a book about it, especially Mike Mason's RECO book, or Jim McCormack's book (do a search for the Fire Department Training Network) they're great resources on this stuff. When doing a window bailout you're trying to stay as low as possible, even while trying to get over the window sill. I'm right handed, so the hook would be anchored and the rope would be in my left hand with my hand just out of the window, keeping the rope tight. The rope bag would've been thrown out of the window. You'd basically put your airbottle against the rope and then grab the rope with your right hand, so you've basically made a loop around your back. The friction of your bottle and gear is plenty to have a fairly controlled slide down the rope. You'd have both hands in front of you as in a normal rappel situation, with your gloves also adding friction, and the rope is under your armpits. Hope that's somewhat clear. No harness, no belay device, no wasted time, no wasted weight.

[mpolletta]

Also, with your hands positioned as I said, you're rolling out over the window sill, staying as low as possible.