Element Rescue

Element Rescue Your Friendly Neighborhood Resource For Disruptive Rescue

As promised - a quick shout out and huge thank you to for the insanely generous donation to the cause! The 2-day assau...
11/14/2024

As promised - a quick shout out and huge thank you to for the insanely generous donation to the cause! The 2-day assault pack is getting loaded out in extremely diverse ways by all of us- here’s just a few - but many more to follow. The All In Deployment bag can literally fit small homes within it, but has proved indispensable for the varied kit loaded into trucks and side by sides…vertical load-outs, halligans, axes, recip saws, grinders…everything! Also threw in a pic of .william.morton who we are assisting in developing his potential male modeling career if the arborist deal doesn’t pan out…but the foliage definitely makes his “ginger” -ness pop. One again, thanks and especially Tristen Mortenson for the constant updates and assistance- we are still at it. #’sright

Got a few DM’s from folks asking what the hell I was sharpening .charly23 axes and others knives, hatchets, crash axes, ...
11/08/2024

Got a few DM’s from folks asking what the hell I was sharpening .charly23 axes and others knives, hatchets, crash axes, etc in some of the western North Carolina disaster / recovery posts. I was using the Ken Onion edition with the blade grinding attachment (the older version). I got into using the crap out of this sassy little freak maybe 2 years ago…maybe a little longer but…started using this when I went back to school to get all the UI/UX / cognitive engineering certs. It puts an insane convex edge on anything you have with an edge. I’ve been able to go down in blade / edge angle and not sacrifice strength/resiliency/robustness. The edges can get razor sharp / mirrored, shave the hair off your arm…slam into whatever you cutting, hitting, ripping, etc and retain a bad ass sharp edge that you can tune right back up with just a strop most of the time. Because I tend to overdue Everything, I have gone thin/razor sharp on things that do not require this at all and still haven’t chipped, nicked, or bent an edge even going down to a 10 degree exclusive angle. Once I got the hang of free-handing knives, I started altering the angles of my various crash axes (head and cutting claw) depending on what I was using it for, ie general purpose, armored government vehicle, etc. so I could field sharpen when doing a bunch of armored Suburbans or Toyotas, which pealed seconds off entry time - then I went to halligans - forks and adz- keep in mind we primarily only operate halligan bars using one-person techniques with a wedge. Thinning these out but maintaining great strength of the tips (just the tip) because of the convex edge, worked phenomenal for acquiring initial gap / crush on tight door seams without having a second striking it in with a flat head or sledge. Anyway- I know I am using some of the attachments “off label” but I really gained some insight from listening to some great videos from Kyle (worksharp and co-designer) of this machine. I did burn a machine out in a few weeks - had to rush an order for a new one- not realizing there is a brand new one released- bummed about that hasty move.

Want to try and catch up on a few posts… this one starts with Dave Spence who I’ve been fortunate to work with on many ...
11/08/2024

Want to try and catch up on a few posts… this one starts with Dave Spence who I’ve been fortunate to work with on many occasions on many projects for the past…a lot of years. After FaceTiming him early on our arrival and initial work in the Green Mountain region of Western North Carolina, he made some calls for us on his own…one being to Scott with The Wing Group- who then contacted and who generously sent us some much needed gear / kit - which we can’t thank you enough. This post will focus on and our next will focus on . With the waters cooling down significantly and the varied contaminants present, getting out and clearing areas from boat and also accessing debris piles which formed concrete / soot islands for everything from car parts, refrigerators and large chunks of houses to get stuck onto, put us in desperate need of some dry suites. Within a couple of days we had a delivery of insanely high quality dry suites in all sizes , repair and PM Accessories- if needed and a great personal note from Brian. I can’t thank you guys enough, this work will continue for a bit - and we will continually be in debt to your organization as we continue to utilize these during prolonged recovery operations trying to help provide closure for members of these communities. The first night out with them was spent at a debris / concrete island pile until around 3 am after and .charly23 had an emotionally charged story relayed to them that day from a sister about her missing brother.

A quick post of some of the 9pm-2am vertical search images top anchor manager, Larry “pimp” took of us. Going through ar...
10/22/2024

A quick post of some of the 9pm-2am vertical search images top anchor manager, Larry “pimp” took of us. Going through areas the cadaver dog hit on earlier. .charly23 and myself spent have spent quite a few nights out doing this, the anchor in this one was just a single point anchor with a large master point ring, but due to the multi vector force potential, we had to make a few chainsaw cuts into the tree to set a neutral fall line and back tie consistent with a debris floor drop out of any one us or all of us- with some force limiting knots and accessories (some improvised). Earlier, we did a “kinda” cool floating anchor with a primary X & Y axis loading, but did an ad hoc adjustment for some Z axis loading. I have a .usa UFO (which we’ve been using for some specific rigging) but couldn’t find it due to gear and bags being used all over site. More to follow. Unfortunately our PRIMARY ADH and his excavator was being tasked all over the place this night - so we had to adapt. 8mm & 9.5mm Havoc used throughout, I was using AVRR set up and Pinch for rigging and positioning, all on pile had some form of self rescue to assists anchor manager running iMas (set of fours) for contingency. Also was running the Switch for a bunch of different things including edge transitions where edge failure was a potential.

Just got home around 4 am, for a few hours to exchange out gear - for more context specific kit, grab some more colder w...
10/19/2024

Just got home around 4 am, for a few hours to exchange out gear - for more context specific kit, grab some more colder weather clothes and snag some misc stuff for our small team. Been doing complex recovery operations with a diverse group of dedicated guys. laid the groundwork for the initial link up between myself and a gangster arborist / voodoo chainsaw operator .charly23 - to follow behind - who also happens to be one of the most efficient, accurate, and hardest working cadaver dogs (and handle) I have ever seen. We rapidly found a few like minded folks, dedicated to finding areas virtually unassisted, unseen in the media, and help provide closure to families and loved ones. Tyler, an arborist, chainsaw enthusiast, and vertical rigging specialist also joined on quickly, from Virginia’s beach and from the “get go” we were fortunate enough to link up w/ 3 studs from Texas! These dudes were sent up from their company to help with anything any of the affected communities need…especially anything to do with communication. So that being said, huge props out to our 3 gangsters from who were sent out with the above objective and a bunch of to hand out to these devastated communities with NO communications with the outside world. As a side note, they also are providing the starlink for all of our base camps allowing us to make critical comms with our families and, as an example, Andy at for me to send pics and do a live video clearing us for operations on a damaged bridge and what to look out for. I left a bunch of critical info out about many of the above and many not mentioned yet - but will, so more to follow…Lastly, goes without saying, using all the vertical kit and medical kit from - from chainsaw bleeder kits, field personnel sustainment, and EVERYTHING vertical - using primarily 8mm HAVOC and the new 9.5mm HAVOC relentlessly! huge shoutout to Dave at - for putting a ton of companies in line for support and lining up dry suites for us early next week to start all the waterborne search and tree removal! More to follow.

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