Borrowing from the old adage about insurance, “It’s better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it,” the Rio Rancho Fire/Rescue Department is forming a heavy-duty technical rescue team.

Although the city has been fortunate enough not to have experienced the type of rescue the 18-member team is training for, it could happen at almost any time.

Among the heavy-duty rescues would be saving anyone trapped inside a collapsed building or a trench, an accident involving hazardous materials, an overturned semi-truck or a train wreck — Rio Rancho could be the first department called in the event of a rail mishap in the Bernalillo area — or, as was practiced last week, the rescue of someone who has fallen into a canyon. Although some people think of Rio Rancho as a thriving urban area, many residents enjoy the mesa at the west end of Southern Boulevard for hiking, four-wheeling and other outdoor adventures. It’s like another world out there: Beyond the power lines that run north-south, one can see beyond the Rio Puerco to Mt. Taylor.

“High angle rope rescue training” was being conducted in that area, with the scenario being a hiker having fallen into a canyon.

“We have rescues in the Rio Puerco (area) on a regular basis,” noted Battalion Chief Paul Bearce. The bulk of those rescues is for a lost or injured hiker. This time, it was a little more serious.

Devices were set up on opposite sides of the canyon, about 100 yards apart, and using the centuries-old technology of block and tackle, along with pulleys, a team member would traverse over the canyon, horizontally, to a spot above where the “victim” was located. The team member would then descend vertically, attach himself to the victim and ascend to the horizontal wire, and from there back to the other side of the canyon.

“In on blue, out on black,” Mike Mather, an instructor from Sierra Vista (Ariz.) Rescue 3 International, reminded the team each time. At each end of the ropes, rescue team members stayed in contact with the rescuer, pulling the ropes to move him horizontally or vertically. Each side has a “safety,” and there are several precautions built in to the rope devices.

“Block and tackle go back to ancient Greece,” Mather said. “We’ll make them use every single skill. Plus, they learn angles, vectors and more.”

It’s almost like an advanced geometry course, with muscle.

“This is one system that that truly challenges everything they’ve learned,” Mather added. Earlier, the team members had received classroom instruction, too.

All told, each “rescue” would take about 27 to 30 minutes, although Bearce, in training earlier in the week, said with each “rescue” came confidence and ability to complete the rescue quicker. Although the victims were conscious last Friday, a wire basket could be used to contain and extricate an unconscious victim.

“It’s always time consuming to get these systems set up, especially the first time, “Bearce said. But now these guys (and Valerie Soto) have seen it, it’ll go quicker.”

He said the Federal Emergency Management Administration reassessed its resources across the nation in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and decided rescue teams would be more effective if they were spread out across the country. Rio Rancho took advantage of a $100,000 grant from the state’s homeland security department to pay for the 18-team member trip to Sierra Vista in October for training, plus supplies and overtime.

The Rio Rancho firefighters and rescue personnel also had extensive hands-on education in structural collapse, trench rescue, heavy equipment extrication, hazardous materials, swift-water rescue and confined space rescue.