Episode 300: Inside the Mission of Rapid Intervention Teams with Steven Kaiser

Episode notes

What protects firefighters when everything changes in an instant?

Hello Smart Firefighting Community!

Welcome to another episode of covering real world innovations via interviews with fire service and technology industry experts that empower YOU to develop your very own Smart Firefighting strategy.

Recorded live at the Institution of Fire Engineers (IFE) 2025 Conference alongside the AFAC, WAFA, and Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience Conference in Perth, Australia.

Rapid intervention teams save firefighters when an emergency unfolds inside another emergency. Steven Kaiser from Fire Rescue Victoria explains how Australia is developing a stronger national approach to RIT and how research from the American fire service is shaping that work.

He shares practical insight on thermal imaging, accountability tools, and emerging technology that helps crews make safer decisions. Steven also reflects on the importance of constant learning and why firefighters benefit from adding new knowledge every day.

So take a listen to hear what he has to share.

Head to www.smartfirefighting.com to discover how SFF accelerates innovation for emergency responders, to find out when our next event is, or review our curated resources.

Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn

Chapters

1. 0:00 Intro, live from Perth
2. 0:52 Back to back in the Tim Tam arena
3. 1:22 Building rapid intervention teams in Australia
4. 3:10 Learning from the American fire service
5. 4:21 Thermal imaging is misunderstood
6. 9:17 Accountability and other RIT technology
7. 10:29 Rehab and saving time
8. 11:12 Drones
9. 12:12 Heading back stateside
10. 12:37 Words to live by

Questions answered in this episode

What is a rapid intervention team and what does it do?

Steven Kaiser explains that rapid intervention teams rescue firefighters who run out of air and cannot get out by themselves. The training covers how to locate them, package them, remove them, and undress them from their hot gear so ambulance services can provide medical care without getting burned.

Hear it at 1:23

Why does Steven Kaiser use data from the United States in his training?

Australia does not have enough data on rapid intervention teams, so Kaiser looks to the United States, which has been doing it for years. He says he needs data to convince management and shape training programs, and places like the Illinois Fire Service Institute provided information and training he brought back to develop programs for his own service.

Hear it at 3:24

What is the real use of a thermal imaging camera according to Steven Kaiser?

Kaiser says firefighters often think thermal cameras are for finding fire or victims, but the real use is safety. The camera measures heat in a space, and that heat can ignite into extreme fire behavior. It lets firefighters detect how hot a space is ahead of time instead of feeling it when it is too late.

Hear it at 5:05

How can breathing apparatus telemetry help rapid intervention teams?

Steven Kaiser says some breathing apparatus sets send telemetry to incident controllers outside the building, showing where crews are located. When an emergency happens and someone is missing, controllers can see that the person is on a specific floor and corner, and send resources there faster instead of guessing where they were tasked to go.

Hear it at 9:38

What does Steven Kaiser say about learning and professional development?

His advice is to constantly be a student of the game. He says the more knowledge you have, the better you are at making decisions, and if you do not learn something new every day, you are doing yourself an injustice. Even knowledge that is not useful today may be useful tomorrow.

Hear it at 12:50

Transcript

Machine transcript of the published audio. Names may be misspelled and some sections are missing.

Ep 300 transcript

Inside the Mission of Rapid Intervention Teams with Steven Kaiser

Speakers: Kevin Sofen, Steven Kaiser

Source: Whisper medium.en machine transcription of the published Podbean audio (no original transcript found in Drive), lightly cleaned. Speakers were separated by voice clustering and then checked and assigned by hand at every speaker change. Gaps where the model returned no usable text are marked [inaudible m:ss].

[0:00] Kevin Sofen: Welcome to our podcast mini-series, recorded live at the Institution of Fire Engineers 2025 Conference in Perth, Australia, alongside the AFAC, WAFA and the Australian Institute for Disaster-Resilience Conferences. With over 28 conversations with fire chiefs, engineers, researchers and innovators, we explored how the fire and emergency community is adapting to a rapidly changing world. From climate resilience and community-led adaption, to the rise of new technologies like satellites, AI, and simple tools designed for the field, to the importance of back-to-back, second podcast in the Tim Tam arena.

[0:55] Steven Kaiser: Hey, I'm impressed. Come back all this way from Chicago.

[1:00] Kevin Sofen: Just to hang out in a little podcast booth, eating Tim Tams with my friend, Steven. the work you're doing with rapid intervention teams in Australia is it

[1:23] Steven Kaiser: very new and it's not really touched on a lot in most fire services national type of directional framework towards rapid intervention teams and [inaudible 1:54] track. Run out of air and can't get by themselves. So we package them and how to remove them and even when you get them outside, how do we undress them from their hot gear to give them to the ambulance service? Because imagine ambulance-service don't have hot gloves that they can touch you with, if they touch you and try and take your gear off, they're going to end up with burns. So we do a complete training package on locating, packaging, removal, and then undressing, ready for emergency medical protocols.

[3:10] Kevin Sofen: Well, so I know you've gone to FDIC and stateside a few times and what, are there differences, similarities, or what can the Australian and American Fire Service learn from each other, or what are some commonalities or differences that you've observed?

[3:24] Steven Kaiser: Well that's really good because we are learning a lot from the American Fire Service in this space. The American Fire Service has been doing it for years. They do it very well. There's lots of documentation, lots of data, and that's what drives our decision-making and our training, is the data that's collected from projects like Project Mayday done by called Don Abbott a long time ago, and that information is vital for us as trainers to convince and help us shape our training programs with management because management may not know what rapid intervention teams are. So for them, we need to be able to inform them with data and we don't have the data in Australia. So we look outside of our own backyard. We go to places like the States, particularly Illinois Fire Service Institute where I did some training and they were able to offer me a lot of information, a lot of training, a lot of data to bring back and develop my own training for my own service here.

[4:21] Kevin Sofen: Well I know, and you mentioned this earlier with performing writ, you need to be able to understand where a downed firefighter is and you need access to information to be able to understand where are my people, how are they doing, and there's different tools that can allow you to do that and one that I know that's in particular that's a very useful tool are infrared cameras. And IR cameras are a very significant tool in the tool shed. And I remember talking with Peter Deckers from Fleer, he always talked about jokingly, you know, we don't sell IR cameras, we sell time. We allow you to save time to be able to go and accomplish the task at hand. What role do infrared cameras play within your day-to-day life? And what do even people maybe have wrong and misconceived about infrared cameras?

[5:05] Steven Kaiser: I think thermal imaging cameras are misused, not misused, probably misunderstood. So if you give a thermal imaging camera to a firefighter and say, what is this used for? Straight away, it's to find the fire or to find the victim. And they're not wrong. It's true. But the real use of a thermal imaging camera is for your safety. Because what it does, it takes measurements and puts it into a picture of the heat in that space. The heat in that space, being a fire science background person, is flammable. all that heat in the smoke, if it gets the right temperature or has the right ignition, can light off and that's an extreme fire behavior. And a thermal imaging camera is the only thing that can detect how hot that space is, other than feeling it, and if you're feeling it's probably a bit too late. So by using that technology, it buys us that time of not just feeling around in the dark, but being able to forward look and go, that space over there is really hot, so I need to do something about that. instead of moving into that space, feeling it, and now I'm hot and I need to do something about that The color from the heat is what we need to really have an understanding of.

[6:33] Kevin Sofen: And , [inaudible 7:02]

[7:58] Steven Kaiser: I can do my job quicker, if that makes sense. So having only a few colors there, and each of those colors means something to me, I can rapidly do something based on what I'm seeing. Whereas if I have a lot of displays there, a lot of temperature displays, a lot of logos or different color palettes that come in at different temperatures, it starts to get confusing. So for example, when you go from mixed gain, high range, and then to low range when you're in higher temperatures. I have to slow down when I say that because it gets a bit confusing. The color palettes can change. and if you don't notice that changes, you can be in a very hot environment and not be aware that you're in that working environment. So some products out there are starting to come out with the ability to just have one screen. So what you see is what you get. If you see anything from black to white, it's this many degrees in temperature. If you see something in yellow and orange, okay, now I know I'm working in this type of environment, which is more dangerous to me. If I see something in red, that's either the fire or an extreme fire behavior. And just by saying it in those four simple colors, I can act upon that. I know what I need to do to that environment to make it go back to, say, black, which is coal, which is perfect environment for civilians to be surviving in. We don't want them in the yellow zones, if that makes sense.

[9:17] Kevin Sofen: Within your role in RIT, besides infrared cameras, are there any other technologies that you're using or that you see are emerging, whether they exist now or ones that you're tracking in the medium term that you think, wow, these tools can help first responders create a better advantage in terms of dealing with

[9:38] Steven Kaiser: dealing with Tchaikovsky. I think in the accountability space, there's a few without mentioning brands, but breathing apparatus companies producing telemetry for their BA sets, which allows your incident controllers externally to monitor where you are within a building, or where all their crews are within a building. So when that emergency does happen, for example, we have somebody we don't know where they are we can get their telemetry and go this person is on the northwest corner of the second floor and we can send our resources there quicker as opposed to currently if we have sets that don't have that ability we've just got to rely on where did we task them to go and hope that's where we're going to find them so having that technology inbuilt into breathing apparatus sets that sends messages back to the instant controller can be really valuable in saving that time.

[10:29] Kevin Sofen: Brilliant. And then obviously that all kind of comes down to saving time and then you talk to the rehab side and now I'm curious, kind of generally I've had Commissioner Futuro obviously with initiatives or opportunities and, of course, maybe an obvious one is the challenges of bushfires and the use of satellites and drones. And again, someone like you, then, I'm just kind of curious from your hot take on tech, are there any other gaps or opportunities that catch your attention as you're thinking about the fire service?

[11:12] Steven Kaiser: I really still like the drone space and how the... I was watching a presentation yesterday on how the drones were going into structures ahead of firefighters and doing that early reconnaissance without putting firefighters at risk. And those drones are then coupled with all this other technology, like thermal imaging cameras. Like one had actually had sensors on it to detect the amount of gas in that area. So they can go in and go, this area is hazardous. I don't need to send my firefighters into that space. Or the information that I need to gather from that space that is dangerous, I can send my expendable drone instead of my firefighters who have life value. I really think that's where a lot of fire services could look a little bit more in that drone space or robotic space where they can send things for, get all the data that you need, the information that you need before we send us in and put us in that hazardous dangerous space.

[12:12] Kevin Sofen: Also, what you make in your way stateside to FDIC or to IFSI anytime the next near future?

[12:18] Steven Kaiser: I'm definitely gonna be back there at FDIC. I've hopefully got another opportunity to teach alongside Insight via with Andy Starnes, which is thermal imaging, something that I love doing. Also looking at maybe getting across to other countries in the near future, in discussion. So we'll see how it goes.

[12:37] Kevin Sofen: I think Steve's got a lot to give. And to round us out here, the thing I've been asking everyone is there any words of wisdom or quote that you live by, one that you would maybe have hung up on your wall or one that you apply to your work with Fire Rescue? Anything.

[12:50] Steven Kaiser: Well, that's a good one. I think just constantly be a student of the game. I think the more knowledge that you have, the better you are at. Making decisions. And if you don't take the opportunity to just learn something new every day, or just read something every day, you're doing yourself an injustice. Because you just, you're not going to be able to perform as well as you could. So I think, yeah, just keep reading, even if it's not useful today, it may be useful tomorrow and keep that knowledge.

[13:15] Kevin Sofen: Well said. I love that phrase. that I read this one book by Colonel Chris Hadfield, he's an astronaut from Canada, and this whole thing is always being a studio of the game in terms of you can ever be over prepared and you train and you train for some moments it'll never happen but you sure as heck will be happy that you've trained on those moments if they do happen. Yes absolutely. So Steve always a pleasure look forward to continuing to talk again and hopefully we'll cross paths against stateside. I'm sure we will. Yeah cheers mate. Thank you. Thank you. And now, please, Tim Tam, of choice And that's a wrap for this episode of the Smart Firefighting podcast. If you found value in this conversation, hit like, leave a comment, share it to someone and tell us what you enjoyed most. Take care and thanks for listening.