Last Updated: 07/14/2011*

Rescue workers recognize the time it takes to successfully breach concrete can be the difference between life and death.

Raytheon’s Controlled Impact Rescue Tool (CIRT™) is now more easily available to them through the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) Schedule of products and services for federal organizations. The GSA is the only source solely dedicated to procuring goods and services for the U.S. government.

Last month, the New York Yonkers Fire Department became the first organization to add CIRT to its capability tool kit. The tool will help the department improve its ability to respond to structural collapse disasters. With CIRT, the department plans to expand its role beyond fighting fires to include emergency medical care, control of hazardous materials incidents, technical rescue, and fire safety education.

CIRT is a self-contained, safe and portable unit designed to aid fire departments, local and federal rescue agencies and the military services. It is capable of breaching a targeted reinforced concrete wall up to four times faster than with traditional methods such as drilling, chipping or sawing.

Developed under a contract with the Department of Homeland Science and Technology Directorate, the CIRT tool uses standard blank, powder ammunition cartridges to propel an impacting head into the concrete at a high rate of speed. Upon impact the shockwave created travels though the material and causes the concrete to break apart in a localized area. A number of impacts within a breach area will allow a rescuer to enter the area quicker than conventional methods.