“Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!” a firefighter yelled as he was in need of help and rescue on the second floor of the former Arena Farms property.

The firefighter had fallen and became tangled in wires while fighting a fire and was losing oxygen in his tank with each breath he took.

Immediately, a rapid intervention training team (RIT) of four firefighters who were standing by, headed into the smoky building, now owned by Concord Academy, to rescue the firefighter in trouble and bring him to safety.

Because the smoke from the fire was so intense and thick, firefighters used a thermal imagining camera and were able to navigate the narrow stairs inside the house and locate their trapped colleague in a second-floor bedroom.

The firefighters relayed their location in the home to crews working outside and used all their strength to bring their fellow firefighter to safety.

This was just one of the dozens of evolutions, or training drills, firefighters from the Concord, Bedford and Lincoln Fire Departments took part in last week at a home on Fairhaven Road in Concord.

Using non-toxic smoke made of sugar and water, and no actual fire, about 14 firefighters each took part in rescue drills.

Concord Fire Chief Mark Cotreau was at the training site last Thursday and said this practical training is necessary and important.

“This type of training requires firefighters to take it very seriously,” Cotreau said. “We have to practice as if it were a real fire. This is about saving them.”

Three instructors from the Concord Fire Department: Lt. Brian Whitney, Lt. William Nelson and firefighter/EMT Sean Murphy, who are also active instructors at The Massachusetts Fire Academy, walked firefighters from the three departments through each step of the training last week.

As one of the scenarios, Nelson stood in one of the second floor rooms with the thermal imaging camera and watched as one of the RIT teams went in to rescue a firefighter who was down.

“You can see on camera how hard it is for the crews (to see through all the smoke),” Nelson said as he pointed to the camera.

According to Nelson, it’s important to practice scenarios with mutual aid towns, such as Concord, Lincoln and Bedford.

“It’s good to get us all working together on the same level,” Nelson said.

 Captain Mark Sullivan, of the Bedford Fire Department, also thought the training was great and also well organized.

“In the real world, we are all responding together,” he said. “This training allows us to become familiar and confident with each other and helps us work on our skills.”

Concord Town Manager Chris Whelan stopped by the training Thursday morning and said afterwards how impressed he was with the training made possible by Concord Academy.

“I was pleased to see that firefighters from Lincoln and Bedford participated as well, since staff from all three communities work together very closely very regularly,” Whelan said. “The fake smoke was very interesting. I was able to stay in the house with a training officer while it filled up with smoke. I couldn’t see my hand one foot in front of me.”

Nelson said, because he knows the families and children of firefighters from his department well, this type of training really does get him “amped up.”

As a firefighter was waiting to be rescued in one of the upstairs rooms, Nelson said the crews outside were paying close attention to the air consumption of the crews inside.

“You can hear them breathing,” Nelson pointed out during the drill. “They are really exerting themselves.”

When crews are working their bodies extra hard during a fire, Nelson said a cylinder of air, ordinarily good for about 30 minutes, might only last for 6 to 10 minutes.

Outside the home, crews set up an accountability system in the back of one of the Concord Fire Department’s vehicles.

Cotreau said the system, used for about a year now in Concord, allows departments to know who is in the building and at what time.

“If a roof collapses and the crews inside aren’t able to call for help, we instantly know who is in there,” Cotreau said.

Using a white board, firefighters are able to write down important information about locations in the building and keep track of crews.

In a real fire, Cotreau said the board is handed off to a specific member of the crew who is put in charge of noting where firefighters are during a fire.

The training is made possible by donations made to the Concord Fire Department, Cotreau explained.

“On behalf of the Concord Fire Department, I want to thank people who have donated to our gift account,” Cotreau said. “This type of training is critical to the safety of our firefighters and the donations were used to support this operation.”

Jack Beckwith, rapid intervention and survival skills coordinator at the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy in Stow, said the training program began in Massachusetts in 1999 after the Worcester warehouse fire (Dec. 3, 1999) killed six firefighters.

Beckwith, who has been with the fire service for 35 years and the Academy for six, said the dynamic program changes constantly from lessons learned nationwide.

“When incidents are reported we do research and then incorporate some type of teaching point into the program,” Beckwith explained. “It changes on the fly.”

The State-run program has two different types of training programs available to firefighters and each program teaches firefighters techniques to save their own.

As of last month, out of the 380 fire departments in Massachusetts, there were 2,057 firefighters trained in the RIT program, according to Beckwith.

The Academy allows firefighters to come in to the Fire Academy to earn their RIT certification or they can earn certification from other firefighters from their departments who have become RIT training officers.

The firefighters who become training officers at the Academy then go back to their respective departments and train in their own communities.

Beckwith added the Academy teaches everyone to the same standard, and in over 2,000 evolutions, it takes an average of 12 to 16 firefighters to extricate one firefighter out of a building.

Whelan added he was surprised to see how difficult it is to move around a building on all fours with equipment and breathing apparatuses.

“Firefighter Nelson showed how thermal imaging cameras are used by a team of rescue firefighters to locate an incapacitated colleague in very smoky conditions,” Whelan said. “The key objective when rescuing a trapped firefighter is to make sure everyone comes out alive. So the safety precautions and communication procedures used to prevent a mishap were very comprehensive. … I am pleased that Concord Academy was willing to make the vacant house available, which one of the instructors described as “perfect” for the exercise.  It was all very impressive.”

Lt. Scott Christenson, who had been with the Lincoln Fire Department for around seven years, was at the training on Thursday and said he was able to learn a lot from it.

“Today was great,” he said after completing a drill. “This training is excellent and it’s great we have a chance to train with towns we are always working closely with.”

Beckwith said the most important thing for people to realize is that when they see firefighters standing outside a burning building with their equipment, they’re not just standing there doing nothing.

In teams of four, these RIT teams, ordinarily comprised of firefighters from mutual aid towns, are prepared to facilitate the rescue of a firefighter at any moment.

“These firefighters are safety officers who are on the scene looking for problems,” Beckwith said.

Cotreau said he was happy the departments could get together for the RIT training and added it needs to happen annually.

“We must do it,” Cotreau said. “Once you get proficient at it, you need to continue to regularly train and tie it into something else. The drill is great and I can see they are getting a lot out of it.”