You never know when you need to save a life. And sometimes that means taking their body and moving them to safety. But people are big and heavy. If you want to move them right, you need to do a fireman’s carry. Here’s how.
Doing a fireman’s carry is easier than you might think, so all you need is to know how. The purpose of a fireman’s carry is to evenly distribute the weight of a person’s body with your own, while both remaining stable and keeping a free hand available for whatever you need. This will allow you to carry more weight for farther distances.
How to perform a fireman’s carry:
- Lift the person up into a “standing” position, leaned up against your own body.
- Raise the arm closer to you up and over your head.
- Lean over and drape the person over your back, hanging their previously lifted arm around your neck and to the front of your chest.
- With your other arm, weave it between their legs and grab the draped arm. holding the body in a loop around your upper body.
- Move around as needed.
If you still aren’t sure, here is a diagram, provided by Wikipedia.
This places a majority of the body’s weight along the center of your balance, allowing less struggle to maintain the weight. The off-hand will keep the body wrapped around you while your main hand is free to operate as needed.
With any luck, you’ll never need to use this technique. But it’s always better to know and not need it.