Toledo fire Lt. Doug Palicki flipped upside down, hanging from a sturdy orange rope, about 40 feet above the ground. He slid down the rope before righting himself and landing with both feet firmly on the floor of Huntington Center.

"Basic techniques," he said as he stood. The lieutenant was one of 12 firefighters from the Toledo Fire and Rescue Department who spent several hours Monday morning doing technical rope and high-angle training -- rappelling from rafters nearly 100 feet from the ground.

The members of the department's regional Technical Rope Rescue Team, from Stations 18 and 5, were out of service during the training, which allowed them to focus on technique instead of having to break for fire or medical runs, said fire Lt. Matthew Hertzfeld.

The team does formal trainings about four times a year, Lieutenant Hertzfeld said, but does in-station training -- such as practicing knot tying -- every month.

Although it's been about three years since the team was dispatched -- they responded to a fatal crash at an embankment off Brim Drive in North Toledo -- the team can be used in situations such as rescuing window washers or pulling a crash victim over an embankment.

Lieutenant Hertzfeld said the training is crucial for the team and for "maintaining edge. It's important when you find yourself in a situation like this that [the rescue] needs to be second nature. We're in the business where seconds count.

"It becomes critical when we're dispatched to [a scene] and all of that training comes down to one moment," the lieutenant said. "That's a lot of pressure."

First Published February 28, 2012, 5:15 a.m.