Firefighters perfect vehicle rescue skills
Six weeks of vehicle technician training for Footedale, New Salem and Masontown firefighters will pay off the next time there is a vehicle collision, Footedale Volunteer Fire Department Assistant Chief Albert Constable said. “It shows you what you can and can’t do to a car in today’s world,” Constable said.
It’s the new-school system for 2004, he added. There has been a lot of changes to today’s cars and firefighters must adapt to those changes, he said.
“It is for the safety of the patient and the rescuer, where it used to be just for the safety of the patient,” Constable noted.
Once the 15 firefighters pass the test on Wednesday, they will have earned their state certification in vehicle accident training from the state Department of Health.
Constable said the certification is “good for life,” although firefighters take training about every two years to learn about updated practices.
For the 48-hour course, firefighters receive hands-on training on how to gain entry into a wrecked vehicle.
It was the hands-on practice where the firefighters actually got to cut cars that served as the highlight. Wrecked cars were used to demonstrate a live scenario to test their skills.
“You can read a book all you want, but if you don’t go out there, you won’t learn,” Constable said.
The training involved new ways to cut into today’s model of car, many of which have plastic instead of glass windshields and contain a standard system of airbags on the floor, in the steering wheel, in the seatbelts and in the kick plates.
“You can’t cut the (airbag) canisters because of high pressure,” Constable said. “You have to look before you cut with today’s style.”
During the training, firefighters were shown photos of a live rescue in Maryland where the airbag system knocked two firefighters out of a vehicle. Airbags deploy from the steering wheel at 200 mph, Constable said.
“You got to act quickly,” he noted.
Also, airbags in certain vehicles have the ability to recharge.
“Ten years ago, that wasn’t possible,” Constable said.
Although a 23-year veteran of firefighting, Constable admitted that his old-school way of gaining entry into a wrecked vehicle must be replaced by the new style, which many firefighters were taught for the first time.
“It’s a new system,” Constable said. “What worked in 1980 when I began, won’t work now.”
The training also served as a time for firefighters from other departments to become familiar with one another and each department’s special tools and equipment.
“The training gets everybody together,” Constable said. “The three departments work together on wrecks. We run with them. Everybody can get to know each other and know what equipment each department has and where it is at on the truck.”
Constable said Footedale, New Salem and Masontown fire departments respond to about 10 to 20 vehicle accidents where firefighters must use the “jaws of life,” the universal name for the equipment used to extricate someone from a vehicle.
“We want people to know that firefighters do more than run bingo and cash bashes at the fire hall,” he added. “There’s actually a lot of training that goes on behind the scenes that no one sees.”