Jesse, Tim and I have been faithful members of the Volunteer Fire Department here at St Labre this year. We were very excited to have automobile extrication training come up one weekend last month. The training started Friday night and was run by Mitch- a specialist in the field from South Carolina. A night of classroom training was fun….but nothing compared to the awesomeness that is working the hydraulic equipment the following day.
Saturday, three cars were waiting there for us to smash up and break apart using all the knowledge we had learned from the night before. Saws that can easily cut through the roofs, Jaws of Life that snap doors off their hinges, and rams that lift the car frames off the ground with relative ease were some of the fun things we got to use.
We were trained to get to patients in many different situations including vans on their sides and compact cars flipped upside down. It was incredibly fun to smash in the windows and rip the doors off the frame with hydraulic spreaders, but it was also a very real eye-opener for us too. The delicacy that you need to approach such situations when a life is in jeopardy. It is something that none of us hope we need to experience first hand.
Saturday, three cars were waiting there for us to smash up and break apart using all the knowledge we had learned from the night before. Saws that can easily cut through the roofs, Jaws of Life that snap doors off their hinges, and rams that lift the car frames off the ground with relative ease were some of the fun things we got to use.
We were trained to get to patients in many different situations including vans on their sides and compact cars flipped upside down. It was incredibly fun to smash in the windows and rip the doors off the frame with hydraulic spreaders, but it was also a very real eye-opener for us too. The delicacy that you need to approach such situations when a life is in jeopardy. It is something that none of us hope we need to experience first hand.
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