St. Regis hosts demolition derby

Bruce Charles

The St. Regis Volunteer Fire Department invited the West End Volunteer Fire Department to a demolition derby at the St. Regis Fire Station Monday.  

The Demolition Derby cars to be used by the fire departments  were supplied by John Schober of Schober’s Towing.  

John is a long-time member of the St. Regis Fire Department.  

A fire department demolition derby is probably a little different than you might think.

The St. Regis and West End departments are full-service fire departments and part of their work includes crash rescue for people who have been in severe motor vehicle accidents.  

Sometimes, before the fire department medics (EMTs) can get to a person to treat them or to transfer them to a ground or air ambulance, the injured person’s body must be very carefully freed from the crushed vehicle.  

This process is called extrication.

This type of extensive real-life extrication training is necessary for the firefighters and EMTs to develop and maintain their skills using the various tools necessary for a successful rescue.

Extrication equipment is very specialized and very expensive.  

The equipment used by the St. Regis and West End in their training cost over $50,000.  

This includes the traditional “Jaws of Life”, but also included are hydraulic cutters and spreaders that can cut doorposts, hinges and other vehicle body parts.

Specialized hydraulic rams are also used to do such things as to “roll” the car’s dashboard off of a person’s legs who has been in a front-end crash.  

High pressure air bags are used to lift a car off of a person trapped underneath a vehicle and specialized jacks are used to stabilize the vehicle so that medics can safely work on a victim under an overturned car on a vehicle on the side of a hill.  

Specialized saws are used to cut windshields and body panels to get access to the wounded.

Though the training was focused extrication from a passenger motor vehicles, the same training, equipment and techniques can be used in farm equipment accidents or to free people involved in a building collapse.  

About 40 firefighters and EMTs from the two departments  participated in this specialized training.