Saved by the Jaws of Life

PLAINS – As a car lies in a pile of twisted metal, a crumpled version of its former self, panic and confusion begins to set in. The victim waits in the entrapped car for any signs of help as the minutes begin to tick by ever so slowly.

When help does finally arrive, they are well prepared and properly trained thanks to monthly training exercises on an abundance of issues.

The Plains-Paradise Rural Fire District held a training session on Saturday, extricating a “victim” out of a beat up car.

The training call went out around noon indicating there was a one-vehicle accident with entrapment behind the fire hall.

The firefighters had one minute to gear up into their turnout gear and get ready to go.

The sirens began blaring. First on scene, was the Rescue One vehicle followed by a the white 192 truck and the SC91 truck, which is a structure truck also used for motor vehicles because of the big scene lights.

The team of volunteers set up their equipment on a tarp to the left of the car and made sure everything was ready to go.

They then approached the vehicle, notified the “victim” which happened to be me, that the fire department was on scene and ready to remove me from the vehicle.

The first step was placing a tarp over me while firefighter Trevor Sheridan bashed an axe into what was left of the window. Covered in the suffocating tarp, claustrophobia began to set in. As the crew worked to bash a straight line on the bottom of the window, I could hear the constant bursts of glass hitting the tarp. The firefighters helped me remain calm as they explained exactly what was happening.

Once the window was bashed in and the tarp was removed, the crew began to work on prying the door open.

Firefighter Frank Reed took a crowbar to the door, bashing it over and over with a repeated loud thump. Once the door was purged, the team took a tool called a spreader and began forcing the driver side door off of the vehicle.

Once completely removed, the crew removed the molding surrounding the car door, to ensure that any airbags present would not go off. Working inches from my head, the crew slowly removed the molding, checking for any active pistons in the vehicle. Lieutenant Pat Erving, headed the training session and he explained there is a piston connected to the seatbelt. If the seatbelt is cut without this precautionary measure, the piston may explode.

After the molding was completely torn from the vehicle, the next step was removing the roof. In order to do that, the firefighters began cutting the supports with a cutter, slicing through the metal with the heavy machinery. The crushing noise and power of the machine cutting through the thick metal was deafening.

After the six supports were cut, the roof was simply lifted over my head exposing a blue sky and finally some relief to the tight, cramped space.

As the team continued to work, they began to perform a dash roll, a technique used to push the dash of the car forward, providing room for the entrapped victim to be removed from the vehicle. The firefighters snipped into the bottom corner of the car right under the dash, close to where the door would have when connected.

The cutter, a heavy 50-pound tool with the power to literally slice through a car was centimeters from my leg. The tool brushed up against me and the bone-crunching jaws continued to work away as firefighter Nyle Griffin moved with precision, making the necessary cuts.

In the final step to push the dash forward, a Hydraulic Ram was used. The ram was first placed in the nook of the driver’s front door. After it was put in place, the hydraulic tool began to slowly shove the front of the car away from its body, finally releasing whoever might be trapped inside. The step was then repeated on the passenger’s door.

After close to an hour of entrapment, I was released from the vehicle, finally being able to move and stretch out my cramped body.

Overall, Lt. Erving said the training was a success.

“It went pretty good for the guys, especially with having the new guys there. All the guys worked well together and did a good job,” said Lt. Erving.

He commended the firefighters for their communication, keeping each other in the loop during the process.

The Plains-Paradise Rural Fire District hopes to complete more extrication training as soon as possible.

“We are working on getting two more vehicles and as soon as I can get them, we will do (another training session),” said Lt. Erving.