Drill at the fire station

last night was a very informative and interactive session at the fire house. We have a bunch of donated props in the back of the station, a car and mobile home, which come in handy for exercises.

Our exercise was to learn about different ways of accessing the interior of a crashed car, to stabilize or assist in extracting the victim. First take out the "cribbing" tote bags out of the truck, and use cribbing blocks to stabilize car under 3 crucial points. I found this to be rather primitive. Wood blocks stacked and shimmied under the frame of the car? I asked if this was really the only way to get the job done, surely there must be some hydraulic system out there than can do the job more efficient and safe? I guess when you rely on your funds coming from donations, one is limited to what one can buy! I think I mentioned something about looking to join another fire station, one that is better equipped and modernised! Knowing my clumsiness I will get my hand crushed as I shove one of these 4X4 under the frame of a car.

Some of the other primitive tools we have to access the car, are lawnmower blades wrapped on one hand with duct tape. When placed on metal and hit with a mallet the blades will cut through the metal, as was demonstrated when the door lock was smashed in and we need to access the locking mechanism through the metal!

A hay hook comes in handy to smash windows, of course my thought was, this poor person just got in a car crash and now a guy in a fire suit is approaching the car swinging a large hay hook at him or her. Screwdriver with fore mentioned mallet will also do the trick to cut metal.

One thing I noticed our instructor failed to mention was, first approach the car and see if any of the doors are unlocked and can be opened without the use of caveman tools!

Also used an electric saw to cut trough the main frame of the car, as I got almost through the metal, the vibrations of the saw made my whole body shake and my brain was slushing around in my skull giving me an insane headache. I also had to be careful not to swing the blade throught the imaginary victim once I got throught the metal. Well guess what, I decapitated him/her!!!!