Santa Cruz County firefighters train on latest tools, techniques

When there's an accident, reaching injured people quickly with the right equipment and training is the key to saving a life.

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Photos by Roger Conroy | Santa Cruz Valley Sun Instructor Larry Anderson watches Rio Rico firefighter Ramon Ramirez use cutters on a vehicle during advanced extrication training at Rio Rico Fire Station 2 on Nov. 5.

Two dozen firefighters from departments throughout Santa Cruz County recently took advanced extrication training from instructors from Hurst, the makers of the Jaws of Life and other extrication tools.

The training was given over three-days this month at Rio Rico Station 2, where cars were set up in accident situations for the training.

Training sessions

The training began with classroom work, then moved outside to the cars. Larry Anderson, lead instructor for Hurst Jaws of Life, talked about new types of steel used in today's vehicles. "The old cars, 12 years ago, had two types of steel in them - mild steel and high-strength steel. Today's vehicles have six types of steel and highly reinforced structures to make the passenger compartment safer," he said.

Firefighters worked on newer vehicles provided by the Border Patrol. The training centered on using Hurst's Jaws of Life and other rescue tools. The Jaws date back to the 1960s, when George Hurst Performance Products supplied tools to the National Hot Rod Association to get drivers out of crashed race cars.

"In 1971, the very first hand-held hydraulic rescue came in," he said. "The Jaws of Life are hydraulic rescue tools. They're gas or electric hydraulic-powered spreaders, hydraulic cutters, hydraulic rams. Spreaders spread material away, cutters sever the structures and rams push other structures further out of the way."

The firefighters learned different rescue techniques using the tools, removing doors, dash boards and seats.

The Rio Rico Fire Department has 31 full-time and 12 reserve firefighters, training officer Dave Aho said.
In addition to Aho, five instructors from the Rio Rico Fire Department will continue training on the equipment, which Aho said is expensive.

"The equipment we have is through grant writing. For a simple cutter, spreader and ram with a power unit, we're looking at $30,000 to $35,000." Rio Rico has complete sets on the ladder truck at Station 2, on the engine at Station 1 and one on the backup/wildland engine.

The training helps firefighters learn the safest way to extricate a person from a vehicle, Aho said. "In the past, it was normal for a person to take the spreaders and ram them into the door to get a purchase point to begin opening the door. Now, where we have the side-curtain air bags, driver's airbags and seat airbags. You ram a 40-pound piece of equipment into one of those doors and there's a high probability of setting off one of those airbags and further injuring a victim inside the car. What we're teaching them today is methods to gain entry and minimize further injury to the victims inside."

The public benefits, Aho said. "If they're involved in a collision, we're teaching our people how to get into the vehicle safer and much quicker than before."

This is the third year for Rio Rico firefighter David Howard to participate in the training. "This time there's a focus on the exotic metals, the positions your car lands in and the different torquing of metals. We did a lot of ram work. We're focusing on moving things, rather than just cutting."

By Roger Conroy, www.scvsun.com
Published Monday, November 16, 2009 10:45 AM CST