By BECKY THOMAS
Staff Reporter
Next time a bad car accident traps an occupant in the Cheney area, firefighters won't need to hope that car was made before 2002.
The Cheney Fire Department recently upgraded its extrication equipment, a purchase that has been many years in the making since newer vehicle technology has severely limited the old equipment's usability.
Extrication equipment, commonly known as the “Jaws of Life,” consists of the tools and accessories emergency workers use to free people who are stuck in vehicles damaged in a collision.
Cheney purchased its equipment in the late 1980s, and over the decades emergency crews improvised to handle different situations. Lacking steel stabilization struts to anchor a vehicle that flipped or landed on uneven ground, crews used wood 4x4s. After automakers began putting hardened steel in vehicle doors in 2002, the fire department bought a $300 Sawzall because the old cutters couldn't cut through the material.
CFD Lt. Ken Johnson said cutting through a steel car door with a Sawzall takes several minutes and a handful of replacement blades, but it's better than nothing.
“It's not the ideal tool, but it would work,” he said.
The situation was vastly improved earlier this year, when the department used an additional $30,000 in its budget—approved by City Council in late 2011—to purchase a new cutting tool, new hydraulic motor and several accessories Johnson said will allow crews to handle a wider variety of situations.
While the department considered buying a complete new set of extrication equipment, they chose instead to supplement their existing tools.
“The old stuff still works and we can still use it,” he said. The purchases made would “make our equipment more versatile.”
The biggest upgrades were the new cutting tool, which sports a 7-inch blade compared to the old 4-inch tool, as well as the new motor that powers the hydraulic tools. The new motor creates 152,870 pounds of cutting force, more than double that of the old motor. The motor also has two connectors so two tools can be used simultaneously, while the old one only had one and emergency workers had to switch out tools, costing them valuable time.
New accessories, not as high tech, can be invaluable in certain situations. Rubber airbags that can be slid flat under a vehicle inflate to lift it enough to get bigger equipment in the space. Johnson said he was on the scene of a vehicle accident where the driver's hair and part of her scalp were trapped under the upside-down car.
“We only needed to lift it up an inch or two to get her out of there,” Johnson said.
Other new accessories include steel stabilizing struts that can be extended and secured under a car before cutting it.
Weight distributions can be different in each situation, Johnson said, and the fire department used the new equipment in training scenarios. They procured nine old cars from a towing company at $50 a piece and with help from city tractors, set up different accident scenarios in a lot near Cheney's wastewater treatment plant. Then full-time firefighters and student residents spent several hours assessing each scenario and using the extrication equipment to remove doors and windows to rescue the hypothetical patient.
The purchases and training may seem like a lot considering an average of one extrication every year over the past five years. Johnson said that most collisions in Cheney don't result in intense damage due to low speeds in town. But it does happen, and Cheney crews also help Fire District No. 3 when there's an incident near the city.
“We have to be able to respond when something does happen,” he said.
Becky Thomas can be reached at [email protected].
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