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| Local Firefighters Learn Vehicle Extrication |
Cars have become so safe, it's become difficult for first responders to safely extricate a victim from a car that's crashed.
That's according to Peter Fiset, a manager with Maryland-based Holmatro Rescue Equipment, a firm that makes the equipment that first responders and firefighters use in those situations. Fiset was in Oneida Friday and Saturday training the Oneida-Wataga Fire Department and three others on how to safely extricate people from newer vehicles.
Fiset tells WGIL the new safety features are good, until it's time to make a rescue.
"With the new cars, we can have as many as 16 air bags in some of these vehicles. The air bags have basically become the packing peanuts for the safety engineers," Fiset said. "When the cars go through the prescribed tests -- crashing into walls with the mannequins and the dummies there sensing the type of injury -- if the injuries are not acceptable, the easiest thing to do is put another air bag in the way of the passenger and the vehicle."
Oneida-Wataga Captain Pat Hennenfent tells WGIL he learned one very important thing over the weekend: use your time wisely.
"When we get to the scene, before we're ever out the fire truck, we're already sizing things up," Hennenfent said. "Speed is the deal. Get the patient out as quick as possible. They say we have the 'golden hour' from the time of the accident to get them to the trauma center. If all that's spent with extrication, it doesn't give the patient near as good a chance. Our job is to get them out quickly and safely, and learn every short cut we can to make that happen."
Fiset says the larger the vehicle, the more complex the extrication is for fire department.
(Peter Fiset, Central Region Manager for Holmatro Rescue Equipment, talks with volunteer firefighters about vehicle extrication Saturday in Oneida.)
(Volunteers work to cut open a car in order to extricate a victim.)
(EMT's and volunteer firefighters work to extricate a victim during training Saturday. The victim was played by another volunteer firefighter. WGIL News Story and Photos by Will Stevenson.) |
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| 06 26 11 by Newsroom |
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