Article from Spring 2009 edition of INTREPID
| | | SAVING TIME AT THE START: TO GAIN IT AT THE END IN VEHICLE RESCUE
| | | By Brad Goodwin and Ken Gibb
| | |  As we all know, or should know, the world of vehicle extrication changes with every new model year, every car show and every new concept car. Even the term vehicle extrication is changing. Have you ever been asked by someone other than a firefighter what "Extrication" means? In order to communicate more effectively with the car dealerships, vehicle manufacturers, members of the public, council members and even in some cases, our fire department administration, the term “Vehicle Rescue” may be more appropriate and easier to understand. When educating the above groups about what we are facing on today’s highways, it is usually more appropriate to use more common terms. Requests for equipment, money, etc., always come easier when a clarification of definition is not required.
Numerous articles have been written about new vehicle technology, vehicle techniques and their place in today’s vehicle crashes. These articles refer to air bags, seat belt pretensioners and other safety systems that need to be located so that an informed decision on what your action plan is going to be can be made – without a doubt this is very important and relevant information. However, the question always comes up on the training ground, “It now takes more time to find the safety systems and work around them, where do we make up the time we are losing?” This is a very relevant question. The Golden Hour still applies for our patients to have the best chance survival, and so for us as firefighters, we still need to be able to perform our role in an efficient and safe manner.
Here are few suggestions that have worked for numerous fire departments across Canada: | | | | PREPLAN YOUR VEHICLE RESCUE | | | Know who on the truck will be responsible for each aspect of the initial scene size up, who will do the outer circle, who will do the inner circle, who will start getting tools ready, who will deploy the wheel chocks for initial safety, who will get the fire extinguisher etc. If assignments are given after being on scene it will cost some time, may only a little, but by the end of the incident it will add up.
Know who on your truck has what level of skill set. Don’t wait until you arrive on scene to find out that the duty exchange for the day has no vehicle rescue experience or training. Who is your patient care person, who will be using the tools, who will be the support firefighter? By knowing their roles early, firefighters will be able to prepare for their tasks en route, putting on rescue helmets, grabbing tool pouches, etc.
Have a pre-set tool tarp. It may have been months between actual vehicle rescues, so while training, use the same tool tarp set-up each time. Have a laminated list of the equipment that you want to have on the tarp for each entrapment call. This will lessen the possibility of missed or forgotten equipment. Another option is to spray paint your tarp into sections, hand tools in one, hydraulic tools in another, air tools in another, mechanical tools in another and electrical tools in yet another. It will save you time if each time you go to the tarp, whether it be in training or at a call, the tools are in the same place each time and grouped with other like tools. This is no different than a mechanics tools box. Each tool that is deployed to the tool staging area should be in a ready state. The gas engines should be started; a new blade in the sawzall with a power source available; hydraulic tools hooked up and tested. The sooner the Incident Command knows that a tool is not functioning, the quicker additional resources can be called. You don’t want to find out the tool you are trying to deploy to the vehicle from the staging tarp does not work for one reason or another.
Deploy multiple tools at once. During a roof removal us both a reciprocating saw and heavy hydraulics. As a Commander or a tool operator, this requires constant communication on the scene. Tool operators must inform their Commander or Sector Officer of their intention and wait for permission to continue. This ensures that the Commander is informed and that scene control is maintained. If rescuers get ahead of the overall strategy, both rescuer and patient safety may be compromised. Significant time can be saved by performing multiple evolutions at once.
| | | EVERYONE ON SCENE MUST BE SPEAKING THE SAME LANGUAGE
| | | The terminology used to describe a vehicle’s location or the location on a vehicle must be accurate and leave no room for personal interpretation. To use terms like left, right, top or bottom allows the rescuers to confuse or interpret what the Incident Commander or Rescue Sector Officer is asking. It can be argued that these terms are based on your position in relation to the vehicle. Each time an order or request needs to be clarified by the crew, it will unnecessarily slow down your rescue time. By using terms such as roof side, under side, trunk side, hood side, passenger’s side and driver’s side, regardless of your perspective on the vehicle, there is no room for interpretation if you are asked to put cribbing under the driver’s side, or put the debris near the hood. If the order is clear and precise, it will save you time and in-turn help the outcome for your patient.
The paramedic units that we work with in our area need to know our capabilities. The paramedics (in general) may not have the exposure to understand what we can do with today’s tools. Therefore, they may not know what options they have for patient removal. Invite your EMS responders out to your next training session to allow them to see what works. Also, if a paramedic asks you how long a certain procedure or technique takes; we need to be able to tell them. They are making decisions based on what we tell them, so practice your removal technique and time to give you a base line you can use on scene. Once again, if a discussion is required between the Incident Commander from Fire and EMS as to what technique or direction is to be used to remove the patient, it will use up your valuable time.
| | | MAKE YOUR TRAINING SESSION AS CLOSE TO REAL AS YOU CAN
| | |  All too often, fire departments attend vehicle rescue training sessions and the vehicle is on all four wheels on level ground with no damage. If this is the case at a real incident, we would not be responding. By making our training sessions resemble, as close as possible, real situations, you will be a much better prepared rescuer for what you will face on the road. Add some damage and metal displacement to your training cars. Metal does not move the same once it has been damaged. As rescuers, we need to be able to recognize relief points or stress points in twisted metal, which direction is it going to move when we try and relocate it? The techniques that your department uses and practices in the wrecking yard may not work the way you want them to in the field. If you have never practiced on a vehicle with a damaged roof, you may not realize how much the roof moves up and down while trying to access a door or cut the roof off.
Your choice of tool for any given evolution is also very important. Leave the heavy hydraulics on your truck and use hand tools only during your next training session, I would like to suggest it is more important to know what all of your tools are capable of, than it is to learn step-by-step techniques using strictly heavy hydraulics. Don’t get me wrong, those techniques are still very important things to know, but a well trained firefighter with a reciprocating saw or air chisel may be the better or only option. We need to be able to adapt to each situation as required. A certain technique may not quite fit but if we know what our tools are capable of and what tools are available, we can make it work.
Train often. Train safely.
| | | | Ken Gibb | | Ken is fulltime firefighter with twenty years experience. For the last five years he has been employed by Central York Fire Services and is currently stationed in Newmarket. He is the Vehicle Rescue Instructor for the Department. The first fifteen years of his career were spent with Mississauga Fire & Emergency Services. Ken is also an associate instructor for the Ontario Fire College. | | | | Brad Goodwin - A. J. Stone Eastern Ontario Sales Representative | | Brad has been a firefighter with the Toronto Fire Services for twelve years. He is on-shift instructor in vehicle rescue for TFS as well as an associate Vehicle Rescue Instructor for the Ontario Fire College. Brad is also a TERC Canada Judge for Vehicle Rescue Challenges. |
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