It’s been a busy week here at Co 1 with two “mild” vehicle extrications in the last 6 days.
It all started on Sunday morning, (1/15) just before 8am when a multicar accident pushed a damaged vehicle into the center median, trapping the injured driver.
Due to the patient’s injuries, our well-trained firefighters executed a standard “roof removal” to get the patient out as fast as possible without further injuring them.
On Saturday (1/21) just before 9pm, our firefighters were called out again to extricate the driver of a sedan that veered off Route 17 for an unknown reason before striking a tree and rolling multiple times before coming to rest upright on the driver’s side.
Vehicles in this orientation are a more complex situation because the vehicle can unexpectedly fall during rescue. Thankfully, our firefighters train for this exact scenario and were able to rapidly secure the vehicle against falling before extricating the injured driver through the vehicle’s moonroof.
Note: All pictures in this post were taken after the patient had been removed from the vehicle, the stabilizing equipment had been removed, and just prior to the vehicle being loaded onto a tow truck.
Getting injured people out of badly wrecked vehicles is a specialty of any rescue company, and we take pride in our expertise performing this type of rescue. At least once per month, our firefighters dedicate time to training on various extrication techniques and tools, so we can be ready to go when the need arises.
If you have an old car you’d like to donate to us, contact us right here and we’ll arrange it. As a 501 c(3) organization, we provide you with all the documentation you need for a tax write off. And it goes to the best possible use: keeping our skills sharp!
Here are a few recent drills:
Volvo Extrication Demo
When a major car manufacturer asks you to cut up one of their brand new cars for 50 of their employees, you say yes!
Drill Night: Auto Extrication
Last night the members of Co1 drilled on auto extrication. Different evolutions were practiced from the newest techniques to going over old school techniques like lifting the dash with the spreaders, chains and creating a highpoint. As the sole Rescue Company in the Township, the members of Company 1 constantly train to stay sharp in these skills.
Drill Night: Air Chisels
For this week’s drill Co1 Firefighters practiced their skills with the air chisels. These are pneumatically powered chisels that can quickly cut through metal. These are not typically used on extrications but can be very useful to quickly cut through most metal parts found in vehicles. Along with working with the air chisels, our new members also learned how to use the slid hammer, or the “Bam-Bam-Tool” as we call it. This is an old school manually operated extrication tool that with the right operator is still useful today. Think you would like to join us? Stop by Wednesday nights at 730 or emails us at info@mfdco1.org Images may not be used by any media outlet without prior permission from Mahwah Fire Rescue Co #1.
Drill Night: Airbags
For this week’s drill Co1 firefighters practiced their skills with our high-pressure airbags. These are typically used to lift an object when used in conjunction with cribbing. Our task for the drill was to safely lift a shipping container from both ends, and then secure it with cribbing. This is an important skillset that requires coordination between different teams while using equipment that we do not get use that frequently. Think you would like to join us? Stop by Wednesday nights at 730 or emails us at info@mfdco1.org Images may not be used by any media outlet without prior permission from Mahwah Fire Rescue Co #1.
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