Firefighters practice rescuing victim trapped in vehicle during 4-car pileup
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IDAHO FALLS – Rescuing someone trapped inside a vehicle sandwiched between two other vehicles with a school bus on top is quite an undertaking. But that’s exactly what happened during a training exercise with the Idaho Falls Fire Department earlier this week.
Firefighters gathered in shifts throughout the day at Pacific Recycling at 1155 North Higbee Avenue for day two of a three-day training involving the department and Hendrickson’s Towing. The training began with about 30 minutes of verbal instruction before getting into the hands-on portion.
EastIdahoNews.com spoke with Idaho Falls Fire Department Captain Tyler Weddle just before Tuesday’s training got underway. He explained the steps involved in successfully performing this type of rescue operation.
“When we show up on a scene, we’re going to identify how many patients we have. Based on that and the complexity of the incident, we’re going to call for additional resources,” Weddle says. “In this situation, we’re going to take off the rear hatch door of the vehicle and tunnel in … remove the seats, reach the victim and start medical care.”
Additional steps are involved, depending on the situation. Since the practice vehicle during Tuesday’s training was trapped under a bus, firefighters had to stabilize the bus and relieve some of the pressure it was putting on the vehicles underneath it before a rescue attempt could even begin. See how it works in the video player above.
Day one of the training took place last weekend and simulated rescuing a victim from a vehicle trapped underneath a truck and a bus. A second scenario involved removing a victim from a car with a cement truck on top of it. A slight variation of these scenarios happened on Thursday during day three of instruction.
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This week’s vehicle extrication training comes as six new recruits join the IFFD. Weddle says large-scale training scenarios like this are typically held once or twice a year and are designed to imitate a real-life situation.
All the vehicles used in the training were donated by Pacific Recycling. Hendrickson’s Towing also provided services during the drill.
“I’m going to talk about my truck and help these guys understand the capacities of the truck. I will be operating it and helping them get this person out of the vehicle,” Hendrickson’s Towing Manager Cody Hendrickson said before Tuesday’s training.
Hendrickson says he and the department began discussing a partnership for trainings like this about a year ago. Plans were in place until the pandemic prevented them from being implemented. Things started moving forward again in March when the towing company worked with the IFFD on a crash along Interstate 15.
“We were waiting for some other things to get done and just started talking about the benefit that would be provided to (people) in the area if we could start to integrate training with other entities and agencies. In a heavy extrication situation, it’s a tremendous benefit for us to have a tow truck on scene,” Weddle says.
Weddle is grateful to everyone who donated time and resources for this week’s drills. There are 120 firefighters with the department and Weddle says these practices help them be prepared for real emergencies.
“We work 365 days a year, 24/7 and hopefully it’s never them or their loved ones (who need help in an emergency), but if it is, we’re going to show up and we’re going to professionally and efficiently be able to remove them from the situation and try and make their day better.”