MORRISTOWN — The pile of twisted metal was iffy. The firefighters didn’t know if the stack of wrecked cars — one on top of the other — would tip over or potentially shift just enough to pin one of the rescuers trying to extract the victims of a multi-car accident.
The first thing members of the Hancock County Technical Rescue team did was secure the vehicles, applying braces to the cars on top of the pile, then strapping them to the ones underneath to make the site secure.
Then it was time for firefighters to make sure they rescued the victims during the “golden hour” — the time following a traumatic injury where quick extraction and medical attention can increase the odds of an accident victim’s survival.
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Members of the Greenfield Fire Territory and Sugar Creek Township Fire Department who are part of the Hancock County Technical Rescue team recently gathered at Integrity Metals, a recycling center in Shelby County, to bend metal, break glass and prepare for the worst.
The team meets four times a year to work on life-saving skills. These are the firefighters who spring into action when jaws of life are needed, or when a person is trapped in a grain elevator. They’re the first-responders who work during the most precarious times.
“These are the runs that are very complex, called high-risk, low-frequency types of runs,” said Tony Bratcher, public information officer with the Sugar Creek Township Fire Department.
The types of runs Bratcher is referring to don’t happen often, but when they do, they’re critical and require specially trained firefighters. With railroad tracks and a major interstate running through the county, agencies know these skills will be required at some point.
One of the first things firefighters learn to do during technical rescue training is to stabilize a crash scene. Once scenes are secure, they can then help a victim. During the recent training, they worked on those skills and lift training: getting trapped victims out from under heavy machinery using airbags. The final stage of the training involved cutting car chassis to rescue victims from mangled vehicles.
Not every firefighter gets to be on the county tech rescue team. Officials don’t allow anyone without at least three years of firefighter training to join the life-saving squad.
Drieden Schuler, a firefighter/EMT for Sugar Creek, went through the tech rescue training for the first time in Morristown and immediately saw the value.
“We do a lot of car accidents, but we don’t get the severity that’s necessary for cutting, so it’s nice to come out here and do it,” he said.
Schuler learned how to take a car antenna and use it to break a car window, and how to handle and cut a car door without having to tear it apart.
Hands-on and cross-training with the crews from the different county agencies can make a real difference when the departments get together for real to do what they hope will be seamless life-saving work.
Jason Horning, deputy chief of the Greenfield Fire Territory, thought the cross-training was valuable for both departments, particularly since the two agencies work together often on rescues.
“In this line of work, there are many right ways to do things, but we don’t have time for that on the scene, so this type of training lets us know how we do things and how they do things,” Horning said.
When the groups train, they break up according to their work shifts so the firefighters they’re training with will more than likely be the ones they’ll see in real-life emergencies.
“This type of training helps build those relationships,” Horning said.
While EMS calls are a fire department’s top calls, car accidents are second, meaning this type of safety work is valuable.
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Hancock County Technical Rescue Team trains in different disciplines:
Confined spaces, vehicle and machinery, trench, wilderness, swift water, structural collapse and rope rescue.
Source: Indiana Department of Homeland Security.
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