Washington D.C. Truck Company 12 sent in this photo of their window/motor vehicle accident kit. Their particular kit includes the ‘‘Big Easy Kit’’ for opening a locked car (child locked in), padded board splints, c-collars, head blocks, Dewalt corded sawzall with spare blades, hand saw, foam blankets for covering patients, various hand tools such as screwdrivers, wrenches, socket sets, pry bar, utility knives, pliers, slip joint pliers, trauma shears, seat belt cutter, mini hot stick duct tape, medical tape, and a kit of padded splinting devices.

MVA kits are a handy way to have all of the random small items needed during an extrication. We have all had to get the job done without some of these simple tools, but having them in an easy accessible place makes a difference. Having all of the commonly used items pre designated, and prepackaged makes the job much easier.

The increasing popularity of hybrids was accompanied by an increased amount of information provided to firefighters on how to deal with them when they have been involved in an accident. A quick internet search on anything hybrid related with provide a large amount of information geared toward firefighters. One interesting thing is that for the first time the automobile manufactures started to labeled things for us on the vehicle, particularly, what not to cut in an emergency. They have since taken this idea of providing information to firefighters one step further… The manufactures have now started to include information of where we should cut. These labels are now being utilized on non-hybrid vehicles as well. For instance, the pictures used in this post were taken on a full sized, four door, diesel pick-up truck.

Chevy, for example, calls these labels “First Responder Tags” and “Cable Cut Tags.” They install the “First Responder Tag” (shown above) near the hood opening directing to the proximity of the cut tags, and the “Cable Cut Tags” (shown below) are located on a cable near the under hood fuse panel. In this case, this truck (being a diesel) has two batteries. As shown in the photos, there is only one cut tag, leading us to belive that making one quick cut will disable the entire electrical system. So take it for what it’s worth. the manufactures are showing us exactly where to cut in order to remove the electrical hazards, or we could go old school and do traditional cable cuts near the battery, it’s up to you.

Michael Rush from Chattanooga (TN) Squad 3 sent in this simple but effective method of storing sawzall blades. They simply took some scrap cardboard and folded in in half to make sleeves to hold the blades, these sleeves are kept in the box with the saw. The cardboard sleeves are covered in duct tape to make them last, and finished with some custom sharpie work to identity the different blades carried. They have found that the cardboard-duct tape combo fits in the sawzall box easily, takes up less space, and is more pliable then using a sleeve made from old fire hose. The nice thing about this method of storage is that the blades can be easily identified when reaching into the box to grab a specific blade. Another benefit is that the entire sleeve of blades and be slipped in the coat pocket of who ever is utilizing the saw, making a mid-cut blade replacement a breeze.

In a post a few weeks ago titled “Set It Don’t Forget It” there seemed to be some misunderstandings on the capabilities of lift bags that we felt should be cleared up. We apologize in advance for the heavy use of math that is contained in this post.

Click Here for the supplemental page containing the information.

FF Ryan Cox from Lacey (WA) Station 31 sent in an interesting write-up of a situation they recently ran into. It involves a 700lb man, a 2nd floor Jacuzzi, and some imagination. Ryan’s full description of the event is listed below as the first comment to this post, it’s a long read, but well worth it.

It may not have been how everyone would have handled it, but that doesn’t make it wrong. Remember, the most important part of the story is that it worked for them…

It’s been a long time since we posted anything special ops related. Thankfully, Chris Wilson from Bloomingdale Fire sent in these shots of an interesting trench. He pointed out the photos actually came from Chief Dave Traiforos. Apparently, Franklin Park Engine 3 ran into this while returning to quarters from a working fire. They found workers in this trench about 10′ under the machine. After a short discussion, the worked was stopped and OSHA was called. We can hear it now: “…but we’ve been doing it that way for years”

I saw this attempt of a raker shore a number of years ago… I hope they don’t actually plan on ever using this method of shoring. This photo is a prime example of someone who “thinks” they are trained to perform a certain task. Even after being trained, we advocate utilizing the FOG manual when constructing shoring. Each one of the shores is professionally engineered, and needs to be constructed in a very particular manner. As with any other fire service task, on-going training is extremely important. -Jimm-

You perform the way you train!

Whadda think?

We at VentEnterSearch.com understand that many Truck Companies are also tasked with handling Special Operations incidents. So we figured we’d start to include some Special Ops stuff. How many safety issues can you find in this one? -Jimm-