On the Scene, Firefighters respond during exercise

Published July 23, 2009
By Senior Airman Stephen Linch
380th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs

SOUTHWEST ASIA -- Emergency crews respond to emergency situations where life, property or the environment is at risk. When put to the test, it is never pass or fail, but a matter life or death.

When the stakes are that high, training is invaluable.

"The fire department can be called to help everybody in almost every situation, so the more training we do the better off everyone is," said Tech. Sgt. Patrick Smith, 380th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron, assistant chief of training for the fire department.

Preparing for one situation, the fire department and ambulatory service got together to do an exercise dealing with a vehicle collision with entrapments and passengers needing medical attention July 18.

The fire crews rolled onto the scene at 6:30 a.m. July 18, where a van had taken a corner too fast and collided with a truck. With the truck on fire, firefighters quickly moved in to put the fire out so they could provide medical attention to its passenger.

Within a minute of being on scene, the fire department had extinguished the flames and were providing the needed medical care, said Sergeant Smith, who is deployed from the Air Force Academy Colo., and hails from Manistee, Mich.

Although medical services arrived on scene, and the flames were extinguished, the firefighters still needed to attend to the van passengers including one who was trapped in the cab.

As several firefighters attended to the passengers in the rear of the van, others started prying their way into the cab of the van.

After several failed attempts of trying to free the trapped passenger, the firefighters brought out the jaws of life, using the powerful hydraulic tool to pry the doors open.

Soon after they had treated and turned all the passengers over to medical services for medical care, finishing their portion of the exercise.

This type of training provides knowledge about hydraulic tools and techniques, strategies for rescue, cutting down that "golden hour" of rescue time, and a better understanding of life-saving skills, said Sergeant Smith.

"The young guys showed a lot of hustle and got the victims taken care of," said Sergeant Smith. "I'm proud of everybody - they did a real good job."