Oskaloosa Independent – November 28, 2013
Submitted by Newz Group Clipping Service – December 4, 2013
Jefferson County firefighters from the Winchester District 10 volunteer department spent a weekend in November tearing up cars.
The training session introduced fire department members to new extrication equipment, which is employed to remove car accident victims from their demolished vehicles. Emergency medical techniques also were practiced.
“It was pretty intense training and I think our firefighters learned a lot,” Chief Jim Bodenheimer says. Twenty-two department members donned their gear and tore into a half dozen junkyard cars using a variety of extrication tools.
The equipment was purchased from T-N-T Tools, an Oklahoma fire equipment company. A $41,000 grant from a FEMA Assistance to Firefighters program funded the purchase. The equipment includes a hydraulic pump and motor affixed to one of the department fire trucks and two reels of hydraulic hose.
Tools operated by the hydraulic system range from a scissors cutter capable of slicing through the high-tensile steel in today’s autos, a spreader that can methodically pry open crumpled car doors, two jacks for expanding frames for removal of victims, and a combination tool that can both cut and spread. A second hydraulic unit on a portable engine is carried in another truck.
The red and black T-N-T equipment replaces old extrication tools that, in comparison, were weaker in their hydraulics and far heavier to lift and use. The deficiencies in the old equipment were apparent when Winchester firefighters responded earlier in the year to a two-car accident north of town in which victims were entrapped in mangled wreckage. The T-N-T equipment was on order at that time.
Firefighters were unanimous in their praise of the new tools. The men and women in the department took turns being victims, cutting away doors and roofs, widening openings, and protecting victims from falling glass and cutting tools before removing them on body boards.
Keith Lindemann, a fire captain on the Salina Fire Department, was the trainer on both days of the exercise. He has more than two decades of experience as a fireman and emergency responder and shared techniques of rescue he has learned in that time.
The training event was one of a series that Chief Bodenheimer is conducting to prepare the firefighters for their volunteer work. Over the last year, a dozen young men and women have joined the department. A farm equipment rescue class is scheduled for next spring.
Training over the weekend were department members Jim Bodenheimer, Nelda Bodenheimer, Brian Meyer, Giles Lambertson, Jon Johnson, David Lambertson, John Huff, Holly Rodenheimer, Sean Wilson, Matthew Finley, Kenny Hall, John Hewitt, Josh Bodenheimer, Jacob Gaffey, Jared Pemberton, Samantha Drinkard, Robert Gould, Natalie Huff, Jenny Ptaschek, Cheyenne Johnson, Andy Miller, and Casey Willyard.
Two interested community members, Doug and Colby Kramer, also participated.
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