Firefighter training; photo courtesy General Motors of Canada. Click image to enlarge

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By Jil McIntosh

Toronto, Ontario – These days, cars and trucks are safer than they’ve ever been, thanks to such innovations as crumple zones, airbags, seatbelt pretensioners, and high-strength steel. But drivers still crash them, and when they do, those safety features become part of a firefighter’s process in pulling the car apart.

All of these features must be taken into account, and first responders are continually upgrading their skills, working in-house and with vehicle manufacturers, to stay on top of the latest features. That’s the job of Mark Bardgett, a captain with Toronto Fire Services’ Professional Development & Training, who is constantly gathering and teaching information on new vehicle technologies.

“It doesn’t take longer to get someone out, but we look at different ways when we assess wrecks, and determine what is the best way to defeat the structure,” Bardgett said. “It’s not like television. We have many different ways to gain access to our patients by moving metal.”

The patient – the first responder’s term for the person being removed from the wreck – is always the priority. Firefighters follow a system that requires them to first stabilize the patient, and then the vehicle. This involves shoring up the car with “cribs,” wooden structures that prevent it from rolling or shifting. That’s essential, because when large pieces of metal such as a door or roof are removed, the car can “float” on its suspension due to the missing weight. Any vehicle movement has the potential to impede the rescue or create a dangerous situation.

Toronto Fire Captain Mark Bardgett; photo by Jil McIntosh. Click image to enlarge

Those basics haven’t changed, but vehicles have, and fire services across the country are constantly learning and updating their skills as cars become more sophisticated.

“Some vehicles have five layers of steel and reinforced pillars,” Bardgett said. “If you cut it, you can see that there are layers of overriding steel, and we teach our crews to work with it. If hydraulics don’t work, we use air chisels or reciprocating saws. If the method isn’t successful, we always have a ‘Plan B’ in store.”

Firefighters routinely cut through vehicle structures to gain access, but they never simply chop away where it looks most viable. Instead, they perform a step called “peel and peek” to determine what’s lurking under the surface. “We remove interior trim, looking for any types of gas inflators or pyrotechnic devices used for safety systems, or for brake and fuel lines that can run along the rocker panels,” Bardgett said. “We realize (that) because there are so many different car manufacturers, before we make any commitment to cut, we take away interior trim. There’s no blind cutting; that’s not an accepted practice. It only takes a matter of seconds.”

Even if the crew had cut apart an identical vehicle the day before, it would still “peel and peek,” Bardgett said, which is why he’s not concerned about any possibility of manufacturers deciding on common placement for the workings of their safety features. “Standardization wouldn’t matter, because we’re going to look for the (airbag) inflators,” he said. “With blind cutting, we could cut into pressurized vessels, which could activate the airbags. Potentially, even if we cut one, it wouldn’t do too much, because we’ve got our visors on, so it wouldn’t seriously injure a firefighter. And our patient is protected with ‘hard protection’; we protect our patients with Lexan shields and we cover them with blankets. It’s just one more thing we don’t need. It (an airbag deploying) could potentially knock us over, or it’ll give you a jolt when you’re working on a patient.”

First responders disconnect the vehicle’s battery, but Bardgett said that the capacitors can store energy for five to ten minutes or even longer, which means that the airbags could still go off. “Some manufacturers have weight sensors in the seat, and if we kneel into a car on the seat and the vehicle hasn’t been shut down, there’s potential for the airbag to deploy,” he said. The responders follow what’s called a “5-10-12-20 zone,” meaning they stay five inches away from seat side airbags, 10 inches away from the driver’s wheel, 12 inches from side curtain airbags, and 20 inches from the front passenger bag, so they won’t be struck if undeployed bags explode.

Firefighters also watch for brake and fuel lines, which can sometimes run along the rocker panels, and so they do “dash rolls” or “dash jacks,” pulling the dash away so they can check for lines before cutting into the vehicle’s structure. They’re also very careful of gas- or oil-filled hood or hatch struts, especially if the vehicle’s on fire. Firefighters always approach a vehicle at a 45-degree angle, so that if the strut does heat up and shoot out of the car, they’re out of harm’s way.

So should you worry that the safety features in your vehicle might impair your rescue? Both firefighters and automakers say absolutely not: their value as lifesaving devices far outweigh any extra caution that first responders need to take when working around them. “These are there to save you, first and foremost,” said Bill Davies, General Motors’ Canadian manager for field performance assessment. “It is a consideration, and as we design a vehicle and make it stronger, it will take more effort for a responder with his tools to get in and get people out. But as long as they keep up the training, then their systems and procedures take these into account.”

Davies said that, as many automakers do, GM works with rescue services across Canada, bringing in new vehicles and demonstrating the safety features, as well as any changes that might affect rescue efforts. “At the 2006 International Rescuer Challenge in Burlington (Ontario), GM provided fifty new cars and trucks,” Davies said. “Some of the tool manufacturers found that their tools would not cut our cars, and they went back to the drawing board and designed new tools. One of them called us and said, ‘We’ve designed a new tool, and can we cut up a new car?’ So they came in and cut up a new car. Once you’ve got the tools, the construction of the vehicle isn’t a big issue, it’s how you approach the rescue.” Davies also pointed out that although high-tensile steel is tougher to cut, it results in an improved safety cage. “As far as the occupant is concerned, we have far more walk-away crashes after the rescuers get there and get them out of the vehicle. The primary side has to be the occupant protection.”

Like other manufacturers, GM provides an online manual of schematics and information for first responders. Toronto Fire Services has access to software in its rescue vehicles that pulls up diagrams of safety systems for each vehicle model and year.

Hybrids also present a challenge, and like GM, Toyota has donated new vehicles for responder training. “There was some apprehension when hybrids were introduced for emergency response teams to understand the differences between hybrids and conventional vehicles,” said Sandy Di Felice, director of external affairs for Toyota Canada. “Toyota took a very strong approach that whoever would be servicing or approaching a vehicle would have the utmost safety provision, so there were no issues. Everything from the fluid in the battery, how they coded and placed the cables around the vehicle, isolating the chassis from the battery, that was all done.”

Di Felice said that Toyota took into account every person who would be approaching the vehicle, including dealership technicians and first responders, and their safety was part of the vehicle’s design right from the beginning. “It’s part of the training,” she said. “We have a program that we train them, and you’ll see it’s like a checklist, no different than when a pilot has a checklist before takeoff. It speaks to the routine of what you need to do and the order in which you need to do it in, and that’s how our training works around our product.”

While other systems can differ by manufacturers, Bardgett said that a hybrid battery cable, which can carry up to 640 volts, is always bright orange for quick identification, and responders know to stay away from it. Beyond that, though, nothing changes. “We still have to do the 12-volt shutdown of a hybrid vehicle,” he said. “In any car accident, we’re going to immediately chock the tires, turn the key to the ‘off’ position and disconnect the 12-volt battery. Once those procedures are met, then aside from the bright orange cable, everything else is the same. The manufacturers have been very safety-conscious in the design of the hybrid.”

Bardgett said that all automakers have been willing to assist first responders, and in 2006, at a seminar he gave on hybrid vehicles, he was able to obtain one of every hybrid vehicle made that year from the manufacturers. And should full electric vehicles make their way to consumers, he’s ready. “Fire departments have always been able to meet the challenges of new vehicle technology,” he said. “With safety procedures in mind, a rescue scene can be a very safe and efficient operation.”

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