Stronger cars, potential dangers still no problem for Humber fire and emergency

Humber’s fire and emergency services program is always updating its vehicle crash rescue techniques and equipment to keep up with new technologies, said program manager Ian Sim.

Metals that are harder to cut through, air bags that can go off at any moment, and hollow drive-shafts that can explode are among the potentially dangerous components they encounter.

“There are many issues that come up in cars. There are a lot of new technologies that come along,” he said. “As they do, you adapt and change your training techniques.”

He added that rescue tool manufacturers are doing a good job producing new equipment to keep up with developments in vehicle technology.

“The new tools do a good job,” he said. “As far as technology, manufacturers are keeping up. As new things are required, manufacturers are using new equipment.”

Auto-extrication personnel use a variety of tools, including electric saws, impact guns and pneumatic spreaders, better known as “the jaws of life.”

Although it was reported in the Toronto Star on Monday that it took emergency crews an hour to free three trapped Brinks guards from their overturned truck, Captain Mark Bardgett of the special operations section of Toronto Fire Services said new vehicle materials are not an issue for them.

“We have a comprehensive extrication program that educates firefighters about various aspects of vehicle extrication,” he said. “Toronto Fire Services is very diligent at looking at tools capable of doing the job.”

Toronto Fire Services has committees that evaluate the performance of equipment and deal with manufacturers about the availability of new tools.

Sim said part of the challenge facing his program is getting cars from auto-wreckers built with the latest technology for training.

“Unfortunately it is hard to get those cars to train on because you get old cars at auto-wreckers to train on,” he said. “Although we can’t get those cars to actually cut up, when we are doing some of the older cars we’re pointing out the points where they would find those issues so at least they’re aware of it.”

Some new vehicles, like the Mercedes S-Class, have safe cutting zone marked on the car so emergency teams know where to cut. Bardgett said other manufacturers are starting to do this too.

Toronto Fire Services’ auto-extrication teams train on cars four times per year and get training on new equipment as they become available.

“Our department is very diligent in training and keeping up to date on new vehicle technology,” said Capt. Bardgett.