UFRA Extrication Class

Friday Chris and I spent the day at UFRA fire classes. His was Safety Officer and mine was Extrication. We got to pick our classes. I went for a fun one and he went for one that would give him a good certification. Both of our classes were in Garland. His class was all classroom for two days. Mine was a 1 day class. We spent about an hour in the class, took a break and headed to a junkyard. When we got there they had 5 cars lined up for us. They told us we could cut up as many cars as we wanted. WOO HOO!! This was our set of cars and tools. We had 12 people in the class so we broke into 2 groups. Our group ended up being me , Trica, 3 Ogden Fire guys and a guy from Honeyville. We had a really good group.

 We went over a lot of different things. There are a lot of ways to cut apart a car and take doors and roofs off. Its not always the same and it depends on how the car lands, rolls, how the patients are positioned etc. Trica took this pict of me taking off a roof. I love it because you can see the glass flying all over. 

 We had taken off all 4 doors separately. Taken off the roof and then we were rolling the dash. Thats when you cut the front posts by where your feet go and lift up the dash with the spreaders so you can get peoples feet free or the dash off of them.

 I actually got a lot more time on the tools than I expected. There were 6 of us and 2 tools so that meant 4 of us at any time were doing different things or watching and learning. Thats how I got to take so many pictures. We would take turns and two of us would take off one set of doors then switch. The next two take off the others. The next two take off half the roof etc. So dont think because I have picts of everyone else working that I didnt get my turn too.

Trica had never done anything like this before at all. She was so nervous but did a great job! The instructors were awesome and really thorough. 

 Airbags are a great thing but they pose a HUGE safety risk to firefighters. One thing is cars have airbags EVERYWHERE inside of them. In the trim, foot pedals, under the seats, dashes etc. When you go to extricate someone and start cutting on a car you have to look and peel off all the inside plastic and trim to make sure you dont cut an airbag or gas cylinder. They come out at such a high rate of speed it can throw your tools into you or the patient, hurt you or the patient or shoot the gas cylinders through the car. Thats why normally on any accident you will see the fire dept open the hood by any means and cut the battery cable. Cutting the cable helps prevent unexploded airbags from going off. They can still be set off by a spark from a tool but its harder to do. Before we care for a patient or get into a car with them and not all the airbags have gone off we have to cut the cables for our own safety. This seat is pushed all the way back. See how far the airbag has came out. Imagine now we are leaning our heads into the car and holding the patients neck and the airbag decides to deploy.

They set us up a little challenge on this car. I was IC (Incident Command) I had to make assignments and our job was to stabilize the car, cut the battery, peel the trim and take off two doors by taking them off separately not all together. Our team did it in just under 6 minutes which is pretty awesome for just starting.

 Clay, one of the Ogden guys, his father in law and my dad have been friends forever. The other two Ogden guys in our class didnt know who I was until Clay opened his mouth. Clay and the other two just happen to be on my dads crew so he is their big boss. From then on it was over. They kept calling me ma'am and being complete smartasses. They were opening doors for me, telling me they would hold the tools for me so my arms didnt get tired, or they didnt want me to get hurt, I could go sit down so I didnt break a nail, etc. I told them to kiss my ass and they said "Yep! She is a Barton there is that Barton temper coming out!" I kept telling them Im not a Barton Im Jess. Big difference. They were giving me a hard time and it was all in fun. 

We came back from lunch and they opened my truck door and tried to help me out. I shut the door on them. Clay hurried and layed his coat down over a dirt pile so I didnt get my boots dirty and then they tried to wipe the dirt off my boots. I told them I had to get a picture of that and send to my dad to say see how good your guys treat me. I thought it was hilarious. Our instructor for the class was also the Station 4 captain where I had both of my ambulance ride alongs. I told them then when I was in the station I am NOT Bartons daughter today. I am just Jess. It didnt do much good haha! They razzed me the whole class and I lost count of how many times I told them what they could do with their special treatment. It was all in fun though we had a great time. 

We took the front door off this truck and then learned how to take off the '3rd door' even though its not really a door. 

 Our team cut apart 3 of these 5 vehicles. We were rocking it!

 Trica got to break out her first windows in vehicles. She was hooked from then on!

The 4th vehicle we got to cut apart was on its side. We got out struts and learned how to properly secure the vehicle so it wouldn't roll back over.

We also clamshelled it (pulled off the roof on its side) then took out the passenger and drivers seats.

 and took off the passenger door

 Our accomplishment for a day.

 We flipped our car over on its roof and the other team flipped theirs on its wheels

This video shows the force of a passenger airbag. All we did was put a large orange cone on top of where the bag comes from. This is why little kids cant sit in the front seat!!