Over the weekend, firefighters from seven counties in New York, including departments in Genesee County, were in Le Roy for a training class on rescusing people from accidents involving large vehicles.
The Heavy Metal Extrication Class was organized by Tim Hogle, an assistant chief with the Le Roy Fire Department.
"As you can see from some of the scenarios, if something tips over, they're learning what they need to do and what they need to use to get people out of the cars," Hogle said.
On Friday, participants sat through a full day of classroom instruction. On Saturday and Sunday, they were on site at Ron Coniber's shop on Randall Road dealing with rescue situations involving tractor-trailers, box cars, dump trucks, tow trucks and buses.
Locally, firefighters from Stafford, Le Roy, Town of Batavia and City of Batavia participated. Other firefighters came from as far away as Ithaca and Watertown.
"With all the highways that come thorugh Genesee County, from the Thruway to Route 19 to the 490, all of them, we have a lot of commercial traffic coming through here and sooner or later we're going have an accident," Hogle said. "We're going to need to be able to work together throughout the county, using the resources each department has, for a rescue."
If this sort of thing interests you, become a volunteer firefighter. Visit ReadyGenesee.com.
