About 20 firefighters from seven volunteer fire companies in the county were at the Darien Fire Hall yesterday to learn and practice how to rescue children trapped on a crashed school bus.
Extricating patients from school buses is unique, explained Jeff Luker, a coordinator with Emergency Services, because school buses are not built like other buses, or even cars.
"School buses are a lot tougher, a lot heavier, because they're handling our kids on the street," Luker said. "There's some special things we can do as fire service if there is an accident with kids to go in and take them off and deal with injuries."
While there was cutting and sawing during training, blades aren't the only tools used at a school bus accident.
"School buses are build different," Luker said. "The big cutting tools often used with a car often aren't as effective as using a screwdriver and a socket set."
Participating departments were Town of Batavia, Darien, Alabama, Byron, East Pembroke, Alexander and Le Roy.
If you think you're cut out for this kind of work, find out how to become a volunteer firefighter by visiting ReadyGenesee.com.
Not for nothing, and I am
Not for nothing, and I am speaking of experience(CDL A with School Bus endorsement for 20 years), but if they(the volunteer FD & EMS) want this to be as realistic as possible, the crash should involve the school bus and a much larger vehicle instead of the one used.
Reason: School buses are manufactured under strict state and federal regulations regarding design, and materials used in construction of school buses. Basically they are a shell within a shell for the protection of the passengers. The small car used in this training exercise, wouldn't even cause a blister on a passenger let alone trap anyone on the bus.
A more realistic training model would be using a vehicle roughly the same size as the school bus as that would cause severe damage to the bus as well as cause serious injuries to the passengers and the possibility of extrication measure being needed.
Just saying!
Raymond, not for nothing, and
Raymond, not for nothing, and I am speaking from experience (25 year NFPA Certified Firefighter and extrication technician), this was not meant to be a realistic accident scenario.
Reason: School buses are manufactured differently than cars, SUV's, pickup trucks, and commercial trucks. Their strong points and weak points are different. Firefighters need to learn where they can cut and where they can not. Where do you use the big power tools and where do you use hand tools. What will compromise structural integrity and what will not.
That is why this was an extrication class and not a drill.
A drill, as I would run it, would be setting up a realistic accident scene with "victims" of varying injuries from uninjured to deceased. Fire and EMS would be "dispatched" per actual protocols. All chief officers would be safety observers. The junior officers (future chiefs) would be in charge running the different aspects of the evolution(fire watch, physical extrication, patient care and removal, etc.) This is where you put the training these firefighters just received into practice. This is where they make and learn from their mistakes. God forbid they have to put these skills to use in a real world scene, but this is where the kinks get worked out in the drill.
That is why this was a class, not a drill.