The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper
Are you a team player? Like helping your community? Want to increase your income?
Then maybe you should join Fire Rescue NSW in Barham. From fires to road accidents, the team of dedicated retained fire rescue employees serve our community when people are at their most vulnerable.
I recently spent an evening with the crew at Barham as they performed a simulated road accident.
The more senior members of the Barham crew have almost a lifetime of experience in fire rescue, 40 years’ service, Bryan Hall and 30 years’, Drew Gardner.
With a few more aches and pains than the younger members, Drew and Bryan still give 100% in their training and service.
The task for the evening was to manually roll a Holden Cruze on its side and rescue the hypothetical occupants, under the supervision and guidance of Senior Rescue Instructor at Fire and Rescue NSW, Scott Gordon.
After a briefing on the night’s activities and, adorned with appropriate PPE, the team sprang into action. The first step was to remove the side and rear windows. The front window is only disturbed as a last resort, as the laminated front glass of a car creates glass splinters and can be hazardous to occupants.
With a glass breaker the crew shattered the windows and methodically removed them into a canvas catcher. For the rear window, a canvas sheet was placed on the rear parcel shelf and the window dropped onto the sheet before being dragged from the car.
The car was then secured with chocks and anchored to the back of a fire truck via a wire rope cable and Tirfor winch. In a surprisingly short amount of time the right side of the car had raised off the ground, before crashing onto its left side, a distinct sound one seldom forgets.
The next step was to secure the vehicle, to prevent injury to the rescuers. With chocks on one side and a new device soon to be supplied to rescue teams, the V Strut. The impressively light 7.2kg V-strut sets up in minutes and has an axial load capacity of 16 tonnes!
With the vehicle now secured, a plan was derived to get access to the hypothetical passengers. It is decided that folding the roof over is the best course of action.
For this, the team must deal with the front windscreen and check for potential hazards like airbags, as they will be required to cut through areas where curtain airbags are fitted in modern vehicles.
The windscreen is taped to limit glass shards and glass dust. After a hole is punched in the windscreen a Makita reciprocating saw glides through the laminated glass.
Next comes the heavy artillery, the parrot beak shears. The hydraulically powered unit operates on high pressure hydraulic fluid via a small petrol driven engine and pump.
Senior Rescue Instructor, Scott Gordon, demonstrated the new version of the hydraulic shears, a battery powered unit. Combining its own hydraulic pump and battery the cordless unit was lighter than the older design and in the inner notch of its jaws could deliver 28 tonnes of shearing force, enough to cut through a tow bar!
The parrot beak went to work, the A pillars were cut through first, also a small section of the roof to remove the curve, allowing for easier folding of the roof. The B and C pillars were next and after cutting some of the internal trim, the whole roof section was laying down.
The roof section was folded down and the sharp corners of the pillars were covered with protective guards to prevent injury to first responders. The roof section was then chocked, and a canvas sheet dragged over the roof to provide a flat work surface for medical services.
All in a day’s work for Fire Rescue.
Has Fire Rescue piqued your interest? Get in touch with the crew of Inspector Frank Finlay at Fire Rescue NSW.
This article appeared in The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper, 11 February 2021.
