News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Fifteen first responders from different departments across White County have completed a basic vehicle extrication course.
EMA Director Matt McBride said it was a twenty-four hour class with eight hours in a classroom and sixteen performing hands-on work with extrication equipment. McBride said they are always finding and teaching new techniques to keep up with how vehicles change each year.
“The metals are stronger,” McBride said. “They’re thinner. They’re put together different. Crash testing, a lot of research and data goes into this from car manufacturers. Different guidelines are always coming down. Windshield material has changed.”
McBride said many of the students had taken an extrication course before but attended this one to maintain their knowledge. McBride said they like to tell people they need to use their skills to avoid losing them.
“A lot of areas, even big cities, use a lot of short, basic techniques,” McBride said. “Maybe just removal of a door and just trying to get a door open on a vehicle that the regular normal latch and lock won’t work. We do those pretty regular. But you take when you get into a more complex extrication or emergency, that’s what we like to practice. And we think all that comes with repetition.”
At the class were members of the Doyle Volunteer Fire Department, Hickory Valley Volunteer Fire Department, North End Volunteer Fire Department, and Sparta Rescue Squad.
“The course is an NFPA-certified course and it follows NFPA guidelines,” McBride said. “And being so, it comes through the state fire academy. So it was (an) actual TFACA or Tennessee Fire Codes and Academy class.”
McBride said this class also serves as a building block to handle other incidents like industrial accidents and farm emergencies.
“Through the state fire academy there’s also an advanced vehicle extrication class which goes into a further, more different techniques, more advanced techniques, more complex of an emergency,” McBride said. “It involves school buses and some heavy semi, you know, bigger commercial vehicles.”
McBride said those who participated in the class were excited to learn and are already looking to schedule an advanced course in the county.
“These classes are very important,” McBride said. “I mean, cars are safer now then they ever have been. It’s just a situation that when people get trapped or you can’t get a door open sometimes it’s a simple, what we would call a simple extrication as far as what we would classify as maybe a door pop or a door removal and sometimes it’s very complex.”
