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Firefighters learn to tackle big rigs
Friday, Oct. 9, 2009
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by MEREDITH SOMERS
Volunteer firefighters from around Southern Maryland work together to stabilize a loaded cement truck that has rolled onto a passenger sedan. The exercise was held on Chaney Enterprises property in Waldorf as part of a course in big rig rescue training.
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In a large field in Waldorf a Mack truck lies on its side, part of it wedged into the front seat of an old Chevrolet.
Yards away, an unfortunate Ford has become the bed for an overturned cement truck.
There's also a small Toyota that's been mounted by the cab of a semi-truck — the cargo box is on its side a few feet away — and an unrecognizable red sedan has been flattened underneath the rear of a school bus and front end of an 18-wheeler.
Among the crumpled metal and twisted automobile frames, several dozen Southern Maryland volunteer firefighters have gathered for a day's worth of instruction on low-frequency, high-risk situations.
It's an unusual setting for a classroom, but the hope is to apply the lessons learned at the training with life-saving knowledge for tomorrow.
"These situations have the potential for serious injury," said Billy Leach Jr., senior presenter and developer of Big Rig Rescue at the session late last month. "This [program] truly makes vehicles a manageable part of the emergency. The firefighters understand the anatomy of the vehicles and they understand the weights. That makes them much easier to work with."
Coordinated by Bret Krabbe of the Mechanicsville Volunteer Fire Department, the outdoor portion of the course last month was held on Chaney Enterprises property off Route 5.
"The company [is] all about education of any kind," said Sherry Santana, community relations specialist for Chaney. "If we can help others learn and if this is one more opportunity to use our facilities, then it's a win-situation for everyone."
Among the participating fire departments in the special training were Mechanicsville, Hollywood, La Plata, Prince Frederick, Waldorf, St. Leonard, Hughesville and Hyattsville.
The volunteer students attended a classroom lesson the Friday night before the morning exercise, and on the Saturday they were broken into several groups.
As she watched a group of firefighters get cribbing under the carriage of a semi-truck, Carol Craig, a fire chief with the Mechanicsville department, said it was important to build up advantages when dealing with extricating patients amid heavy vehicles on Maryland roadways.
"If we run into this kind of accident, we'll be that much more knowledgeable," Craig said.
Having this type of training readily available was not always so easy.
An emergency services instructor since 1985, Leach started his career nine years earlier and his experience in intense and often unplanned accidents runs the gamut.
He is currently a member of an urban search and rescue task force based out of Randolph County in North Carolina.
Through his years of work and instruction, he noticed the lack of training for low-frequency, high-risk emergencies.
"Over a period of years [beginning in the early 1990s] I determined there was a need for it, so I attended training and in addition to that I talked to manufacturers of different pieces of equipment," Leach said. "It's always developing. Vehicles change, and there are advances in equipment."
Despite the changes and refinement of portions of his instruction, the five-step discipline of overturns and underrides continues to be the core of the class.
Identifying the cargo of all the vehicles involved, stabilizing the larger and then smaller vehicles, lowering the smaller car and lifting the larger automobile and finally separating the vehicles and extricating victims is the order of the steps in the process, Leach said.
"It helps [rescuers] understand what they can do safely and legitimately with the materials they have, and they learn about other resources," Leach said.
Those other resources often come in the form of heavy recovery trucks, such as those used in the Waldorf exercise.
Sister companies Auto Barn of Baltimore and Charley's Crane Service of Landover were on hand Friday and Saturday to assist in setting up the exercises and incorporate their services with those of the local firefighters.
"There's nothing we can't do, and there's nothing we can't pick up," said Tina Boram, general manager for Auto Barn. "[The firefighters] are learning to stabilize the units so when we get there it will be easier to do our job.
"It's valuable for our guys to be on the scene. We get a better appreciation for what the fire department can and can't do and they get a better appreciation of what we can and can't do."
Krabbe contacted Boram for Saturday's exercise, she said.
The Mechanicsville firefighter said he was introduced to Leach's course at a firefighting training conference and exhibition in Indianapolis this year.
Recognizing the increase in commercial traffic around Southern Maryland, Krabbe said he asked Leach to come to Charles County and teach the volunteer life savers what to do in a high-risk situation along a roadway.
"Something may happen and what if we have not had the training or the experience?" Krabbe asked. "This also builds a working relationship with the firefighters and the heavy towing and recovery units."
Chris Scully, a captain with the Hollywood Volunteer Fire Department, said some of what he learned was unexpected.
"You think it's going to be all hands on, tearing cars apart, but the first step is a lot of thinking," Scully said. "You figure things out. With the number of commercial vehicles on the road today, there's a pretty good chance [these types of accidents] could happen."
