EMS, fire personnel participate in training
—Courtesy photo Boundary County fire and EMS personnel gather Sept. 25, on the last day of the extrication operations training.
—Courtesy photo Wally Nyberg, Hall Mountain Fire Department and Kevin Ingram of North Bench Fire Department, pry open the door to a totaled vehicle, during Extrication Operations training.
Over the course of the past few weekends, members of Bonners Ferry Fire, Boundary Amblulance, Hall Mountain Fire, North Bench Fire, South Boundary Fire and Northside Fire from Bonner County participated in Extrication Operations training, hosted by South Boundary Fire and put on by the State of Idaho. Two separate classes consisting of over 20 students in each were held on Sept. 9 to 11, and Sept. 23 to 25. Volunteer Emergency personnel sat through eight hours of lecture and 12 hours of practical in the field of automobile extrication. The class discusses safety of responders and patients, how to work in unison with Emergency Medical personnel, techniques for cutting and spreading metal and glass to get people involved in serious accidents out of their vehicles and to medical care. They learn advanced methods of stabilizing vehicles and lessening the risk of further damage to responders and patients.
Today’s cars are built with safety in mind, safety of the vehicle occupants, but not so much for the Emergency Responders. Newer cars can have up to 27 different airbags in strategic places to lessen the impact of a crash on the human body, but not all of them may deploy, depending on how the vehicle was hit. This puts gas charged cartridges in hidden locations which inflate these bags. Responders risk being hit by these bags and also explosions if they cut a car in the wrong spot and puncture a cartridge. Hybrid vehicles are starting to be a familiar site on our roadways also; they also expose responders to high voltage issues if cutting in the wrong spot. Responders must train on a regular basis to keep up their skills and meet the requirements of an Extrication Technician.
In the past, Boundary Volunteer Ambulance has done the majority of the extrication in Boundary County, due to having the ability to get grants specific to EMS agencies since this equipment is extremely expensive. Slowly the local Fire Agencies have picked up some used equipment and started assisting on calls. Bonners Ferry Fire bought a Heavy Rescue truck from Kootenai County and started doing extrication in the City of Bonners Ferry. Boundary Ambulance and the local fire departments have been working towards getting the fire departments to do extrication so they may focus solely on the patient. Fire departments wear protective equipment that meets the standards of protection for extrication while EMS personnel typically are dressed in lighter gear so they may be more agile around their patients.
On July 1st of this year, after training and creating policies and procedures, a new level of service has been attained in the field of vehicle extrication, and as of Sept. 23, a new dispatch procedure was agreed to by all agencies involved. Now when a vehicle collision has occurred with possible entrapment of people, besides the local fire agency and EMS responding, dispatchers will hit a button on their console that will activate the “Extrication Team.” This team consists of Boundary Ambulance “Rescue 9” North Bench Fire “Engine 151” and South Boundary Fire “Rescue 1”. In recent months, North Bench has purchased hydraulic extrication tools and South Boundary has purchased a rescue truck with extrication equipment from Boundary Ambulance. It was decided that this group will work and train as a team and respond as a team. All will respond together to make sure there is an abundance of personnel and equipment on each call for back up if needed. This rule applies to the whole county with the exception of Bonners Ferry, where the Bonners Ferry Fire Department will respond. Bonners Ferry has the ability to call for the team if needed and they also have agreements with some of the rural fire agencies and can be called to assist if needed in the rural areas. South Boundary has a mutual aid agreement with Northside Fire in Bonner County and Boundary Ambulance and South Boundary are currently working on creating an agreement with Selkirk Fire (Sandpoint and Sagle).
Some of the other fire agencies in Boundary County are also working on upgrading equipment and eventually may become a part of the team. The team requires that all of their responders are operations-level trained and meet the minimum EMS training requirements for extrication.
The best we could hope for in efficiency is a single agency, county wide, doing all EMS and fire calls in the county, but the way all of the agencies have come together to train as a unit and respond jointly to calls is constantly improving every time we meet. We have been looking at response in the county as a whole and working together to meet the growing and ever changing needs of Boundary County.
A special thanks to Shannon at Arrow Wrecking Yard in Naples for letting us spend two weekends in the yard while still trying to make a living and for the over 20 cars he positioned for us and let us cut up into little pieces during training. To Kelvin and Jason from Mica Kidd Island Fire for some great leadership and instruction. Also, thanks to Christine, Michael and Janet from South Boundary and Cheryl from North Bench for keeping us all fed and hydrated in the heat.