Hello All
By now you will know about the training exercise involving Ben's fire fighters. Well the first training exercise was all about going back to basics with some of the hand tool's available. In some situations hand tools might be a quicker option to rescue someone who is trapped in a car. As a result fire fighters still need to be trained to use some of the basic tools and specific rescue techniques involving these tools.
After an introduction to the new equipment the men from the Playmo Fire Department deal with a car that has rolled onto its side.
The men from the PFD have been split into two teams consisting of Red team and Yellow team. Each fire fighter has a coloured badge on their back to aid in recognition. This is a small, joint exercise with two paramedic's from my own ambulance service. The driver of the car is an actress who is used to working with various rescue services.
The first picture shows two of Ben's fire fighters being taught how to use the new prop's. It is really important to stabilise the car first so that there is no movement when its being worked on.The second and third picture's show fire fighters preparing to remove the roof of the car. This task is being done with the vibrating saw which is powered by a battery. In this situation the fire fighter is preparing to cut straight through the thinest part of the car roof. The fourth picture shows a fire fighter preparing to remove the windscreen with a 'Glass Master' saw (a little imagination needed here, i will post a picture later 
) The cut needs to be made around the edges of the windscreen so that it can be carefully removed in one piece. On this occasion we did this A) to gain extra access and B) Because it was fun and taught a new skill .
