Used by Permission: Daily Hampshire Gazette
by Fran Ryan – Gazette Contributing Writer
GOSHEN, MA – On Sunday morning, a Massachusetts Firefighting Academy training session went from practice drill to a real-life scenario when the Chesterfield and Goshen firefighters attending were called to the scene of a rollover on Route 143.
The firefighters were in the middle of a class in vehicle extrication – the process of removing a person from a vehicle that has been heavily damaged in a collision.
“We had just started cutting up the car when the tone sounded,” said Goshen Fire Capt. Bob Labrie. “Fire Chief Dave Hewes, and Bill Nugent from the Chesterfield Fire Department and Deputy Chief Kim Dresser and Jon Schwaiger of the Goshen Fire Department responded to the call.”
Williamsburg firefighters, who also responded to the call together with the Chesterfield and Goshen crews, worked for a half-hour to remove Mindy Kelly of Worthington from her Chevy Blazer after it struck a guard rail and rolled over several times before coming to rest on its roof. Kelly was taken by Life Star helicopter to Baystate Medical Center, where she was listed in good condition Monday, according to a hospital spokesperson. Her three young children were also in the car, but not trapped. One was taken to Cooley Dickenson hospital by Highland Ambulance.
The accident put the training exercise at the Goshen Fire station into a sharp perspective, firefighters said.
There, 26 firefighters from 14 cities and towns practiced life-saving drills, living a pile of ravaged and dissected cars in their wake.
Goshen Fire Chief Sue Labrie said the training program was crucial for helping firefighters stay current with ever-evolving extrication techniques.
The Academy provides fire training to municipal fire service personnel at no cost to the cities and towns.
Open to firefighters across the state, the class was attended by firefighters from Ashland, Cheshire, Chesterfield, Dartmouth, East Longmeadow, Gill, Goshen, Great Barrington, Greenfield, Leicester, Northborough, Springfield, Williamstown and Worcester.
“This is a two-day program on vehicle extrication,” said William Defreest, lead instructor at the Academy and the assistant fire chief in Lee. “Students learn to use hand tools and hydraulic tools to free individuals from cars, as well as different techniques depending on the configuration of the vehicle.”
Chief Labrie said the class was good for both experienced firefighters to brush up on their skills and new recruits to get experience at properly cutting up a vehicle.
“Things change so quickly in the way these vehicles are made that it is very important to stay on top of the new designs and technology.” Labrie said. With the advent of hybrid vehicles, a variety of air bags and changes in frame design, firefighters must know exactly how to safely cut into a car.
“When I started as a firefighter 38 years ago, it was grab a crow bar and pick axe and do the best you can,” Defrost said. “With new vehicle construction and new extrication tools, that’s all changed. Some of these cars have up to 16 air bags, and you have to know where they are located and how they are deployed.”
Capt. Labrie said firefighters also hav to take into account sliding doors, hatchbacks, hydraulic systems and electrical systems so they can safely and effectively get to the occupants of a vehicle.
“It is taking the care safely off the patient, rather than taking the patient our of the car,” he said.
The class assigned firefighters to work on specific scenarios involving seven vehicles set up behind the Goshen fire station. Donated by 1812 Paint and Body influence and Leibernow’s Towing in Cummington, the vehicles were a variety of makes and models, in different conditions and set up in a range of positions. All the vehicles had their batteries and fluids removed for the training. Once the cars were reduced t0 mere skeletons, Leibenow’s picked them up for scrap.
Chief Labrie said she was very pleased with the Academy’s program and the number of firefighters that turned out for the class.
“I think today’s class went very well,” she said. ‘That some of us actually had to respond to a rollover that needed extrication was pretty relevant to what we were doing today.”