St. George firefighters learning techniques for lifting heavy vehicles

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – Serious crashes involving heavy vehicles like 18-wheelers can pose a challenge for emergency responders and anyone trapped inside. To help save a life, firefighters with the St. George Fire Department are training every day this week by going through a series of scenarios.

The training comes after a year of complex and difficult rescue operations last year, including one from April that took responders three hours to pull a truck driver out and to safety in what the Central Fire Department calls their “most complex rescue operation in decades.”

“Typically, car accidents involve like smaller passenger vehicles and those types of things, but as we know in the Baton Rouge and the St. George area, we have interstates and highways and a large amount of commercial vehicles, and so when those larger vehicles get into collisions with that kind of weight force, it can generate a lot of damage and people trapped extensively,” St. George Fire Dept. Chief of Special Operations Russell Shoultz said.

Shoultz says instructors from out of state came down to teach firefighters some new techniques.

“We have another what like we like to say tools for the toolbox. We have a hydra fusion strut, which that just allows us a little more capability of lifting some of these larger vehicles like behind us that bus right there, we’re working on with the hydra fusion there, securing the axles and they’re able to lift it by using hydraulic pressure,” St. George Fire Dept. Captain Michael Morgan said.

Morgan has responded to rescue operations involving heavy vehicles before and says this training expands their understanding and capabilities so they can better be there for the citizens of East Baton Rouge Parish.

“We’ve had some pretty bad roll overs on Highland Road to where victims are trapped in there and it’s been in the past where maybe we may not have had this equipment and now that we have this equipment that we can actually get the patients quicker and just help them add them and aid them in their needs,” Morgan said.

When intense situations happen in the real world. Shoultz says it’s never just one agency responding. Later this week, they will have firefighters from Baton Rouge, Central, Prairieville, and other departments joining them in the training.

“Just like this week training together, we respond together, and this kind of training will save lives not just because of the techniques but developing the partnerships that we need to provide services to the community,” Shoultz said.

Shoultz says they plan to implement this week’s training into future ones and thanks Roadrunner Towing for helping make it all possible. Employees with Roadrunner also responded to last year’s April crash and were inspired to join in the training effort, providing resources and training grounds for the scenarios.

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