Extrication Demo Sends Important Message

Each year, Sayville Fire Department volunteer firefighters treat Sayville SummerFest visitors to a demonstration of their auto-extrication techniques. The purpose of the extrication demonstration is not only to allow the community to view a variety of impressive rescue tools and techniques, but also to take the opportunity to promote important safety messages. 

Firefighters spray-painted a variety of safety messages on the car and set the accident scenario up, which showed that the driver was drinking and driving and the passenger, who was partially ejected through the windshield, was also drinking and not wearing a seat belt. The scenario was made more interesting by placing another patient in the back of the car – a baby in a car seat.

Sayville firefighters were joined by Community Ambulance members and worked together to rescue three victims from this wreck just like they would at the scene of an actual motor-vehicle accident.  In this case, the patients were stabilized, all four doors were removed, the roof was rolled back, an impressive dashboard lift was performed to free the driver's legs, and all patients were carefully removed from the wreckage.

Some might wonder why firefighters go through the effort to perform time-consuming extrication techniques such as door and roof removals. One of the most important considerations during a motor-vehicle accident rescue is to keep a patient's spine immobilized to minimize the chance of further injury during removal.  Unless a patient is in imminent danger, it is never wise to yank someone from a vehicle, something that has been in movies many times. Firefighters prefer to cut the vehicle away from a victim to ease access to the victim and minimize dangerous movement of the patient during extrication and transfer to a backboard.

To make the extrication demonstration more meaningful, Lt. Dan Karl looked on and gave the audience a play-by-play account of the rescue work being demonstrated, which included stabilization techniques, patient safety and a description of the use of hand and hydraulic tools, including the impressive "jaws of life." In addition, he took the opportunity to talk about the dangers of drinking while driving, texting and talking on cell phones while driving and not wearing a seat belt.

Members of the Sayville Fire Department and Community Ambulance look forward to putting on a new and exciting extrication demonstration again at next year's SummerFest and hope people give serious consideration to the safety messages that were highlighted during this year's demo.