LINCOLN PARK, Mich.-- A recent donation by Ford Motor Co. to the city's Fire Department could very well have given the firefighters the training they need to help save a life.
Fire departments typically purchase old cars from area junkyards for their staff to cut apart and practice their rescue skills on, even though firefighters say that's an outdated way of doing things.
"Doing extrication training on junkyard cars doesn't give us a good representative of the cars that drive through Lincoln Park or the type we're going to see at an accident scene," fire Sgt. Liam Carroll said.
"When we have a brand new Navigator crashed into a brand new Ford Focus, they're different types of cars than what we've historically used for training. It's to our benefit to see newer models so we know the particulars of what we'll be fighting against when we're trying to get inside it."
Near the beginning of the year, Carroll was talking about that very topic with a friend, Wyandotte fire Lt. Michael Brandt, who let him in on a little-known secret in the firefighting world.
Ford Motor Co. has a program to donate newer models of its vehicles to Fire Departments around the country to use for extrication training.
After department officials filled out the paperwork and went through the corporate red tape, four Ford vehicles were delivered to Lincoln Park firefighters late last month. For four consecutive days, the firefighters demolished the cars — a Lincoln Navigator, a Ford Escape, a Ford Focus and a full-size Ford E350 van
For two days, the firefighters took turns cutting into the vehicles just as they would have to when responding to an emergency scene. For the other two days, a simulated crash was staged.
About a year ago, the Fire Department purchased some new equipment to help stabilize a vehicle on its side. That was practiced with as well with the donated cars to ensure that when the device needs to be used, everyone will know the proper way to rig it up.
"We spent a lot of time going through mock scenarios and practicing stabilization and extrication," Carroll said. "We were able to do a lot of hands-on learning that normally we'd never get to experience. ... Training like this is best when you get your hands dirty."
Before the vehicles were ripped apart, the firefighters were able to see a demonstration of an air bag going off.
"That's something I'd guess hardly any other firefighter has ever seen," Carroll said. "It was a real eye-opener. We typically see it after it has been deployed. It's very important for us to know as much as we can about them. Air bags injure firefighters every year. We get hit by secondary deployments a lot of times."
Brandt said the Wyandotte Fire Department did a similar exercise about three years ago.
"It was great for us because we could work on vehicles that we would deal with on a regular basis instead of something where the technology is 20 years old," he said. "Active air bags and other systems that are in today's cars aren't always in the vehicles we buy from the junkyards. With all of the new technology that's out today, using junk cars isn't very conducive to up-to-date learning."
Much like their counterparts in Lincoln Park, Brandt said the Wyandotte firefighters gave the two cars they received from Ford a full go-round.
"By the time we got done with them, they weren't really recognizable," Brandt said.
And that's just fine to Dennis Lark, the project liaison for Ford's office of general counsel.
"They can virtually beat 'em up any way they want as long as all the pieces come back to Ford," he said. "It gives the guys great hands-on training for the newest type of vehicles. I mean, really, who else is going to give them a 2005, 2006 vehicle to cut up on?"
Lark began the project 17 years ago and said about 300 "scrapped-bound" cars are given away each year.
Most of the donated vehicles are ones used by Ford for emissions tests. They are driven for prolonged periods of time and have tens of thousands of miles on them, even though they look brand new on the exterior. Hand-built prototypes that are displayed at car shows also are used in the program.
To receive a car, a jurisdiction must pay to have it towed to the site and then have it towed back to Ford's plant near Detroit Metropolitan Airport. Once the vehicle is returned, it is crushed and recycled.
Since the time Lincoln Park participated, Ford also has instituted a $100 fee per vehicle to cover part of the costs of have it specially prepared to be torn apart.
A firehouse in New York is expected to get a vehicle from Lark later this month.
"It's a great program," Lark said. "It's Ford's pleasure to put it on. It's one more step to making your guys ... better trained when they respond to an incident. Ford is the only manufacturer involved in this type of program, so we get a lot of requests from agencies all over."
Republished with permission of The News-Herald.
