A day's break from birds: Firemen Rescue

[IzzieK]

Just for today, a break from the birds upload as I processed some information from the advice that I received...thank you all who passed by there...

I did not see this accident but the firemen were already there when we arrived...

1. Just a two car collision at the carpark..



2. Jaws of Life




3.



4.Rolling the roof...


5.Almost there...



6. Clean up...



I hope the firemen in this group will see this and tell me what you are actually seeing here...

Thanks for any comments...

[Shadowman]

Nice documentation of the incident.

[Rita]

Looks nicely done to me Izzie. I do have to wonder how that much damage can be done in a parking lot

[marlunn]

in a car park!!! how flippin fast was the car going, crikey either they drive like loonies or the cars are made of tin and looking at the cutting gear - they aint tin !

great series of shots Izzie well captured

[Barbara Ponder]

Excellent shots Izzie! #3, 4 and 5 are really especially nice!

[tbob]

Great series. Very intriguing.

First: I hope nobody was seriously hurt.

Second: I hope this is not valet parking! I too wonder how fast they were going. Never realized parking was an adrenalin sport in the USA.

[IzzieK]

Thank you all for commenting and looking. I will respond later on when I have time...it is my 4pm stop-all-time-to-prepare-dinner for tonight...

[Marie Hass]

Dear Izzie,

It looks like a staged practice/training rescue to me. Emergency situations are staged and the rescue team gets to work.

Excellent story-telling pictures. They seem well exposed.

Marie

[flashback]

My guess is this is a demo for high school students/seniors on the dangers of drinking or texting while driving. The headlight on the blue car #1 is intact, with the apparent damage that headlight would be gone. They've done a job job stabilizing the vehicle, step chocks and deflated tires.
You used the correct term: rolling the roof. Roof is removed to facilitate patient extraction, especially in situation where MOI (mechanism of inury) is so severe, vehicles badly damaged, airbags deployed.
Typically all glass is removed, doors either pried off with Hurst tool or cut off. Then vehicle side pillars are cut and roof removed.
image #1 looks like a dash roll (to lift dashboard up and away from patient) but no relief cut on the wheelwell so maybe not.
The boys seem to have a good handle on the job, but I don't see a charged handline or extinguisher anywhere nor do I see kitty litter to sop up any engine fluids.
great shots and documents very well the process of extricating patients from an MVA.

[IzzieK]

The first 5 responses did not win any prize at all, because honest to goodness, you looked at the sharp photos and all that...until Marie came and commented on the "staged" look. Yes, she is correct that it is a staged event.

Then Jack, who is (was) a real fireman I was hoping to get out of his cave so he has something to comment about in my post. When I looked at the weekly local magazine last week, I saw this event that will be held at an athletic area about 16 minutes from where we live here and thought of Jack...He will be interested in this I thought...But when I told my husband, he said, he will check out Chuck whateverhissurnameis who is the Fire Chief at Monarch Fire Department...anyway, the event started at 10am but we did not go straight off because it was raining. It was after 11:30am when we left the house so I really did not see how they set up for the accident staged event...

I uploaded these images with a few hints here and there...

1. My shots were all too close to the "accident". If I am one of the spectators there, I wouldn't have been able to photograph too close to the "accident".

2. #5 image -- if there are any "victims" in the car and the firemen are rolling that roof, the legs of the two firemen on the other side wouldn't have been on the seat there...it is obvious there wasn't any "victims" at all...

3.. #6 -- Clean up -- the car the firemen were working on but already on top of the tow truck do not have any plate number...that was the big hint...

Jack...I have a lot of images I had shot of this event and I had eliminated most of them because I want to stick to my 6 or 7 image uploads on any of my postings...

Thank you Jack for commenting...and giving the right names for all the tools that were used in these images...I have a few of the room simulation burning too if anyone wanted to see them. If not, I will just leave it in my hard drive for memories of Saturday's event...

And thank you all for commenting and giving your opinions too...I really enjoyed this one very much.

[Mike Buckley]

it is a staged event.

You stated in your first post that it was "an accident" and that it was a "two car collision at the car park." I took your word for it and wondered why all the stuff was going on with the car when there appeared to be no victims in the scene.

[joebranko]

Great sequence of shots telling the story. That it was a staged event does not take away from the photography! Great shots!

[FootLoose]

Good clear shots, Izzie.

I was wondering how the blue car had its rear wheels against the kerb. And then I wondered why there were no people in the car that was being peeled open. Back in the day when I was involved with rescue competitions and first aid competitions, we had people "made-up" to look like accident victims ie, covered in dirt, grease, and 'blood', and they were told to moan and groan and yell to make it all more realistic. These guys don't even have a dummy in the vehicle.

[flashback]

Izzie, you got me out of my cave :-) and I is, not yet a was. Post a new thread of the simulation burn, I always enjoy seeing others on the job, professional curiosity.
Clearly a lack of patients was a giveaway, no short board, no EMTs/Paramedics in the car with the patients, insignificant amount of debris near the scene and any number of other giveaways, but no harm no foul. Besides some really good documentary photographs, they give everyone a look into what does go on at the scene of an MVA. Point in fact, I've worked jobs where the patient was extricated within 10 or 15 minutes and I've worked jobs where it was an hour or more (energized power lines down on a vehicle slows things down considerably, as does inverted vehicles, badly crushed vehicles and vehicles off the road wedged between trees).

To the people who question the whole idea of such a bad accident in a parking lot (car park) let me quickly relate one incident I was at. The call came in as a multiple car accident in the parking lot of a certain address. We were more than puzzled, thinking dispatch might have gotten some wrong info. Nope, we pulled in back of this small shopping area and sure enough, 5 cars involved. Only one injury, the driver of car #1.

As it was determined the accident occurred as follows:
Car #1 backs out of parking spot and hits car #2, minor damage (only occupied vehicle besides car #1, no injuries).
Driver of car #1 panics, thinks she hits the brake, hits the gas instead (now the car had to be shifted from reverse to drive, no explanation here).
Car#1 lurches forward at a high rate of speed, hitting car #3, (fortunately gas tank was on other side of car otherwise the incident would have likely had a different outcome) and shoving it forward (over the curb) and out of the way.
Car #1, still gaining speed, impacts car#4 with enough force to push the vehicle (an SUV) laterally, pushing the vehicle hard enough to separate the driver side front and rear tires off of their rims.
Car #1 the pushes car #4 into car #5, damaging entire passenger side of car 5 (as well as car 4, it really took a beating).

So surprisingly, even in a parking lot (car park) people are capable of causing significant havoc and damage. No wonder why when, let loose on the open road drivers can cause some terrific damage. I've seen some significant injuries with not so significant vehicle damage and I've seen some absolutely amazingly damage vehicles wherein the passenger(s) suffered only minor injuries, but generally the more damage to the vehicle the more severe the injuries.

Don't drink or text and drive, wear your seat belts and drive defensively. Nobody likes cutting out a deceased individual, bums everyone out, casts a pall over the rest of the day, especially when they're young.

[Mike Buckley]

even in a parking lot (car park)

My aunt and a friend ate lunch at a restaurant years ago. Afterward, they drove separately to the same grocery store and parked near each other. They left the grocery store at the same time. They exited their parking spaces driving in opposite directions but then ended up heading toward each other still in the parking lot. Sure enough, they hit each other. My aunt's car was one week old. She had a good laugh.

[DEAN01]

Izzie,
Even though a staged event, your photos capture the essence of the story. Nice work!

[IzzieK]

I also have a lot of death defying story/scenarios from a friend of mine who just recently retired as the fire chief of a small town in Oregon...He misses his job very much that he still volunteers on events and still get calls to help accident victims who were stupid enough to text and drive and all that crap they do while driving...that is why I am soft on firemen...like Jack...

[IzzieK]

Are you still an SES volunteer, Greg??? Your Prime Minister is...he will always be one of the guys...I was thinking of suggesting blood and victim to Chuck Whathissurnameis...Bill knows him well because he has two hangars across one another next to us. His airplane is the lastest model of a Baron but it is blue and silver and have cost him $4K so he must be one of those guys who should be snooty but he really isn't. It is his hired pilot who is, the fly that landed on top of the cattle... became taller than the cow himself. But I've only met him twice as I do not go to the airport much. Nothing there for me...

Good clear shots, Izzie.

I was wondering how the blue car had its rear wheels against the kerb. And then I wondered why there were no people in the car that was being peeled open. Back in the day when I was involved with rescue competitions and first aid competitions, we had people "made-up" to look like accident victims ie, covered in dirt, grease, and 'blood', and they were told to moan and groan and yell to make it all more realistic. These guys don't even have a dummy in the vehicle.

[Rebel]

Staged or not, nice interesting shots!

[IzzieK]

Staged or not, nice interesting shots!

Thanks Matt...'appreciate your comment.