Firefighters from Green Watch at Aylesbury at the start of this morning's exercise.

5 February 2009

Thankfully there have been no calls to serious car crashes in Aylesbury Vale so far today – but firefighters aren’t being complacent.

The lull in emergency incidents gave Green Watch at Aylesbury Fire Station an opportunity to practise an extrication - the procedure they follow at a road traffic collision when someone is trapped inside a vehicle.

They used hydraulic cutting and spreading tools and stabilisers on a scrap car during an exercise in the drill yard, and removed the casualty – a padded dummy – on a rigid stretcher called a longboard.

Last year, firefighters from Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service’s 20 fire stations released more than 300 people after crashes on roads in Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes.

They carried out a further 200 demonstrations of the technique in training sessions at fire stations, open days and road safety awareness displays at fetes.

Watch Manager Steve Cook said: “Firefighters need to be able to cut casualties clear of vehicles for medical treatment very quickly, so it’s vital that we constantly maintain and improve our skills.”

He added: “People have been surprised to hear that we have been called to relatively few incidents on the roads during this week’s snow and ice.

“One of the main reasons is that road conditions have been so hazardous that drivers who have been involved in collisions have generally been travelling quite slowly, meaning there’s less chance of entrapment or serious injury.”