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Ana Gilchrist of the East Putnam Fire Department with an extrication tool. More photos on page 4. Expanded photo array Wed. night on our FB page: Putnam Town Crier & Northeast Ledger. Linda Lemmon photo.

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Top: Putnam FD. Right: E. Putnam FD peeling the roof back. Left: Tempered glass. More photos Wed. night on our FB page: Putnam Town Crier & Northeast Ledger. Linda Lemmon photos.



Job One: Get the victims out
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM — It’s all about safe. Number one.
Getting the accident victim out of the crashed vehicle safely. And keeping the fire department personnel safe while they are doing that. That takes training.
The crowd at the recent Main Street Car Cruise watched the Putnam Fire Department and the East Putnam Fire Department demonstration of getting someone out of a crash vehicle. Two cars, donated by Mike “the Tow Guy” Paquin, were used, one for each department. The cars did not have “victims” in them.
Norm Perron, former assistant fire chief of the Putnam Fire Department, said the person trapped in the crash is the number one consideration.
The Putnam Fire Department’s Zach Belleville told spectators the departments would be removing the doors and the roof and pulling the steering wheel out through the windshield. “It won’t look like a car when we’re done.”
The process involves stabilizing the wheels, possibly flattening the tires. They break out all the tempered glass. Perron said if there were a real victim in the car, the person would be covered. Extrication tools would be used to pull off all the doors. Heavy cutting tools are used to cut through the roof pillars so firefighters can peel back the roof.
Often, he said, the victim is trapped by the dash/firewall. Therefore, personnel will use heavy equipment to push the firewall away from the victim so he can be removed.
Perron said a firefighter will be inside the car with the victim, stabilizing him. If there’s a bleeding wound, he said, a firefighter will try to stop the bleeding, “sometimes having to put a hand over it” until an EMT arrives.  
East Putnam Fire Department Assistant Chief Rene Bates said firefighters never know what they will see. “You could roll up on something that looks easy and it’s not. Every situation is different,” he said.
“It could go from easy – a door pop to rolling the dash back.”
“It’s all about getting the people out,” he said. Considering all the variables presented, firefighters need to figure out the quickest way to get the victim out. That’s why they train.
Asked about the toughest accident he remembers, Bates said it was a fatal about two years ago. The driver had run into a bridge on I-395 and the firewall was all the way up against his chest. He was deceased. Crews had to roll the firewall away so they could remove the victim’s body.

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