Two adults and a baby were trapped in two cars off of County Road 136, April 22, as the sun began to set.
One vehicle was on its side, on top of the other, while one of the victims, bleeding from a cut on her head, screamed for help for her baby. A power line lay across the top of the two cars.
One Agua Sana Volunteer firefighter, assigned to check the perimeter of the scene, stepped on the live line, electrocuting himself.
“Benjamin, you just became a victim,” Ricky Baros, a lieutenant and 15-year veteran with the Agua Sana Volunteer Fire Department said.
The power line was really just a yellow rope, the baby was a plastic skeleton, one adult was just a clipboard with sheets of paper listing patient information wrapped in plastic and the other was a volunteer, trying to help the Fire Department put on a live-action training to mimic a real crash.
Most of the veteran Department members were unpleasantly surprised to find both of the vehicles from which they would be extracting the mock victims, were Volvos, the hardest make of vehicle to tear apart in the field.
The training exercise, which looked real enough for firefighters to wave gawkers away on U.S. Highway 84, was prepared by Volunteer Fire Chief Alfredo Montoya. Montoya played the part of dispatcher while he observed his Department members in action.
After the Volvos had been loaded onto a truck and the firefighters were putting all their gear away, he said the live-action training is required to keep his longtime firefighters fresh for the next crash, but especially to begin training for his newest firefighters.
Montoya said he gained eight new members to his Department since the beginning of the year, which means, he has eight new members who have never tried to pry open a car door or cut through a car roof while a victim sits inside, screaming.
While Montoya was setting up the scene, he tried to permanently close two doors using a hammer and forklift.
With a little elbow grease, firefighters were able to yank one of the doors open that Montoya thought he had permanently shut.
The firefighters used hydraulic spreaders, also known as the jaws of life, to gain access to certain parts of the vehicle, to get the victim out.
Baros, who was the incident commander and in charge of the scene, said the firefighter who stepped on the mock power line will never make that mistake again.
“He’ll learn,” Baros said.
When the power line is real, the cars are really smoking and the adrenaline is pumping through the firefighters’ veins, mistakes really happen. Getting the firefighters familiar with the scenario before it actually happens means there is less likelihood of a bad mistake.
Overall, the extrication went well, he said.
After the cars were loaded and taken back to the fire station, they were then torn apart further, to help the newer firefighters familiarize themselves with the tools required to open cars.