The Vancouver Fire Department has purchased an early holiday present in the form of new heavy extrication equipment for its technical rescue team.
Paratech Hydrafusion Struts will allow the department’s firefighters to rescue trapped motorists quickly and safely, as they’re able to stabilize up to 20,000 pounds and actively lift 10 tons.
“The struts will give the Technical Rescue Team the capability to simultaneously lift, stabilize and hold a semi-truck that is crushing another vehicle,” said Special Operations Division Chief Tom O’Connor.
Before receiving the struts, which cost around $24,000 and are only manufactured by Paratech, the rescue team’s equipment for crashes involving heavy vehicles required a multiple-step process in which they would use pieces of wood to build a Jenga-like tower underneath vehicles to raise them. The higher the makeshift tower went, the more unstable it would become, said Geoff Robbins, a lead rescue team member.