Crash with entrapment in Chicago, 1-3-21

This from Tim Olk:

Chicago Fire Department pin in at Lake and California

Firefighters use hydraulic tools to cut car

Tim Olk photo

[Show slideshow]

Tags: aftermath of car crash, Chicago Fire Department, crash scene photos, crash with entrapment in Chicago, Hurst eDraulic extrication tools, Tim Olk

This entry was posted on January 4, 2021, 9:50 AM and is filed under Crash scene photos. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

5 Comments

#1 by Joe on January 5, 2021 - 2:06 PM

We use the battery operated Hurst cutters, spreaders, and ram. In my experience over several years of use, they’re fantastic. They’re stronger than the tools we replaced, so we weren’t losing any strength with the battery operated tools versus the hydraulic with generator. They’re heavy as hell, but I don’t know that they’re much heaver than the older hydraulic tools.

Bottom line, they’re easy to grab and go right to work with. No generator to start up—or to have trouble starting, no hoses to hook up, no need to have a generator operator to turn tools on and off, and no hoses to get in the way of your operations. The batteries last a while (15+ minutes of real work), and they don’t lose strength as they drain, it’s more like a sudden death. One second you’re cutting, next second the tool is dead. Swap out the battery and go right back to work, it only takes a second. Plus there is an option to use them with a plug in if you’re on a prolonged operation that will kill all your batteries. We’ve been very happy with them and I wouldn’t like to go back to the older hydraulic tools with generator.
#2 by Fred M on January 5, 2021 - 1:16 PM

Thanks for the pictures Tim O.
Is that a battery operated Hurst cutter? Anyone have experience with them
and are they as good as the connected hydraulic power devices?
#3 by Bill Post on January 5, 2021 - 4:04 AM

Yes Wayne, all truck companies have been equipped with Hurst tools since the fall of 2003. The better equipped a truck company is, the less you need to depend on a squad for a pin in accident. Many times in Chicago the squads get held on pin ins because the trucks can do the Job. It’s usually the multiple extrications or the exceedingly complicated pin ins where squads are used. In the long run it would be cheaper and more cost effective if some trucks had airbags and other tools that Chicago only has on the squads, just like what was done with the Hurst tools

Another set of equipment that at least some of Chicago’s trucks should be equipped with are air bags used in some pin ins, rollovers, and some other incidents. I would like to suggest that at least 20 of Chicago’s trucks also be given a set of airbags. That would be part of a complete extrication package.

As a matter of history, before all of Chicago’s trucks were given Hurst tools, only about 1/3 had them. So it would make perfect sense if Chicago started equipping some of the trucks with airbags. As there are only three squads in the city if you don’t count Squad 7 at O’Hare, it can be a long wait for a one to arrive on the scene if the emergency is on the edge of the squad’s district or if the squad is tied up on another incident. That is one of the reasons Hurst tools were eventually put on all of the truck companies. The same should be done with airbags and other extrication tools.

A number of other cities carry air bags on trucks. In Milwaukee, several trucks are designated as extrication companies which include airbags. Even in New York City all of the Ladder companies have airbags and other extrication gear and that’s despite the fact that New York runs five rescue companies and eight squad companies which are also so equipped. In Los Angeles all trucks are equipped like that. They don’t normally send squads on extrications.
#4 by Wayne on January 4, 2021 - 7:39 PM

I don’t know for sure what happened here but I do know that since the trucks all received a set of cutters, spreaders, and a ram that a lot of pin ins that used to require a squad no longer do.
#5 by Bill Post on January 4, 2021 - 6:27 PM

I wonder if they let the squad continue rolling on this pin in or if they were held? It seems that Truck 36 and Engine 44 were able to do a pretty good job without the squad.