Extrication gear

I have found (at least in my experiences out here in rural land) that most of the fire depts. out here wear their structural gear to do vehicle extrication, vertical rescue, (almost anything with rescue in it other than search and rescue). I know for most of the depts. out here it is a money thing, but are there any departments that utilize "extrication" gear for their members?

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Permalink Reply by Kirk D. Baughman on December 5, 2009 at 7:37pm

at the department i'm with they give us extrication gloves and we have safety glasses to wear. we wear out normal gear durning the extriction. it's been working for my department.

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Permalink Reply by scott williams on December 5, 2009 at 9:35pm

we use extercation pants but our bunker jacket

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Permalink Reply by Joey "BigShow" De Piano on December 5, 2009 at 11:34pm

we use full turnouts..i agree that some cases its a bit much but then there is the age old question what if we are in lesser gear and the crap hits the fan and fire or explosion breaks out..always ready always diligent

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Permalink Reply by Joey "BigShow" De Piano on December 5, 2009 at 11:36pm

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Permalink Reply by Chris on December 15, 2009 at 8:54pm

This conversation keeps popping up and I really don't understand why lol. It makes me laugh when people say bunker gear at ALL incidents, thats crazy. Structural gear affords you thermal protection, in a fire when you need it. On the side of the road in summer, it does the opposite and can cause more harm than good. What if the car blows up??? Never happens, if its not on fire when you get there it probably won't. Do the risk assesment and dress accordingly, obviously you're going to dress a little different if there is a puddle of fuel around the vehicle. What if you get a call to a fire while out?? We always have all our gear stowed on the pump, no matter what we are responding to. Cuts. bruises, puncture wounds from an extrication? Are you guys using sharps protection and working in a safe, controlled manner while carrying out all the required (here at least) risk assesments? Medical first response, a role we play here, I wouldn't want some firey strolling through my house in filthy (even when clean) turnouts to play ambo (granted if someones life was at risk they may not care). Visibility? Our uniform has high vis stipes on the pants, our extrication jackets are also high vis and if not wearing the jacket we have reflective NSWFB vests on the pumper. The fact that all of this in a lot of cases is not taken into account is frustrating. Here we like to think the fire brigade solves problems, when no one else will / can do it we will figure it out and get the job done. If people can't look at a scene and think "maybee a wildfire coat or just my uniform will work here" instead of "we always wear bunker gear to everything" then how are the rest of the operations run? As for glass etc. our station runs over 1000 calls a year as primary and secondary rescue, with an average of 2 MVA persons trapped a week. We typicaly wear an extrication jacket, GP gloves and cotton uniform pants and I have never had anything puncture / scrape me or my clothes, nor have I seen or heard of anyone else in the NSWFB having it happen. Assess the scene and make the descision accordingly. I'm sorry if this seemed like a rant, but the question keeps being asked and new threads keep being written about it. I am in no way trying to sound like we / I am better than anyone on here, there are alot of things we can take and use as far as tactics etc. go from you guys and alot of things over here need to be improved apon. Its just my 2c on this subject from the other side of the pond.
Cheers guys, Chris.