By Ben Calwell
Charleston Gazette
JEFFERSON, VW — The Jefferson Volunteer Fire Department has a ringside seat to one of the most heavily traveled, non-interstate highways in the state - U.S. 60.
Also identified as MacCorkle Avenue, the highway runs directly through the Jefferson VFD’s response area. The fire department sits close beside the highway midway between Spring Hill and St. Albans.
According to Jefferson VFD board President Aaron Jones, over the past several years, the fire department has responded to about 50 vehicle accidents per year. Many of those accidents involve vehicles that wind up in unstable positions, such as on their sides or tops.
Faced with vehicles that could easily topple over on them, Jefferson VFD responders place themselves in harm’s way when getting accident victims out.
They place “themselves in unsafe positions,” Jones said.
Using funding provided from the state, the Jefferson VFD recently purchased a “vehicle stabilization and lifting system kit” to be used during accidents involving unsteady vehicles.
Fire department members received training earlier this month on how to use the equipment.
Jones said the kit could stabilize a vehicle or “lift it off somebody” who is trapped under a vehicle.
Before acquiring the kit, the Jefferson VFD would rely on “brute strength,” wooden wedges or wrecker trucks to lift vehicles off accident victims.
Using the stabilization and lifting system, the process to lift a vehicle should take “two or three minutes,” Jones said.
The rescue system consists of two jacks with a rating of 10,000 pounds each that are used in conjunction with four struts that also have a rating of 10,000 pounds each. Included in the rescue system are foot pads, chains, binders and other associated equipment to be used with the rescue jacks to allow vehicles to be stabilized when the need arises.
“It’s fairly portable and not heavy,” Jones said.
Not only can the rescue system be used to stabilize vehicles, but they can be used to stabilize buildings, aircrafts, fallen trees or anything that needs vertical shoring.
Jones, who served as the Jefferson VFD chief for 17 years, said U.S. 60 “is one of the heaviest-traveled, non-Interstate highways in this part of the state.”
Very few volunteer fire departments in the area “are on a major highway like U.S. 60,” he said.
Jones has seen his share of accidents, most of which he said are caused by “speed and not paying attention to what you’re doing.”
He remembered an accident that happened in front of the fire station, when a driver turned onto MacCorkle Avenue from the Value City Furniture store and was hit broadside by another vehicle.
Jones said the driver survived because she was in an expensive automobile that had a steel beam in the door.
He said the addition of a turning lane and a turn-on-green-arrow-only traffic light onto Kanawha Terrace from MacCorkle Avenue has cut down on the number of accidents there.
Before the turn lane, a lot of cars were “rear-ended,” Jones said.
Jefferson VFD firefighters Matt Roush, Darrell Milam and Jeremy Nellson use a rescue strut and jack to stabilize a car that is on it’s side.
Copyright 2012 Charleston Newspapers