Members of the Hancock County Technical Rescue Team worked earlier this week on their extrication skills.
HANCOCK COUNTY — It was a harrowing week in late August for members of the Hancock County Technical Rescue Team who made several runs on I-70 where construction work and abnormal traffic flow more than likely contributed to several major crashes.
Two people died within a three-day span on a nearby stretch of I-70 Aug 25 through Aug. 27 in two massive crashes involving semi-tractor trailer rigs, vehicles and a motorcycle.
When these types of crashes occur in the county — where there are heaps of dangerous, twisted and bent trucks — the Hancock County Technical Rescue Team is the group called to try and save lives and pick up the pieces by extricating people from wrecked vehicles.
Earlier this week, the team composed of firefighters from the Greenfield Fire Territory and Sugar Creek Township Fire Department had the chance to work on their extrication skills last Monday, doing things like lifting massive semi-trailer trucks and rescuing trapped occupants. The team partnered with Inman’s Towing and Jack & Sons Auto Salvage, using their facilities, heavy wrecker and vehicles to practice.
“With all the accidents we’ve been having lately on I-70, this type of training is great,” said Corey Breese, public information officer for the Greenfield Fire Territory. “Covering these types of accidents the past few days has been really tragic.”
The County’s Technical Rescue Team prepares for the high-risk, low-frequency runs as often as they can. While the massive accidents involving big rigs don’t happen often, when they do, lives are at stake for both civilians and firefighters, officials said.
Greenfield Fire Territory Battalion Chief Scott Elliott leads the GFT group and knows the more crews can work on massive semi-truck type accidents in training, the better the chances are of them being more prepared to handle the real thing.
“Tactically, yes, the training does prepare you for what we’ve seen lately,” Elliott said. “However, those accidents, especially the ones involving semis or large vehicles is never the same.”
From the way the semis and vehicles crush to the impact and how it all unfolds, crashes are always going to be different, Elliott noted. Still, tactically, they try to achieve the same outcome by performing their work the same.
“That makes the training we did Monday really important,” Elliott said. “We ran though our procedures for doing things correctly because our number one goal is to get who is in harm’s way out and to make sure we are taken care of as well.”
That’s why building the teamwork through practice for these types of accidents is so key.
“Teamwork is what makes the rescues successful, and we do these types of training as a joint team with Sugar Creek,” Elliott said. “That includes tactics, communication and evaluating the skill level of the personnel.”
Sugar Creek Township Captain Tony Bratcher serves as the House Captain at Station 445 and said they did send a squad to take part in this week’s extrication training. Bratcher noted their department is also part of the county’s Technical Rescue Team because no department alone can handle all the work called for in one of those major types of crashes.
“Plus, it ends up being more cost effective if we share our resources,” Bratcher said. “If we each buy some of the equipment needed and we work together, we become a solid unit that works close together which is what we need to be seamless.”
Extrication training, Bratcher said, is some of the toughest work they do, so it requires some of the best team work, communication and knowledge of how to approach massive crashes.
“When the public calls, they expect us to be able to handle the situation because they’re not asking if we can do it, they need our help and expect us to be able to do it,” Bratcher said. “We have to rise to that challenge and that’s why we make this type of training as real as possible because you never know what you’re going to face.”
Giving firefighters a toolbox full of real-work experience to pull from on real-world incidents can make the difference between life and death for the victims in the crashes and for the firefighters trying to rescue them.
“These trainings are very labor intensive and require a lot of people because the big accidents do,” Bratcher said.
Elliott noted the construction along I-70 increases the chances for there to be more massive crashes like what the county experienced last weekend. Unfortunately, the Mt. Comfort exit on eastbound I-70 will continue to be closed for several more weeks, plus workers are adding a travel lane on I-70 throughout the county, and construction is not set to be completed until the fall of 2024, INDOT releases say.
Elliot said he’s proud of the work the firefighters in the county do to prepare themselves for incidents like they’ve the ones they have had to deal with lately.
“We take things very seriously and we train for the real thing,” Elliott said.
Breese noted they would not be able to train for these types of accidents if it were not for the help from Inman’s Towing and Jack & Sons Auto Salvage who help them create accident scenes and work to break them down.
“We’ve always had a good relationship with these businesses and they help us made up ideal situations where guys can learn,” Breese said. “We were able to get some really good training in.”
