Local Emergency Responders Train For Large Vehicle Rescues

While cars were driving past the Newportville Fire Company on Saturday to grab candy in preparation for Halloween, volunteer firefighters and responders were stationed in the back of lot of the property training to save Bucks County lives.

As you walked to the back lot behind the fire company, located on New Falls Road in Bristol Township, you would’ve thought you were walking into a war zone.

A school bus was stationed with its top partially ripped open, glass scattered against the concrete and one of the bus seats removed from the vehicle. A cement truck had crushed a pedestrian’s car with multiple windows blown out. A semi-trailer truck was resting in the far back, the front of which was burned to a crisp and completely totaled.

For any Bucks County resident, this would be a scene of carnage. But for local volunteer firefighters and third-party towing specialists, this was a chance to collaborate and educate one another for future accidents.

The event, which ran this past weekend, was organized by Continental Fire and Safety. The gist of the training sessions is to educate the firefighters and responders who would come to an accident for large vehicles – giving them a unique perspective of operating and dealing with large vehicles that they wouldn’t deal with on a daily basis. It also allows the towing companies to integrate with firefighters and for both groups to discuss how they would deal with such situations.

“These towing companies get to see what we would do and, more importantly, we get to see what they can do and how they can help us,” said David Harris, rescue instructor for Continental Fire and Safety.

David Harris talks to rescue crews.
Credit: Maxwell Reil/LevittownNow.com

About 40 firefighters and responders from Lower Bucks County – including Penndel, Newportville, Bristol Borough, Bristol Township, Croydon, and others – were at the training sessions over the weekend. This event would not had happened without the support from Rob’s Automotive and Scrappy’s Auto Service, who provided large vehicles to the fire company.

“It’s easy to get junk cars, it’s hard to get junk large vehicles,” said Jake Schwendeman, 27, of Croydon Fire Company. “So being able to take this class and have all of these large vehicles is a tremendous hands-on opportunity for us, especially that a lot of people are new here.”

And it’s especially important for Bucks County where there are limited access highways like the Pennsylvania Turnpike, I-295, I-95 and Route 1. These are very heavily traveled with large vehicles and accidents can and will happen.

David Harris said the last time this class was held was in 2019. They try to hold these sessions every few years because equipment changes, technology changes, and personnel changes throughout the fire companies. Of the 40 firefighters on hand this past Saturday, only one person was at the previous training session three years ago.

Kuyle Hieber, manager at Scrappy’s Auto Service, said it was their pleasure to provide the large vehicles and resources.

“It gets them all ready so we’re ready to go and I think the big thing is communication. They want us to be able to communicate with each other. If I’m the lead and there is one lead firefighter, it’s key to be on the same page in a life-or-death situation,” Hieber said.

While the rest of Bucks County residents were spending the weekend at pumpkin patches, attending costume parties, or relaxing for the beginning of a new work week, these volunteers were learning about how a grip hoist can lift a large vehicle or how using struts could lift a dump truck off of a pedestrian’s vehicle.

“It’s good to know that we are ahead of the game so when an accident happens at 3 a.m. in the morning on the highway, we will be prepared,” Harris said.