At the Colorado State Fire Fighters Association’s 2025 Fire College, Chop Shop RX Instructor Randy Wells provides insight on the tools he has carried for years that serve multiple functions for structural response, EMS runs and ultimately extrication incidents.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION:

 As much as I would like to carry everything on the fire truck on my body, it’s not possible. Alright? So everything that I carry on my body, if I work on a truck company, it has to be good for fire. Low speed emergencies and extrication. First thing I’ll talk about is cable cutters. These cable cutters have a piece of webbing tape to it.

I normally have a water knot in the end, it goes in my pocket. What they’re used for on a fire is as I’m going through a wire box or something, I drop down to my shrimp crawl, right? And I’m moving here through picking those wires up. I get hung up on something. Pull these out. Right. I find the webbing, pull it out with my fire gloves.

I make the appropriate cuts free myself and move on. Okay, now we move into the engine compartment on extrication. I need to get those battery cables ’cause we need to double cut ’em, right? So this is a small enough size that gets in there. It’s a seed type blade, so I’m able to cut those battery cables.

Then we move into wire bundles in the rocker channel. Break cables, um, in the door, all of those things. We need cable cutters. I just run these cheapies from Harbor Freight. I don’t like the spring in the middle. I use my fire glove. It worked great for me. So next we’re gonna move to vice grips with the chain.

You use this enforceable entry to hold things taunt so that we can cut them or break them. How does it apply to extrication? Sometimes we need to remove the whole side when someone is buckled in. But if they’re buckled in and the car’s on its top or it’s on its side. How do we effectively remove the whole sidewall when the seatbelt is attached to the B post?

If we cut the seatbelt at the B post, we’re gonna drop ’em on their head. Now I have a belt running across my chest and one across my lap before we cut that sidewall off, I get in the car and I place my clamp right there. Now if I cut it up top, their lap belt is still holding them in position. Until I’m ready to lower them.

When I’m ready to lower them, I take the cut piece and I give it to my partner and I release these. And now you slowly feed that in and you have a two to one, and he lowers the victim into my loving arms. Oh, so loving. Next is to have a good knife. I prefer a sheep’s foot blade so I don’t stab myself or stab my patient.

I prefer full serrated. How does this apply? Well cut carpet out on overhaul. Open up a mattress to flood it with water. Put a zip tie right here. That way it’s a one hand open when it’s in my pocket. One hand open cut seat belts, cut, backs of seats, even glass if needed. Now this tool was given to me, my uncle, when he retired on Denver, and they would use them for doors.

He’d push it in there, hit the keeper, boom, open right in. I used to carry a window punch. Well, window punches go soft. Go kind of dull in your pocket after a while, even though you haven’t used them. So we get on an extrication, I’m like, click, click, click, click, click, click, click nothing. I need to get the glass outta there.

Pull this out. Tempered, right? See how it was wiggling a little bit. Not a big deal. This is laminate right here, right? So I’m gonna strike you. Boom. Now I’m in the rubber. Put my SAU blade in. Roll through it. If I was doing a clamshell, it didn’t have a saw close by 1, 2, 3, 4, break out my Tru Gill split air coat window out, I found that this is the best peel and peak tool I can have right now.

I can come in here, right here on the corner, pull this out, reach in. Pop it. Oh, got a curtain airbag. I’m gonna find that cylinder. Right? The other thing that’s really cool, watch this other side of the window. See how it’s down a little bit? I’ll stick the fork in on this side and it’s done. So you gotta have something on your body that’s gonna get through that, but also be used for other kind of function.

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