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Ladder co. 72 with Heavy Auto Extrication

Today Ladder co. 72 had a good MVC with entrapment on S.R. 9 in Clearview.
Units Units responded to the report of an MVC with unknown injuries. Upon arrival, M71 had two vehicles high speed blocking with 2 red patients entrapped. L72 was added to the response.

Upon arrival we were assigned to the silver Ford Focus, and Engine co. 13 was assigned the red PT Cruiser for extrication.

L72's company completed a full side door removal and used the ram to roll the dash off of him. We used the entire length and barely made the push. Plan B would have been slim.

Both patients were taken Code Red to Harborview in Seattle.

Units onscene: B71, L72, E13, M71, M74, A77, TN72.
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Comment by Chad Berg on September 15, 2008 at 8:04pm: Ben,

The challenge was not specific to the Ford Focus, just the way the fire wall failed and the fact that the tire was touching the front seat short of 3 inches. We had to cut the B post just to get through all of the mess. Once we did that we knew that it might be a stretch to reach all the way back to the C post. It barely made the reach with our Holmatro 50" ram.
Keep in mind though that the new Focus's do have curtain airbags when making a B post cut.
We were working in the "company of FOOLS". Quite the compliment of brother that day on the truck, and destined for success, as long as I could keep up with them. Hard hittin' "D" shift.

Comment by Ben Fleagle on September 14, 2008 at 12:14am: So Brother,

Tell me, what challenges did you face with the Focus? We haven't had a chance to cut too many late model cars yet aside from popping doors. For some reason most Fairbanksans are insisting on wrecking all their early model stuff first. From the photo's I take it you had little trouble with reinforcement in the A or B posts, but had few choices in anchoring your ram.

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