En route, USAR103’s captain and Battalion 12 (Mike Saenz) discussed the option of requesting a mutual aid response of LAFD Heavy Rescue 56 for heavy lift and stabilisation operations.
Engine 119 arrived at 1214 hours and confirmed the report. The vehicle was located in a drainage culver adjacent to the freeway, with an unknown petroleum product draining into the culvert from rips in the skin of the tanker and trailer. Engine 119 requested a response from the LACoFD’s closest hazardous materials unit (Haz Mat Task Force 43) and a fire/rescue helicopter to help transport the extricated victims to a trauma centre. 
An additional engine was requested at the helicopter landing zone safety unit. Some units were directed to respond onto the freeway, and others were directed to approach on a surface street that would give better access to the crushed car through a chainlink fence that was already being cut by firefighters from Engine 118.
Battalion 12 (Saenz) arrived and established command of the Freeway Incident. The situation needed the assistance of one or more heavy wreckers, and for very precise lifting and stabilization work Saenz requested LAFD’s Heavy Rescue 56 unit. 
Ladder Truck 118’s captain, Jim Lyle (a USAR-qualified member who sometimes works on USAR Task Force 103 covering behind personnel normally assigned to the unit) was assigned as Extrication Group Supervisor.  
While Saenz worked with Haz Mat Task Force 43’s captains to identify the leaking product (it was soon confirmed as used-engine oil) and to work out mitigation measures, other personnel were already diking the drainage. Engine118 and personnel from Fire Station 145 went to work with Truck 118’s forcible entry and hydraulic extrication tools.
Lyle’s rescue size-up showed that at least one male patient was trapped in the crumpled passenger car, his back to rescuers, surrounded by a tangle of metal and upholstery and bent plastics. 
Although the tanker’s trailer seemed to be stabilised (its tires were dug deep into the soil), it was obviously putting a great deal of weight on the passenger space, so a slow and methodical unpeeling of the car from around the victim would be necessary.
The following standard equipment from Truck 118 was already being used in the effort to open up the car around the trapped victim:
* An Amkus hydraulic rescue system. This included a ram used to push the floorboard away from the roof and a cutter/spreader to make relief cuts in the floorboard and to cut away and spread other parts of the car.
* A rescue air bag that was being used to push up the front end of the car to facilitate relief openings.
* Cribbing to support the ram and air bag operations.
* A circular rescue saw for very limited relief cutting. Due to the leaking product, Saenz limited all cutting and rescue operations that might create sparks.
* Prying tools and other hand tools. A Holmatro Battery-Powered Cutter/Spreader was employed.
The first tool employed by USAR103 was the Holmatro battery-powered cutter/spreader, operated by firefighter Dean Dorsey, who used it to make several relief cuts in the floorboard, and to peel away metal.  The main advantage of this tool is that you can literally be cutting, spreading, and pulling within seconds of arrival. 
Know your tools
Over and over, USAR Task Force 103 has employed the Holmatro to quickly extricate trapped victims. Sometimes victims have been extricated in the time that it would normally take to set up traditional gasoline-powered hydraulic rescue systems.
USAR Task Forces 103 and 134, one of which is dispatched to every multi-alarm fire in the LACoFD’s 2,300 square-mile jurisdiction, includes the Holmatro in their Rapid Intervention equipment pool because it can be used to quickly free trapped firefighters under many conditions, including those that might normally cause gasoline-powered tools to stall (due to lack of sufficient oxygen in thick smoke).
The Holmatro battery operated combi-tool has a spreading force of 11,690 pounds; a maximum cutting force (in the notch) of 49,000 pounds; a cutting force (mid-blade) of 18,660 pounds; a pulling force of 6,600 pounds; a pulling travel distance over 12 inches; this unit operates at 10,500 psi.
The accessories include pulling chains and a backpack for carrying it on the rescuer’s back for ‘over-the-side’ situations and other incidents in remote and rugged terrain; it can run on 24 or 36-volt batteries a DC power cord, or an AC/DC converter. It also has a ‘deadman’s handle’ to control the hydraulics.  
At the scene of the incident, a second gasoline-powered Amkus hydraulic rescue system carried on USAR103 was used to place an additional ram into the operation (to help push the floorboard away from the patient) and to allow personnel to chain the cutter/spreaders for a pulling operation to move the front end of the car upwards.
By using the tractor as an anchor, this helped open up the passage to the trapped victim. Chains were attached to the car’s front axle, extended over the truck’s hood, and back down to the frame, and the cutter/spreader was then used to close the distance between the two, pulling the car’s front end up (assisted by an air bag and cribbing from Truck 118). 
Rescue struts
The LACoFD’s Equipment Development Committee is currently testing several versions of ‘rescue struts’ for stabilisation and other tasks during vehicle extrication and other operations.   One of these sets, the Rescue-Q-Jack, is currently assigned to USAR103 for testing and use; while other units are testing similar models from other manufacturers).
The rescue struts were installed by USAR task force 103 personnel to help secure and support the front end of the car during air bag lifting operations. They augmented the conventional cribbing, which was requiring a significant amount of wood cribs and wedges. The versatility of the rescue struts was helpful because of the odd angles in the rounded concrete culvert that the vehicle was in, and the dirt embankment on both sides.  It was a good test case for these demo struts, proving their effectiveness in a difficult extrication.
Heavy lift rescue unit
Since the 1970s, the LAFD has operated a specialised unit consisting of a heavy wrecker converted for rescue lifting, pulling, and stabilisation. Called ‘Heavy Rescue 56’ (HR56) it is widely regarded as an excellent example of effective adaptation and innovation by the fire service.
It is constantly staffed with one apparatus operator and one firefighter and has an operating range across the 500+ miles of the city of Los Angeles.  In extreme situations it is available for use by other agencies in Southern California where it provides mutual aid support in difficult heavy-lift rescue operations. 
The LACoFD routinely requests HR56 to assist with complex entrapment situations where heavy loads must be stabilised, pulled, or lifted or where the reach of a heavy-duty boom with dual cable/winch systems will be of assistance. It gets called out an average of 10 to 20 times a year. 
The practicality of these units, and the range of tasks they can perform expertly if they have well-trained and highly experienced operators, is likely to spur the development of similar units in other fire & rescue departments. There are currently discussions occurring about establishing a ‘type’ category for this class of emergency response apparatus within FIRESCOPE and, presumably later, in NIMS.   
Moving vehicles at the incident scene
At the May 28th incident, HR56 was directed to approach up the off-ramp of the freeway, against traffic (the freeway had already been shut down by the California Highway Patrol) and toook a position adjacent to the tanker and truck.  By this time, it had become evident to the rescuers that it was necessary to move the tanker’s tractor in order to reach casualty in the passenger vehicle.
The I.C. (Saenz) and the captains of USAR TF103 explained the situation and the need to ‘unweight’ the car to the HR56 personnel.  They, in turn, immediately set about rigging the tractor with chains which would be connected to HR56’s boom-mounted cable/winch systems. 
Personnel trained in heavy rigging from USAR Task Force 103 assisted with the anchoring and rigging process. Within a few minutes, the boom was extended, the dual cables attached to the chains, and HR56’s operator was ready to lift and move the tractor. 
An ‘all halt’ signal was transmitted, and all LACoFD personnel who had been operating in and around the car, were pulled back to a safe zone for the heavy lifting & moving operation (in case of failure of any of the chains, cables, or flying debris from the tractor). After a quick ‘circle of safety’ was completed and all personnel out of the possible impact zone, HR56’s operator (using a remote control which allowed him to perform the manouvres from a good vantage point) began the lifting/moving operation.
The main task was to pull the front end of the tractor uphill (a combined lift/pull maneuver) just a foot, to take its weight off the car.  Seconds later, this was accomplished, and HR56 set the cables and boom to stabilise the tractor in place.
Final Extrication
With the tractor moved and stabilised, LACoFD rescuers received the signal to move in and continue the extrication.  USAR TF 103 assisted with an additional Amkus system, more cribbing, and chains. With the tractor’s weight removed, they managed to open up the space to finally free the victim’s lower body. 
With assistance from Care Ambulance EMTs, the fatality was placed on a rescue litter, covered to maintain dignity (with a heavy news media presence, this was an important measure), and moved to a secure location to await the Coroner’s field investigators.     
A thorough search of the vehicles assured the firefighters that there were no other victims in the wreckage and they carefully began removing their extrication equipment and cribbing, with the tractor remaining in a secured condition. 
Once all equipment was collected, HR56 personnel were able to carefully release the tractor, ensure it was stable and remove their chains and cables.
Conclusion
Twenty-seven units were assigned to this incident. Forty-nine personnel responded, including two from LAFD. The incident was cleared at 17.44 hours.
The integrated response of multiple agencies, the use of conventional and non-conventional (or even experimental) extrication equipment allowed this complicated rescue/recovery to be accomplished in a timely manner, with no injuries to responders, and in a way that ensured maximum life-saving capabilities were applied.  
In a post-incident ‘hot wash’ discussion, USAR Task Force 103 personnel agreed that the use of their Search Cameras and fiberoptic scopes might have been useful for visualising the victim earlier to determine his condition and exact body position in the wreckage. These tools have proved useful in past vehicle extrication incidents where the victim has been essentially encased in metal and wreckage.
As extrication equipment and specialised apparatus like heavy lift rescue units continue to evolve, the timeliness, safety, and effectiveness of technical rescue and extrication operations will also continue to improve. 
The LACoFD’s use of battery-powered extrication tools and equipment like rescue struts, as well as implementation of its own heavy lift rescue unit, is an acknowledgement of the proven effectiveness of LAFD’s approach to heavy rescue operations through the innovative use and adaptation of modern heavy wreckers.

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