Fire Extrication Class at Texas Port Recycling
Lone Star College-Montgomery’s Fire Academy learns about extrication at Texas Port Recycling.
CONROE (January 13, 2020) – Every second counts when saving a person trapped inside the mangled pile of steel that once resembled a vehicle. The Lone Star College-Montgomery Fire Academy received a donation of cars from Texas Port Recycling to utilize in the program's extrication class to teach and extend the knowledge of first responders.
Cadets at the Fire Academy are required to take an extrication class and lab. Hydraulic tools like the "Jaws of Life" are taught to the cadets for them to learn how to rescue entrapped patients involved in a motor vehicle accident. Hands-on extrication training is vital for first responders to learn the intricacies of extrication.
Learning How to Use the “Jaws of Life” at Lone Star College-Montgomery
A student at Lone Star College-Montgomery learns how to use the “Jaws of Life”.
"Firefighters must be proficient in these techniques because of the Golden Hour, the time period after a traumatic incident in which survivability is the highest," explains Chief Chris Mitcham, Academy Adjunct Professor. "Statistics show the quicker a patient is extricated, treated, and transported to the hospital within the Golden Hour; the patient has a higher percentage of living rather than dying from their injuries."
Texas Port Recycling donates wrecked cars to local fire departments regularly. The Fire Academy is invited to utilize Texas Port Recycling as the training site. All cars stay on-site and are crushed into scrap metal and recycled for other uses. Most of the donated vehicles have damage from an accident. This allows the cadets to work through different challenges every time a tool touches the car.
Texas Port Recycling has been instrumental in providing resources to aid in training future first responders from the Lone Star College-Montgomery Fire Academy. To learn more about Texas Port Recycling, visit texasportrecycling.com, and to learn more about the LSC-Montgomery Fire Science program, visit LoneStar.edu/fire-science-dept-montgomery.
Lone Star College offers high-quality, low-cost academic transfer and career training education to 99,000 students each semester. LSC is training tomorrow’s workforce today and redefining the community college experience to support student success. Stephen C. Head, Ph.D., serves as chancellor of LSC, the largest institution of higher education in the Houston area with an annual economic impact of nearly $3 billion. LSC consists of six colleges, ten centers, two university centers, Lone Star Corporate College and LSC-Online. To learn more, visit LoneStar.edu.
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