FIRE SAFETY: Decommissioned school buses to be used by Taylor Fire Department

NOTE: Dave Komer wrote the following story that was published this weekend by The News-Herald Newspapers.

TAYLOR — The district has found a new purpose for old, decommissioned school buses.



At its meeting last week, the Board of Education approved donating a bus to the Fire Department to use for rescue drills.



Trustee Norm Stachulski, whose uncle is interim Fire Chief Dan Reynolds, proposed the idea.



“They will take a decommissioned bus and flip it on its side,” he said. “They will practice getting kids out and getting people out of it.”



Reynolds said a number of drills will be performed with the bus, including practicing extracting children by entering through the doors, windows, floor and roof.



“We are proficient with our extraction abilities with standard automobiles, but there are some different risks associated with buses,” Reynolds said. “The size, weight, construction and, most importantly, the occupants — children.”



The bus flipping part of the exercise will allow firefighters to use an air bag lifting technique to practice pulling someone out from underneath.



The exercise is scheduled to happen in the next two weeks at the school district’s bus yard, on Wick Road near Telegraph.



Reynolds said he will be talking with school board President John Reilly to set up a date.



The exercises might stretch over three days, which would give all three shifts a chance to “learn the anatomy” of a bus and take it apart, Reynolds said.



There are plans to make the exercise an annual event and to possibly bring in other area fire departments to participate and practice with the Taylor firefighters.

Stachulski said the idea came about when talking to Reynolds about ways to step up the public safety synergy of the district and the city.

In the past, the Fire Department sent Firefighter Jesse Kriebel to schools in the district to teach about fire safety. That program ended a few years ago due to budget and staffing cutbacks in the department.

Reynolds said he is in discussions revisiting the Fire Department’s response to the district’s schools in the event of not only fires but natural or man-made disasters.

“I have also talked to the police chief about developing a school-based mock disaster,” he said. “This would test the capabilities of the school district, and the police and fire departments.”


To view the original story on The News-Herald Web site, click here.