JOINT EFFORT: TFD trains fire fighters to work on school bus accidents thanks to Board of Education

NOTE: Dave Herndon of The News-Herald Newspapers recently posted this story about a joint effort between the Taylor School District and the Taylor Fire Department.

TAYLOR — It’s rare first responders get an opportunity to train on an actual school bus.

The Taylor Public School’s Board of Education knew that, so rather than disposing of it in a more traditional manner members approved giving an old bus to the Fire Department for just such a training opportunity.

“We’re capitalizing on this opportunity,” interim Fire Chief Dan Reynolds said. “The school board was gracious enough to grant our request. They saw the merits and the purpose of this and gave us a bus.”



Reynolds said while an incident like a rollover bus is rare, the department can never be prepared enough for the situation should it ever arise.



“It is that low-frequency, high-risk type of incident that you have to train for,” he said. “I’m hopeful that we never have to use any of this, but should we have to, it’s good to be ready.”



As the training class began the department treated the bus as if it had just rolled over, and that there were children on board in various states of injury.



A large crew of fire fighters circled the bus to make sure that it was stable and wouldn’t be rolling over as again as they prepared to work on it. Then they got to work, opening the rear door, and making sure the crew from the outside would be able to cut open the roof without injuring the students inside.



“It’s a blind cut,” Reynolds reminded his crew. “We need to have a chain of people ready to give signals out. If someone yells to stop cutting, we need to actually be able to stop cutting within one second.”



The crew spent the first hour of the training learning how to lift the bus with special Kevlar airbags designed for such an occasion. After making sure they were all up to speed on that aspect, the crews began practicing on how to breach the bus from the roof. Power chisels, saws and the jaws of life were among the tools that were used in the drills.



“We just really want to thank the school board for giving us this opportunity,” Reynolds said.



Contact Herndon at 1-734-246-0867 or dherndon@heritage.com. Follow him on Facebook and @NHDaveH on Twitter. For the NH online version of the story, including a slideshow and video, just click here.