This past fall, the McLean Volunteer Fire Department added a new state-of-the-art Heavy Duty Rescue Squad to its fleet of fire equipment. The purchase of the $600,000 unit was funded by a grant from the McLean Citizens Foundation and from annual donations made by the citizens of McLean.
To better equip the new Heavy Duty Rescue Squad unit, the McLean Volunteer Fire Department recently applied for another McLean Citizens Foundation grant, and once again, the Foundation came to the department’s aid. This most recent grant will outfit the vehicle with a second set of extrication tools — referred to as the “jaws of life” by most firefighters, as the tools enable them to quickly open a vehicle and pull trapped victims from the “jaws of death.”
The 2006 Pierce Manufactured Heavy Duty Rescue Squad is designed to perform a number of functions, including the transportation of the heavy equipment used to extricate persons trapped as a result of vehicular accidents and structural collapses.
The unit in McLean is the largest unit in Fairfax County and it is the first unit to be equipped with extrication tools on both sides of the unit. Currently other units in the county carry only one set of extrication tools. McLean’s unit will have a set of extrication tools on each side of the vehicle to facilitate safer and easier access to the vehicle in which persons are trapped, allow the unit and crew to perform simultaneous extrications in multiple vehicle incidents, extricate a trapped victim faster and more effectively to maximize quick victim access to medical attention, increase safe operation for rescue personnel especially in those situations where victim extrication requires working on highways with large volumes of high speed traffic thus reducing the likelihood that rescue personnel become victims themselves.
The McLean Citizens Foundation grant was made in two installments, one in March, and another in the Foundation’s new fiscal year, which began this month.