Idaho Emergency Services Training has approved the Five Star Extrication Academy — jointly sponsored by Champion Rescue Tools and Volvo Cars of North America — as the state’s official curriculum for auto-extrication instructor training.
 
Champion and Volvo first developed the day-long training academy in 2008 to help firefighters extricate victims who are trapped in five-star crash-rated vehicles. These vehicles use new vehicle construction technology that incorporates stronger metals and metal combinations that older extrication tools cannot cut quickly, said Alan Discount, Champion’s CEO. To test its equipment, Discount said company representatives went to the Volvo proving grounds in Arizona armed with its extrication tools and went to work on a car that was legendary in the market for giving firefighters challenges: the Volvo XC90.
 
“We found our equipment was great, but firefighters didn’t have the information about the cars they were going to be working on and the right techniques — because these new cars not only require a new tool but a new technique,” he said.
 
Discount said Idaho firefighters are conducting an increasing number of victim extrications at auto accidents involving five-star crash-rated vehicles.  In such situations, older extrication tools and techniques simply aren’t cutting apart these cars quickly enough.  So the extrication academy curriculum was developed to include hands-on classroom descriptions and graphics of the latest new vehicle construction technology, metals and metal combinations as well as updated extrication techniques. The hands-on training portion lets firefighters use Champion’s hydraulic rescue tools on late model Volvo cars, he said.
 
“The core techniques practiced … first and foremost is that we teach that extrication with new vehicle technology has changed,” Discount said. “We also ask, is the material you are trying to cut harder than metal of the tools that are used to cut it? That’s where typical cutting tools are failing. They don’t generate enough power and the metal the tools are made of is not as tough as the metal the cars are made of.”
 
The training is free and was developed as a train-to-trainer course, primarily for training officers, Discount said.
 
“We allow them to return [to their firehouse] with a number of materials, DVDs and course curriculum,” he said. “That’s how we got into the situation with the state of Idaho where they had gotten copies of our information and realized it was something they needed to adopt for their training efforts. It now will be part of basic firefighter training there.”
 
Partnering with Champion was a natural fit, said Volvo spokesperson James Hope.
 
“Logistically, it’s been very easy for us,” Hope said. “We had test vehicles in Arizona that needed to be destroyed anyway, so this was a great opportunity for us to help first responders and save lives in the process.”