AIR CHISEL / HAMMER

[gutty]

SInce I have just taken over as Truck Captain of our heavy resvue, i have been going over the trucks and looking at equipment that has just been sitting.

One of the tools that I have found is the Air Chisel and hammer set. I would be grateful for any advice/links or ideas in which to implement this tool in our training and use.

I am thinking that this has good use in vehicle extrication.

thanks for your help.

[firefighter26]

My department's Rescue carries an Air Chizel set. I have used it a number of times during practices, but never actually on a real call, yet.

During one practice, we had a chevy van on its side with a pole laying across the top, the pole's base was on the roof side of the vehicle. The rear 1/3 of the vehicle was up against a concrete divider. Since there where other vehicles in the scenario, the other tools were being used. We had the vehicle cribbed with an interior inside doing the PT assesment. My captain figured the best thing to do, since the PT was stable was to wait for a tool to open up. I suggested we use the air chizel to cut a doorway in the roof. We cut along the driver and pasanger side outer roof frame, took the windshield out and "borrowed" the sawsall to cut the cross-support out above the windshied. To my captains surprise, we had a nice hole cut PDQ. A backboard went in and we were able to bring out the PT. About the same time we did, the equipment we would have been waiting for became available.

Sure, we all have our perfered tools, but they might be busy working on something else. What's that saying "There is more then one way to skin a cat, or cut up a car."

We use our air chizel for cutting up sheet metal to gain access to different parts of the vehicle. I seen one department use it to gain access to the interior workings of a door so they could open it. Could be used for making relief cuts, etc. as well. I remember reading somewhere about using a pry bar to gain access to the hinges of the door and the chizel to separat the hinges from either the door or its post. I have not done it, yet, but we just got another car to play with a few days ago :-)

As for the hammer set, sorry. No good ideas from me.

Anyone else??

[kbmcm]

Chisels are great for pealing back tire wells which have molded around a lower extremity (foot) in a LF-LF collision. This works best when the vehicle is upside down as opposed to simply rolling the dash back when the vehicle is on all four wheels.

Good Luck

[Neptune 33]

We do not have any type of "Jaws" on our Squad truck, and we do not run that many extrication calls. But, if we need it..our nearest rescue is 5-7 minutes away, and unfortunalty, they come understaffed and underqualifed. Our next rescue is 7-10 away, and they're better, but, I'm pushing that we have a scenerio where we use the three tools we do carry. The Air Chisel, Sawzall, and "can-opener" I believe called a K-Bar tool? Is there anyway we could do it?

[Busterbar]

Neptune, "if there's a will, there's a way" however, i'm gonna post a scenerio if you don't mind.

[firefighter26]

We have run many a scenario when an officer will announce "Sorry boys, the jaws seams to have developed a problem and they will not be working for this scenario."

That leaves us with our various hand tools, sawzalls, and air chizel. Keeps us on our tows and sends the new guys into a fit :-)

Neptune, is that K-bar like a halligan tool? It may take a little longer, but you can do the same things with a sawzall and a halligan as you can with jaws, IE: displace doors, remove roofs, etc. In fact, the sawzall, in the hands of a well trained firefighter, can take a roof off faster then with a jaws. I've seen it.

We have some pretty basic scenarios that I could dig up, Neptune. E-mail me if your interested.

[LACAPT]

We carry an air chisel setup on our rescue and in certain situations it is invaluble. In the right hands it can work faster than power tools and is much smaller to get into tight spots. You can peel through a lot of metal in a short time and be very presice with it. The only drawback to using a chisel that I can think of is that it is unbearably loud, so when using the chisel you have to have someone watching carefuly and ready to relay the orders of the safety officer to the operator. When we run a class through a vehicle extrication course the first 1 1/2 days of practical is spent strictly with hand tools and they have to prove proficincey in that area or they dont go on.What I mean is they have to execute a rescue of a cosiderable magnitude with only hand tools in a certain amount of time. The ones who are creative usually shine here.

[FFMEDIC]

Just a thought here, how about trying to use the air chisel on the hinges after your spreaders have popped the door.
Used a long stroke air chisel at a class and found it faster then the spreader on the door hinges but was much louder.
Once again may cut a couple of minutes off your times.
Good luck