East Brandywine Fire Company will be spending our training nights this month working on vehicle rescue. The first part of that is vehicle stabilization and members got to work hands on with different stabilization techniques.

Stabilization is the application of equipment and techniques designed to stop the vehicle from moving in any direction.

Crews broke into three groups and got to work with our wood cribbing and the techniques they could use to properly stabilize a vehicle that was involved in an accident. After working with the cribbing crews also got to work with our high pressure airbags that can also be used to stabilize or even lift a vehicle.

During a vehicle rescue there are a lot of things that need to be done and this is one of the first things that needs to be accomplished to keep any patients safe but to keep the responders safe as well. If a vehicle needs to have it's doors or roof removed to extricate a patient it is extremely important that the vehicle doesn't move at all while crews cut.