Members of Central Cariboo Search and Rescue’s Auto Extrication team took a course on electric vehicle extrication.
EV-X spearheaded the course, and brought a Tesla for hands-on training, to better understand the differences between electric and gas or diesel vehicles.
Member and Public Relations Coordinator, Debra Bortolussi says they needed to learn the hazards and how to mitigate them.
“We talked about how to deal with lithium batteries, how to identify if something was energized or not, how to de-energize things safely so we can extricate our patients.” says Bortolussi.
“All the little things we need to be aware of and those differences.”
Bortolussi added that the approach is very similar, as they’re still looking for hazards, but the certain things they look for will be different.
She says skills like these are what they call “perishable skills”, which can be brought forward to practices, conversations to scenes, and debriefs after callouts.
Prior to the course, crews have had callouts involving an electric vehicle, but Bortolussi says they’ve been lucky with the vehicles already being de-energized or turned off.
A few members from the Wildwood Volunteer Fire Department also took part in the electric vehicle extrication course.
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