The 2013 Kia Rio has six airbags and a rigid, reinforced body structure for crash protection. In addition, there is an advanced, impact-sensing door lock system that automatically unlocks the doors following a collision. So make sure you try before you pry!
I must apologize for the delay in posting this story from FDIC. Several reasons for the delay. Some are related to the story; others are some personal stuff that has weighed on my mind for a while with the health of family member. What happened to me before the start of the climb is something I will remember for the rest of my life. The person I met brought a personal side to a fallen brother that still makes my eyes water up.
The 2013 FDIC 9-11 Memorial Stair Climb is about honoring our fallen brothers. Like everyone who signed up for the climb I was given the name of a fallen brother to honor. The name I carried was Joseph Agnello from Ladder 118. I took the time before the climb to learn a little about him. Joey was known for bragging about his toddler boys Sal and Vincent. He had been the target of good-natured ribbing about the way he rang the wrong bells in his first days at the house – hence his nickname Joey Bells.
We all have looked out the window of the rig and stared at the smoke rising from the fire that we’re heading to. However, take a look at the picture below and imagine what was going through their heads, going over the bridge, looking out the window and seeing the two towers like that. The picture below is a verified picture of Ladder 118 responding to the World Trade Center on September 11th. Firefighters studied the picture with a magnifying glass to make sure the truck on the bridge was Ladder 118. The rig’s orange stokes basket was upside down, a Ladder 118 trademark.
The firefighters of Ladder 118 are credited with saving countless lives from the Marriott World Trade Center Hotel. Elevator mechanic Bobby Graff worked frantically to save the lives of others at the Marriott World Trade Center Hotel on Sept. 11, and he remembers who saved his: “Tall firefighters with the numbers 118 on their helmets.”
Lt. Robert Regan and Firefighters Joseph Agnello and Peter Vega were found together on New Year’s Day, more than three months after their last tragic run together September 11th.
I was honored to carry Joseph’s name with on the FDIC 9-11 Memorial Stair Climb this year. What I was not expecting was for someone to be looking for me before the climb. Before the climb started a gentleman was walking around asking for “Mike Smith”. Turns out, that gentleman, John Agnello was Joseph’s cousin. John quickly broke down and almost brought me to tears. He showed me a few pictures of Joseph’s name at the 911 Memorial and told me a few things about him. I was so caught up in the moment I didn’t think to get his contact info. After John walked away a lady came up to me and said “that made my whole week at FDIC”.
I’m still trying to find out how to contact John, so if you know, please let me know. My plan is to always honor Joseph Agnello on every stair climb I do and continue to find out a little more about him and his family each time.
Here’s a great winching guide from our friends over at Heavy Rescue Germany! If you don’t follow their Facebook page, you need too! Below is the English version, there is also a German version available.
The idea is to print it out, laminate it and put it in the box with the winch Here’s the English version of the PDF:
Make sure you stop by their page and says thanks!
The last day at FDIC was Friday for me and the list of people to stop by and see was very long and even a little stair climb to fit in before the 4ish hour drive back to the Detroit area. After an early breakfast – because the Huron Fire guys snore so loud – I ran into a couple Chiefs from the Ann Arbor Fire Department. Kind of funny that I was with a bunch of Ohio State fans!
So the day started out at in Lucas Oil Stadium and the first two booths I ran into were Detroit Fire Tees and Packexe (Packexe was sharing a booth with the Junkyard dog guys). The Detroit Fire Tees crew had a bunch of their Detroit Fire shirts for sale. If you missed them, make sure you stop by and like their Facebook page and checkout the Detroit Fire Tees online store.
Next was a stop to see our friend from across the pond, Andrew Orchard, CEO of Packexe. Packexe sent me a few rolls of their prototype Sharps Wraps last fall and it was cool to see the production one and test it out.
Wednesday at Howl at the Moon I finally got to meet Randy Schmitz, the guy behind Schmitz Mittzs extrication gloves. We checked out his booth and he hooked us up with a pair of the latest version of Schmitz Mittzs. The HexArmor booth was also in Lucas Oil Stadium and we stopped by to meet a bunch of the Michigan folks from that company. The two gloves you will see me use, Schmitz Mittz and HexArmor. Try them both!
I stopped by the FoxFury and met their team which included the man behind Views from the Jumpseat, Ryan Pennington. The FoxFury folks hooked me up with a Discovery Tasker S helmet light a few weeks ago!
On the way to the FDIC 911 Stair Climb we stopped by the MN8 FoxFire booth and took a look at their booth. Zack hooked Paul and myself up with a Foxfire Illuminating Helmet Band and a limited 2013 FDIC FireFox Helmet sticker! Thanks FoxFire!
The highlight of the trip is the gentleman in the picture below. Right before the 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb started I heard someone yelling my name. The whole story deserves a unique post, so please check back for it.
After the stair climb, I headed straight over to the Hi-Lift First Responder jacks booth to meet Jeff Pugh. Jeff has a bunch of great extrication based products that he has put his extrication knowledge into to make our MVAs a little easier. Beside the FRJ, Jeff has the MVA accountability boards from TacTron and a new rescue tool that will sure turn a few heads when it is released.
On the way out of the stadium, I walked past the Rescue Access Tool, (RAT). I wish I would have a had a little more time to talk with the RAT guys. Mike Huffman (Crunch Time Extrication Symposium) sent me a link about the tool a couple weeks ago. Looks pretty cool, anyone use one yet?
Working my way back to the car I wandered back into the Convention center and ran into the RESQTEC booth an stopped and took a few pictures of their cribbing. My training cribbing is all wood but at the station the Rescue and Tower have plastic cribbing. When money is not an issue, I’m a fan of plastic cribbing, but for my personal training gear, it’s much easier to worry about wood and not plastic!
For the third FDIC in a row, I never ran into Ann Marie Knegt! Ann Marie is a Deputy Editor at Hemming Fire in magazines like Fire and Rescue. I brought a cool gift for her, Cards Against Humanity, which is not available over in the UK. I dropped off the game and headed to the car. Just in time to hit rush hour traffic on the way out of town! Can’t wait until next year!
Yesterday was a tough day for me. I was over served the night before at the FOOLS Bash and that pattern continued at Howl at the Moon and the Wild Beaver. One of the best parts of the night, was this crazy Canadian, Randy Schmitz from Schmitz Mittz found me at Howl at the Moon after he followed a line of people wearing Boron Extrication stickers. Randy and I have talked for years but never meet in person so it was very cool! Make sure you like the Schmitz Mittz Facebook page and if you are at FDIC, stop by booth 9936 in the Lucas Oil Stadium today and say hello!
After a long morning I headed over to the convention center for the big giveaways at the TECGEN booth. Paul from First Due tackle and myself greeted a bunch of visitors and helped get the word out about the light weight gear that we wear from TECGEN. TECGEN XTREME® non-structural turnout gear is dual-certified for Wildland Fire (NFPA 1977-2011) and Technical Rescue (NFPA 1951-2007). At a fraction of the cost of structural turnout gear, you can use TECGEN XTREME to supplement your structural turnout gear to extend the life of it.
Paratech has a few cool tools at their booth including their new the HydraFusion Strut.
At the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation’s annual premier fundraiser, Stop, Drop, Rock ‘n’ Roll, I ran into a bunch of brothers. Captain Wines from IronFiremen.com, The Fire Critic himself, News man Dave Statter from Statter911.com, and Shane Parkins from National Firefighters Endowment. If you get a chance, ask Shane about what the foundation does for the fire service. Also ran into Andrew Catron from the Model City Firefighter, the Average Jake guys, and the Fire Service Warrior guys.
2013 Lexus ES Body Structure
It’s Monday so let’s pull up Crash recovery System by Moditech! Here’s a quick look at the 2013 Lexus CT Hybrid body structure, airbags, and battery locations.
Eight-airbag system including driver’s and front passenger’s advanced airbag system, front seat-mounted side airbags, driver’s and front passenger’s knee airbags and front and rear side curtain airbags. Pre-tensioners with force limiters for front seats.
It’s hard to believe that FDIC 2013 starts next week! We’ve worked up a tentative itinerary. Paul Hasenmeiser and his crew from First Due Tackle will be in Indy for the annual firefighter pilgrimage. There will be great training, networking, brotherhood, and giveaways. Be sure to track us down we have a couple hundred new stickers and a few chips to giveaway.
The biggest giveaway we know of is coming out of the TECGEN XTREME booth. (Booth 403). Here are the details:
You’ll see us throughout the day as we drop in on some friends including:
We will wrap up the evening at the NFFF’s Stop, Drop, Rock ‘n’ Roll dinner and live auction / 7 pm – 11 pm @ the Indian Roof Ballroom.
Our main mission will be to climb in the FDIC 9-11 Memorial Stair Climb / 130 pm & the Lucus Oil Stadium. We’ll be hooking up with The Fire Critic and Captain Wines for the climb. W e’ll be sporting our TECGEN XTREME gear. After the climb the FDT crew is hitting the road because a couple of them are on duty Saturday. I’ll be around until the Fire Critic and Iron Firemen Meet Up / 830 pm @ the Hard Rock Cafe and then hitting the road for a late night drive back up to the Motor City.
The folks at FoxFury sent a Discovery Tasker S Helmet Light to review and put it through the paces. I received the light and put it on my department issued helmet and plan to also use on my training helmet for different training classes throughout the spring and summer. My first thoughts are this thing is bright and uses AA batteries and not the expensive 3V like my older helmet light. The light was easy to put on the helmet and within a minute or so all the wires were tucked in light looks streamlined with very little to catch on anything. Look for a full review toward the fall of 2013!
So who is FoxFury? They manufactures Application-Specific products, with a focus in Professional Portable LED Lighting. FoxFury’s Philosophy is to provide the Latest Technology available, packaged in the Highest Quality Products that can be made for each intended use.
Make sure you stop by the FoxFury booth at FDIC and take a look at the new Command 20 Fire Tilt headlamp!
Here’s a quick look at the 2013 Lexus LX body structure and airbags.
10-airbag system, including: Driver’s and front passenger’s advanced airbag system with front passenger’s twin-chamber airbag, Driver’s and front passenger’s knee airbags, Front and rear Roll-Sensing Curtain Airbags (RSCA), Front seat-mounted side airbags, and Rear seat-mounted side airbags.
Below are a couple of pictures of the rear seat belt pretensioners. These pretensioners are located in the base of the C-Pillar.
Here’s a quick look at the 2013 Lexus LS body structure and airbags. Make sure you check the unique airbag inflator in the rear seat!
The LS features dual-stage SRS airbags (Front seats), SRS knee airbags (Front seats), SRS side airbags (Front and outboard rear seats), and SRS curtain shield airbags (Front and rear door windows). An anti-submarining SRS Seat Cushion Airbag is available on long body models. Take a look at the Crash Recovery System screenshot below that shows the anti-submarining airbag.
Nissan has announced its plan to expand the use of Advanced High Tensile Strength Steel (AHSS) in to up to 25 percent of the vehicle parts installed in its new production models. Nissan will make use of advanced high tensile strength steel starting in 2017 as one of its initiatives to help reduce vehicle weight.
Nissan has developed* 1.2 gigapascal (GPa) Ultra High Tensile Strength Steel with High Formability and has employed it in the new Infiniti Q50, which goes on sale in North America in 2013. Prior to the development of 1.2GPa ultra high strength steel it had been difficult to use high tensile steels for vehicle parts with highly complex shapes. Nissan is currently the only vehicle manufacturer using 1.2 GPa Ultra High Tensile Strength Steel with High Formability.
With the active adoption of 1.2 GPa ultra high strength steel, which is one grade among several types of advanced high tensile strength steels, Nissan will increase the adoption rate of AHSS as far as 25 percent of the gross weight of the parts installed per vehicle. This effort will begin in 2017 and aims to reduce the weight of Nissan’s vehicles by 15 percent with corresponding body structure rationalization.
It is no secret that the Ford Fiesta has a bunch of UHSS and born steels in the body structure. We reviewed the 2011 Ford Fiesta when it was first released to the US market. Below are a bunch of pictures of the 2013 Ford Fiesta from the auto show that highlights are the strong steel used.
Below are two quick tips from our friends from Weber rescue Systems.
Plates can be used very flexibly. You can not only serve to increase the bearing surface for Rams – so the force is transmitted to the cylinder better and not simply by dancing – but also serve as an abutment. This abutment can be clamped (if not a suitable surface of the body present) with the spreader. Always make sure your tool manufacturer approves your model spreader used in the way.
If the spreader is properly seated in the doorway, you can save a lot of power. The aim is to always lead the spreader so that the arms move in the direction in which the material should move also.
This means for the door-opening, that the spreader must be set at an angle (Fig. 2) to move the arms in the opening direction of the door. After all, it is no sliding door, right (Figure 1)?
My quick tip is always remember how the spreaders open, with an arc. The spreader arms travel in an arc.
The body structure of the 2013 Porsche Cayman is now predominantly aluminium, with the rest fashioned from a combination of magnesium and hot formed high-strength steel.
The Cayman is equipped as standard with full-size and knee airbags, which are inflated in two stages depending on the severity and type of accident (e. g. frontal or offset frontal). In less serious accidents, the airbags are only partially inflated, thereby minimizing discomfort to the occupants. So that should to tell you right away that these are dual-stage airbags.
Take a quick look at the 2013 Porsche Cayenne Body Structure. Notice what appears to be a box where the driver’s seat would be installed? That is the battery box for the 12V battery. Just like the VW Touareg. The screenshot from Moditech’s Crash Recovery System (CRS) clearly shows the 12V battery underneath the driver seat.
A tool that has stood the test of time, the GlasMaster Rescue Extrication Tool by Wehr Engineering. Thomas Wehr patented the GlasMaster over 20 years ago and the tool is largely unchanged. The blade design was updated to reduce windshield glass fragmentation by 33% over the conventional blade. One of the biggest benefits is the tool is a grab and go setup. No cords, batteries, or setup.
Reguardless if your tool or choice is the reciprocating saw or even the new tool on the block the RHYNO Windshield Cutter, the GlasMaster has earned a spot in the compartment on any apparatus.
Quick look at the 2013 Jeep Grand Cherokee Body Structure. The Grand Cherokee has an extensive use of high-strength and ultra-high-strength steel in the body structure.
Here is one for the folks over in the United Kingdom. Just like every Volvo on the road today, the 2013 V40 Cross Country has a body structure packed full of different materials. What I found interesting is Volvo lists “Very High Strength Steel”, ” Extra High Strength Steel”and ”Ultra High Strength Steel” in the structure. What that means is Volvo is optimizing the use of the different strengths of steels. Ultra High Strength Steel (UHSS) is very expensive to manufacture into stampings so using a weaker steel in different areas to complement the UHSS while reducing costs.
In yesterday’s webcast, Hidden Hazards inside a Vehicle I discussed how useful Moditech’s Crash Recovery System (CRS for short) on the scene of an extrication. I used the screenshot from CRS of the Chrysler 200 to show the battery location in the front fender on the driver side. However, the folks at Moditech took it a step further in CRS by providing instructions and pictures outline the 12V battery disconnection. Follow the pictures below and see how useful this piece of software is.
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Here a quick look at the 2013 Toyota 86 Body Structure. The 86 is sold under three different brands associated with its creators, Toyota and Subaru. Toyota (Toyota 86 in Japan, South Africa and Australia and Toyota GT86 in Europe and both names in New Zealand), Subaru (Subaru BRZ) and Scion (Scion FR-S for the United States and Canada). We covered the 2013 Subaru BRZ here.
The 2013 Audi A8 Body Structure ultra-lightweight construction: The body of the Audi A8 was designed as an Audi Space Frame- (ASF) structure and consists largely of aluminum. As a result, it weighs approximately 40 percent less than a comparable steel structure.
2013 Nissan GTR Body Structure has different types of metals. Aluminum and different grades of high strength steels. Also, take a quick look at the Crash Recovery System screenshot below for airbag locations.
The Jaguar XK Body Structure is unique because of the extensive use of aluminium. The Jaguar XK body shell is made out of aluminium with the use of aluminium castings and extruded parts along with aluminium stamped panels.
Below is a screenshot from Moditech’s Crash Recovery System that shows the all the information available Notice that the A-Pillar shows a UHSS reinforcement. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, especially since this vehicle is available in a coupe and a convertible.
Below the reinforcement is shown in the cutaway vehicle:
The automatic transmission in the Jaguar XK has a knob and electric parking brake.
The folks over at Hi-Lift sent us their 48″ First Responder Jack to test out and try some extrication techniques commonly used with hydraulic tools. The Hi-Lift First Responder Jack (FRJ) is a unique tool that was created from a group effort of some extrication specialists and Hi-Lift. I have used the FRJ in many training scenarios over the last year in Michigan and Ohio. What I like most about the FRJ is in addition to the standard extrication tasks like taking a door, lifting the dash, and lifting objects off of vehicles. I plan to put the FRJ through the paces at the Northern Ohio FOOLS Heavy Rescue next month. You can even get the Hi-Lift First Responder Jack on Amazon!
Here are some First Responder Jack (FRJ) Tips
Checkout this video on the FRJ:
| FR-365 | FR-485 | FR-605 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Size | 36″ | 91 cm | 48″ | 122 cm | 60″ | 152 cm |
| Min. Lift Height | 6.75″ | 17.14 cm | 6.75″ | 17.14 cm | 6.75″ | 17.14 cm |
| Max. Lift Height | 27″ | 68.58 cm | 38.63″ | 98.12 cm | 49.75″ | 126.37 cm |
| Overall Height | 41″ | 104.14 cm | 50.75″ | 128.91 cm | 61.75″ | 156.85 cm |
| Width | 5″ | 12.7 cm | 5″ | 12.7 cm | 5″ | 12.7 cm |
| Depth | 9.63″ | 24.46 cm | 9.63″ | 24.46 cm | 9.63″ | 24.46 cm |
| Rated Load (RL) | 4660 lbs | 2113 kg | 4660 lbs | 2113 kg | 4660 lbs | 2113 kg |
| RL on upper 12″/30.5 cm | - | - | - | - | 2660 lbs | 1206 kg |
| Tested Load (TL) | 7000 lbs | 3175 kg | 7000 lbs | 3175 kg | 7000 lbs | 3175 kg |
| TL on upper 12″/30.5 cm | - | - | - | - | 4000lbs | 1814 kg |
| Winching capacity | 7000 lbs | 3175 kg | 7000 lbs | 3175 kg | 7000 lbs | 3175 kg |
| Clamping capacity | 7000 lbs | 3175 kg | 7000 lbs | 3175 kg | 7000 lbs | 3175 kg |
| Weight | 27 lbs | 12.25 kg | 30.2 lbs | 13.70 kg | 33.3 lbs | 15.10 kg |
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