CALLAWAY, Fla. (WMBB) – If you ever find yourself in the helpless position of being trapped inside your car, the Callaway Fire Department is now well equipped to pull you out.
The department now has new, top-of-the-line extrication equipment.
Callaway Fire hasn’t received new extrication tools since 2005.
Callaway firefighters were able to get their hands on the new tools for the first time Monday.
“This is pretty awesome,” Lt. Samantha McDaniel said. “It’s a major upgrade compared to what we had before. We had old genesis tools which were great in their time but with the changing material used in cars. They’re sturdy, they’re stronger metals.
These new tools are all-electric – a first for the fire department.
“These new tools are battery-operated,” McDaniel said. “It’s quicker deployment and quicker use and speed to be able to get somebody out when they’re trapped.”
“When we have to deploy these tools, they deploy 100 times faster than your traditional gasoline pump motors,” Callaway Fire Chief David Joyner said.
The tools were paid for through a public safety grant from Firehouse Subs.
“With getting these tools, it helps with the burden of a budget of purchasing these tools from a city like Callaway and we are able to put these tools right to use right now,” Joyner said.
The new extrication tools are a cutter, a spreader, and a ram and come out to about $30-thousand in total.
“I got to say they feel like they are going to be a great tool and a great asset to the fire department here,” Callaway firefighter Caleb Clary said. “TNT has done a great job designing this tool for the purposes that it needs to be and that’s extrication.”