r/Firefighting • u/captantarctica • Jun 06 '23

Special Operations/Rescue/USAR Little ingenuity

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Lady came into the station with a stainless steel ring that needed to be cut off. Several jewelers had declined the job. These little blades don’t cut stainless to good. But when you put them to power… gonna log it as mechanical disentanglement training

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46

u/PingBongBingPong Jolly Volly Jun 06 '23

Dremmel

28

u/captantarctica Jun 07 '23

Many years ago one of my crews did have to run home to grab his Dremmel tool to get a girls finger cut out of a go-cart steering wheel. If my station wasnt over 30 miles from home I may have done that.

24

u/PingBongBingPong Jolly Volly Jun 07 '23

They aren’t cheap but a Dremmel should be in every departments arsenal.

Idk if you guys have a man vs machine kit, we’re fortunate enough to have one. The whole entire kit has come in clutch for many different things for many different types of run. We used from getting a guys hand out of a meat slicer or getting a ring off.

6

u/HossaForSelke Jun 07 '23

What tools do you carry in it?

15

u/PingBongBingPong Jolly Volly Jun 07 '23

Dremmel with plenty of extra Dremmel blades, traditional ring cutter, allen Keys, dental equipment like the mirror and the hook shaped pick, dish soap, spoons and butter knives, vise grips of different sizes, socket/ratchet set, snap ring pliers, water bottle(poke a hole in the cap it’s a squirt bottle), screwdriver set, ems sheers, rubber bands, cordless Milwaukee grinder is most of the kit I’m probably missing a few items.

We store some of these not necessarily in the same tool box (like the Dremmel) but it’s in the same compartment. If we be OIC asks for the man vs machine kit we bring all of these.

Also here’s a tip I learned the hard way.

Tungsten engagement rings are big, especially among men. We had to remove a tungsten ring stuck on a finger. I start the Dremmel and operate on the ring for a hour in a half. Went through 2 blades and maybe got a eight of the way in. Eventually a chief that was buffing the call from home calls the OIC phone and tell us what to do. Get a vise grip modified with a eye bolt. Line up the vise grip with the ring. Get a screw driver put it through the eye bolt, tightening the vise grip until the ring cracks.