Fire and Rescue
Firefighters from Bedfordshire and Luton rescue seven times as many people from wrecked cars as they do from burning buildings. Bedfordshire and Luton Fire and Rescue Service (BLFRS) leads the way in professional training and equipment provision enabling crews to conduct their work swiftly and safely and where necessary provide "trauma care" to victims.
In addition BLFRS works closely with other partner organisations to help prevent road accidents through a range of projects:
PREVENTING 
The Fire and Rescue Service host a pioneering programme supported by fire, police and ambulance teams has helped to cut casualties among young drivers.
Inexperienced drivers who have newly passed their tests are the smallest group on the road - but involved with the greatest number of road traffic collisions.
To combat this the Luton and District Driving Schools Association got together with the 999 services and Luton Borough Council to create a course making learner drivers more aware of the risks they face on the road.
Held three times in the last year at Luton Fire Station in Studley Road, the sessions staged include film footage of the aftermath of road traffic accidents, a look at the heavy cutting equipment used by firefighters to release people from crumpled cars and practical sessions on how to keep vehicles up to safe standard.
PROTECTING
Trauma care reduces injuries to those in road traffic incidents
Bedfordshire and Luton Fire and Rescue Service crews are better trained and equipped to help save lives when they are the first to arrive at an incident where people are dangerously ill.
A specialist Trauma Care course has been introduced which gives Firefighters enhanced training to deal with the traumatic injuries they encounter at fires, road accidents and other emergencies. This includes use of defibrillators (AEDs) to help revive victims of fire or accidents whose hearts have stopped beating, equipment for resuscitation and delivering life saving oxygen to those suffering from smoke inhalation or traumatic injuries, and neck collars and spine-boards for rescuing people with suspected spinal injuries following road accidents or falls.
All-in-one rucksack type Trauma Bags have been provided so that the equipment can be taken speedily to the patient and special Patient Report Forms are being introduced ensure that vital information is passed on to the Ambulance Service at patient hand over.
When someone suffers a cardiac arrest their chances of survival drop by 14% with every minute that passes (source: British Heart Foundation). If that person has been in a fire or a road traffic accident to which a fire appliance has been mobilised, the crews on board can act straight away if an ambulance has not yet arrived at the scene.
Improved oxygen therapy and resuscitation equipment has already been introduced. The specialist equipment, including AED defibrillators, neck collars and spinal long boards "went live” in Bedfordshire and Luton on September 10th 2007.
RESPONDING
Lives will be saved and casualties reduced thanks to new Fire and Rescue Service improvements for road traffic collisions
All 19 Rescue Pumps (or fire engines) from stations across Bedfordshire and Luton Fire and Rescue Service (BLFRS) will have new improved hydraulic cutting equipment, it was announced in June 2008 by BLFRS.
This means the first crew on the scene, wherever a road traffic incident happens, will be able to cut free any casualties faster allowing them to receive urgent medical care – and thus reducing injuries and savings lives.
Until now crews at a scene often have had to wait for specialist units to arrive from Kempston and Stopsley before they could complete the rescue – with this new upgraded equipment on all station rescue pumps, the closest fully trained firefighters will be able to save vital minutes when saving these lives.
Holmatro tools have been selected as part of an extensive evaluation by firefighters. As a result of this upgrade in equipment a thorough review has been undertaken regarding the response to road accidents. Later in the year when all fire pumps, at all stations and all firefighters have been fully trained the two nearest Rescue Pumps will be sent to a call for help.
The specialist units at Kempston and Stopsley, which carry additional specialist rescue equipment such as larger high pressure air bags, will still be mobilised to more complex road traffic, and other incidents, such as those involving HGVs, by a pre-determined response or at the request of the officer-in-charge at the scene. We also intend to upgrade this equipment later to further improve their support capabilities.
Other upgrades planned at BLFRS include mobile data terminals on rescue pumps where firefighters can log in to see technical details relating to all types of cars. This is important when cutting casualties free as some cars have safety measures which can in fact be a hazard to firefighters and those they are trying to rescue" added DCFO Smith.
