Firefighter training drill by Forest Reeder
From the 2009 vehicle extrication e-Newsletter, sponsored by
This drill features an extrication scenario that will challenge the most talented and well-trained rescue team. As a company, discuss how your department would respond to and manage this incident using the extrication and rescue tools available to you during these types of operations.
- Firefighters Respond to Paducah (KY) Truck into Building
- Training Minutes: Rapid Shoring for Partial Collapse
Your company is dispatched to a report of a car vs. building auto accident. The vehicle has hit a single-family dwelling that was occupied at the time of the incident. The driver is still in the auto, is unconscious, and the vehicle is resting partly inside and partly outside of the home. Extrication will be needed to remove the victim from the front seat of the car since the steering wheel and dashboard have collapsed onto the victims lap. Access to the driver’s door is limited by the side of the house. Police are on the scene and with bystanders, are beginning to search the interior. On arrival, you hear and smell a natural gas leak from an unknown location. Use your local SOPs to develop a step-by-step initial action plan for this incident.
Download this week’s firefighter training drill as a PDF HERE.
MAD Training and Response Solutions
Forest Reeder began his fire service career in 1978 and retired as fire chief of the Tinley Park (IL) Fire Department in 2021. He has worked extensively in the areas of instruction, firefighter safety, and officer development and earned his Master of Science Degree in Public Safety Administration in 2004. He is the author of Fire Department Incident Safety Officer 4th edition (2025) and co-author of Fire Service Instructor Principles and Practices, now in its 3rd edition. Forest presents nationally on fire service leadership, safety, and instructor development. He was inducted into the Moraine Valley Community College Alumni Hall of Fame in 2020 and awarded the Distinguished Alumnus award in 2021. In 2008, he received the ISFSI George D. Post Instructor of the Year, considered to be the highest recognition for fire service instructors in the nation.
