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School-bus drivers prepare for emergencies
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Austintown Fire Separtment members and emergency workers evacuate someone from the burning school bus during a training drill Tuesday.
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This burning school bus was used for a training exercise Tuesday for emergency workers and bus drivers.
By Elise Franco
A crowd of 400 stood and watched as Austintown firefighters used the “jaws of life” and a power saw to save six people from a school bus.
Those six weren’t injured, though.
They were local bus drivers who volunteered to partake in a training scenario Tuesday during a transportation in-service day at the old Austintown Middle School on Mahoning Avenue.
Colleen Murphy, transportation supervisor for Austintown schools, said that about 400 bus drivers from all over Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties participated in the training day this year.
During Tuesday’s training session, the drivers were able to see three controlled scenarios: fire crews helping a fellow driver evacuate his 24 passengers in a bus full of smoke, crews using a saw and the “jaws of life” to rescue another driver and his six passengers, and crews extinguishing the bus as it was fully engulfed in flames, Murphy said.
“This is the largest turnout we’ve ever had,” she said. “Everyone wanted to see the evacuations. With the bus accidents that have happened as of recent, I think the drivers are concerned, and they wanted to learn more.”
Austintown Capt. Ray Harnevious said the fire department’s “golden rule” is to make any extraction within an hour of arrival on the scene.
Harnevious said 20 minutes is a relatively short amount of time, and most extractions take longer because there is damage to the vehicle.
“After that hour, we’re all in trouble,” he said. “That goes for any vehicle.”
Harnevious said in his 36 years as a firefighter for Austintown, he’s seen extractions on dozens of cars, very few on semitrucks and none on school buses.