SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – A precarious pile up of vehicles, including a bus donated by Tahoe Transport, was staged by South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue at Welcome’s Auto Body and Towing to train fire departments on how to extract people safely from car crashes. The process, known as auto extrication, is a vital one—and the South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue, Lake Valley Fire Protection District, and Cal Fire receive training on it once a year.

Kim George, a fire marshal with South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue, said the scenario set up this year was “very dynamic.” While it’s unlikely to see two cars and a bus stacked in this particular way, George said, “The more challenging the scenario, the better. Practicing these skills helps so that when something like this really happens, we’re prepared.”

Firefighters worked together in different shifts to learn the best techniques for using the various tools, such as the Jaws of Life or a ramming tool that can widen crushed parts of the vehicle and extract a patient. The tools—and the training instructor for them, Jeff Gates—came from the L.N. Curtis company, which provides emergency responder equipment.

Marty Rider, a firefighter and paramedic, was responsible for setting up the exercise. He stated he’d been planning this for a few months and was glad for the generous donations of the vehicles from Welcome’s and Tahoe Transport.

Many of the complications for auto extrication arise because vehicles, especially when damaged, are very dangerous. Not only are they heavy, but air bags might deploy unexpectedly, broken glass and metal can lacerate patients and responders alike, and removing doors or windows to bring patients to safety can destabilize the car.

“It’s a pretty complex drill, but these kinds of low frequency/high risk scenarios make it so that we can practice and have the skills in the wheelhouse if we do encounter this,” said Rider. He emphasized that their top priority is both stabilization and protecting the patients in the situation.

Other drills that took place at the same time involved firefighters working on a more standard scenario: cars that are rolled on their side or are upside-down after an accident.

One major goal of this drill was to practice a standardized approach towards vehicles. With the many different types of cars nowadays—gas, electric, hybrid, compressed natural gas—it can be challenging to know what kinds of hazards you might face. Electrical cars have lithium batteries which ignite differently than gas. And if a vehicle is punctured, the different chemicals involved in each of the fuel processes pose different kinds of risks. With a standardized approach, it ensures more safety for everyone involved.

In addition to the firefighters’ training, several public information officers also came together under Sallie Ross, executive assistant to the Fire Chief and the public information officer for the South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue. The public information officers included Wendy Oaks from Cal Fire’s Amador-El Dorado Unit, Teresa Schow from the Lake Tahoe Unified School District, Sheree Juarez from the City of South Lake Tahoe and her intern Tate Martinelli, and one of the Wildfire Resiliency fellows at South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue, Cricket Baldwin. All of them, along with Ross, practiced coordinating information for the staged crash. They also discussed how to most effectively get information out to the public, especially since social media is so pervasive at spreading information—and sometimes, misinformation.

Ross said that these kinds of trainings are season dependent for firefighters. “For example, we do ice rescue in the spring, swift water rescues in the summer, and hazardous weather trainings in the winter,” she said.

This training is happening now because the fire risk typically starts lowering in September and October, meaning the fire departments can focus on longer and more involved drills. While South Lake Tahoe is hosting this one, other trainings such as high-rise fire training is hosted by departments like the Tahoe Douglas Fire Protection District. Oaks said, “I think the community wants to know that we all work together—and we do.”

Eli Ramos is a reporter for Tahoe Daily Tribune. They are part of the 2024–26 cohort of California Local News Fellows through UC Berkeley.