The accident response capability of the Brookhaven FireDepartment was improved Monday with a transfer of inventory fromcounty volunteer firefighters.

Lincoln County Civil Defense Director Clifford Galey said a setof Jaws of Life was removed from the county inventory and given toBFD by the Heuck’s Retreat Volunteer Fire Department. The transfernow gives BFD two set of jaws to call on in the event of anaccident.

The transfer works out for the best because unlike the volunteerdepartments, whose members have day jobs and are not alwaysavailable to respond to accidents, BFD is on duty 24 hours per day,Galey said.

“It helps the county and the city,” Galey said of the transfer.”The city responds to all of the jaws calls in the city and thecounty. It just gives them a quicker response, and it’s better forall of the citizens of the county and city.”

Galey said the transfer was made for two main reasons – thedifficulty in keeping volunteer firefighters trained and updated onusing the Jaws of Life on newer-model vehicles, especially hybrids;and the city’s need for a newer set of jaws.

“There’s a lot of things you have to keep up to date on,” Galeysaid. “On the new hybrids, if you cut into the wrong place you’llcut into the high voltage wiring that runs through the car. Youhave to keep updated to those changes – it’s really hard to get thevolunteers into all those classes and keep them up to speed.”

BFD has always had two sets of jaws, but one set, an older setdating back to the 1970s, was a source of consternation. With theset received from the county, BFD now has two, newer sets of Jawsof Life of the same type, making their parts interchangeable.

“That’s one great benefit,” said BFD Chief Bob Watts. “The oldjaws still worked, but they weren’t compatible with our other unit.Now, when we’re on the scene, any tool a firefighter picks up willwork with both units, and that means a lot.”

Watts said having the interchangeable jaws would allow thedepartment to cannibalize one set to keep the other working ifnecessary.

“If a piece of equipment breaks down and we needed to borrowsomething from the other set, it would work,” he explained. “Wealso have an extra set of hydraulic lines that will work on eitherunit, and before that wasn’t the case. Nothing would work betweenthe two sets – there was nothing compatible about it.”

Watts pointed out that having two sets of identical Jaws of Lifewould also help firefighters become familiar with operating theequipment. It will also help train new firefighters, he said.

“It also helps our men to just get used to the equipment,” Wattssaid. “Firefighters do move around from station to station, and nowwhen you learn how to operate one set you’ve learned themboth.”

Watts said the transferred jaws have already been placed onto afire truck and are ready to be used, much to BFD firefighters’delight.

“We thank the county and the Heuck’s Retreat volunteers fordonating them to us – I know the men here appreciate it, becausethe old set just wasn’t designed to handle some of the material yourun across today,” he said. “It’s good to get good equipment. It’sbetter for everybody concerned – the citizens around here and thepeople traveling through our area.”

Even though the jaws were removed from the county inventory, thecounty incurred no monetary loss, as the equipment was purchased inthe late 1990s with grant money. Galey pointed out that all thecounty volunteers will still be available to assist the city whenpaged to any accident.