Scottsdale Fire Department demonstrates how the jaws of life work at new training facility

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - The Scottsdale Fire Department invited us to their new training facility to find out what it's like to be pulled from a car crash by the jaws of life and how the new facility will help with advanced training for the firefighters. 

The jaws of life are a hydraulic tool used by first responders to remove twisted metal in car accidents to gain access to crash victims.

For the purposes of this demonstration, FOX 10 Reporter Nicole Krasean gets into a wreck. It is a t-bone situation. 

The airbag is deployed in the vehicle and what is most important for those situations is for the patient to stay calm and stay still, even though the car has crunched around you. 

Nicole needs to be extricated, and Scottsdale Fire is on the way to extricate her.

Watch FOX 10 Phoenix live:

"Mechanical extrication is going to be provided by our 603 crew who just arrived on scene and the first thing they do is actually stabilize the vehicle," says Scottsdale Fire Capt. Dave Folio. 

Folio describes the steps firefighters take when they arrive at the scene.

"Seeing if you're alert and orientated, if you had any confusion. Obviously, you're responding to me. We're going to guess you got pretty good blood pressure. I'd probably take a radial pulse. So, what we're really trying to evaluate is if you're a stable or unstable patient. I'd do some verbal calming, I would hold a c-spine, so I'd get directly behind you, let you know not to move your head," he said.

That's when the jaws of life come into play.

"It's one of our best ways to make entry into a vehicle to get past the pin of the vehicle," he said.

Inside the vehicle

"It's really loud. You have to be ready to feel maybe a little bit of pressure on your legs when they're getting your driver's side or the door that's closest to you," says Nicole.

Once an access point has been established, its a matter of safely extracting the patient while emphasizing safe maneuvers to make sure any injuries aren't made worse in the process.

"So we'll put this board underneath her bottom and manipulate her over to the left and then slide her onto the backboard and slowly lower her out," said Folio.

The procedure might be happening more than you think

"They're averaging six a month," says Folio. "Whether it's just opening the door or simply pin pops or completely removing doors to get the patient out because they've been compromised with a spinal injury, neck injury, head injury. It's a whole production to keep everybody safe and, most importantly, life safety is our number one priority when we arrive on a two-vehicle collision like this," he said.

No one was injured in this training exercise.