Firehouse Life - Cutting up cars

There are many great things about my job...the excitement of fighting fires, knowing what I do makes a difference, the guys I work with...but there's one part that appeals to a child-like, distinctly man side of me, and that's using big tools to break stuff. There's something really awesome about smashing an object to pieces without either getting into a fight with someone over that object or getting arrested. But not only is using big tools to break stuff part of my job, people actually rely on myself and other firefighters to do so! Did I mention I love my job?

We've had this old white car sitting in the back parking lot of the firehouse for months. We were waiting for the right opportunity to use the rescue tools off the ladder truck to practice some vehicle extrication techniques. Well, we have two guys at the station who are in the process of getting checked off to drive the truck, so they needed to demonstrate that they could set up and operate the rescue equipment. And of course, the rest of us got to play with the tools too! We spent the whole morning cutting, spreading, pushing, pulling, whacking, smacking and generally destroying this car. And it was FUN.

So (God-forbid) if any of you reading this are ever in a car accident and you're stuck inside your car, the fire department might do more damage to your car in getting you out than the accident did. How else are we supposed to get you unstuck?