Emergency management personnel and first responders from Suwannee, Lafayette, Hamilton and Columbia counties gathered at the Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative (SVEC) in Live Oak on Wednesday, July 29, for a training session on emergency scenes involving electricity. SVEC Safety Director Mark Mosley and Suwannee County Public Safety Director James Sommers led the session, which included a demonstration of a vehicle extraction around downed power lines performed by the Suwannee County Fire Rescue (SCFR) crew.

The most crucial element to approaching an emergency scene involving power poles or lines is to keep away from any power lines making contact with the earth, a vehicle or a structure, Mosley explained. The electricity in downed live wires will look for a path to go to ground to complete an electrical circuit, and that path could be the earth, a vehicle or a person. When that happens, the grounded object or person can receive over 14,000 volts of electricity and the earth can be electrified. First responders must stay back from downed power lines as far as possible until the scene can be made safe.

Mosley advised first responders to wait until SVEC or whichever electrical company is in charge of a grid to de-energize and ground the wires before approaching a scene. In the case of a vehicle accident, victims should stay in the vehicle until they can be rescued and first responders should try to calm the victim from a distance.

“If there’s wire on the ground, no matter what’s going on in the car, you must stay back until we can make it safe for you,” Mosley said. “Don’t become a victim trying to help a victim.”

The training session ended with a demonstration of a complete vehicle extrication around a downed power pole and lines. The Suwannee County Fire Rescue crew used hydraulic tools to cut apart the entire driver’s side of a car and then used a spine board to extract the mannequin “victim.”

SVEC and SCFR would like to thank all those who attended the training session, including the Airlife 7 flight crew, and Suwannee Salvage for donating the car used in the demonstration.