The New Florence Fire Protection District got four new additions in December.

No, they weren’t people. They were four heavy, state-of-the-art and battery powered extrication tools that would help the members of the fire district get people out of cars if they are trapped or pinned in. They were purchased from a grant from MoDOT the fire district received in August and were delivered before Christmas.

“We couldn’t have purchased these tools on our own,” Lieutenant Tyler Lewis said. “The grant was a big help. They make us more effective on the road and on the street.”

The four tools are the spreader, cutter, ram and the combination. The spreader can lift about 24,000 pounds and can take off doors. The cutter can cut all forms of metals and take the roof off a car. If a steering wheel is on a driver’s chest or lap, the ram can help get the driver out safely. The combination tool can both spread and cut. They’re called the jaws of life.

“Two years ago, they were different brands and stuff like that,” Lewis said. “But these were the most cost effective and would fit in our budget and fit in our trucks. So this is what we decided.”

Before getting the new tools, the fire district had other rescuing tools that are about 20 years old and are not battery powered like the ones they received two months ago.

“Before we got these, probably a month before that, we did a major wreck on I-70 with someone who was pinned in his Jeep with our own set of tools,” said Chief Ron Fortmann, who has been with the fire district for 35 years. “These came in about a month later. These would have been a little bit more helpful for getting there a little bit quicker.”

All four tools cost $48,000, which is 75 percent of the fire district’s budget of $64,000. The spreader and the combination tools are each $13,000, the cutter is almost $13,000 and the ram is about $9,000. The grant was $39,000, so the fire district had to come up with the rest of the money to get the tools.

“The last couple of years, there have been a few of us who have been trying to find grants to supplement our funding,” said Lewis, who has been with the fire district since 2019. “I ended up finding a highway safety grant for MoDOT. We applied about April of last year. In September, we were notified that we were awarded the grant to purchase the tools. We specifically went after these and asked MoDOT if we could buy these and they said yes.”

For the last several weeks, fire district members went through training to learn how to use the tools.

“Chuck Schreiber of Schreiber’s Towing donated a couple of cars, so we flipped one over on its roof and we put one on its side,” Lewis said. “We brought in a couple of instructors to teach us better techniques on how to get patients out of vehicles if they’re not out on four wheels.”