The Navasota Fire Department has some of their newest equipment for life saving procedures.
Chief Jason Katkoski introduced their two new battery powered cutters for getting into cars that might be crushed, and how much these new tools may impact saving lives.
“For those familiar with the current, hydraulic tools, we have to carry a power unit, hoses, connect it…these, we can come off the truck, ready to go,” Katoski said at Monday’s City Council meeting. “One of the goals is to get a couple cars behind the station, run, and see what kind of time frame we are looking at. I have a feeling, though, that we will be able to have a car opened up with these, while they are still setting up the old set.”
Funding for these was opened up in July thanks to the voluntary fire fee fund, which is on the Navasota Utility Bills.
Katkoski says that these tools apply 40,000 pounds of pressure, all in an easy to transport machine that is easy to use.
“We can get an hours worth of work, or approximately two cars, depending on pressures we have to use with the batteries. We can also change the batteries out, we got multiple sets,” Katkoski said.
The machines use regular D Volt batteries, and they received their first two machines last week.
