General Motors Kicks Off National Electric Vehicle Training Tour For First Responders

by Jack Rosebro

A Chicago Fire Department firefighter using a hydraulic cutter to remove the roof off of a pre-production Chevrolet Volt during a demonstration at the 2010 Fire-Rescue Conference International in Chicago. Click to enlarge.

Using a pre-production model of the Chevrolet Volt as a teaching tool, General Motors launched a nationwide electric vehicle training tour and outreach project for emergency personnel this week at the 2010 Fire-Rescue International Conference in Chicago. The workshop included classroom training as well as a live extrication exercise in which Chicago firefighters practiced door and roof removal before an audience of several hundred firefighters.

Material presented in the workshop is the product of several months of collaboration with representatives of organizations such as the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF), Illinois Professional Firefighters’ Association (IFPA), National Emergency Number Association (NENA), and the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA).

A Chicago Fire Department firefighter using a hydraulic spreader to perform a “dash roll” of a pre-production Chevrolet Volt, as part of a demonstration at the 2010 Fire-Rescue Conference International in Chicago. Click to enlarge.

Three pilot workshops were also held in which the automaker incorporated feedback from extrication specialists and first responders into GM’s electric vehicle curriculum for emergency personnel.

Additional workshops are planned for cities including Detroit, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., in support of the rollout of the Volt in select markets later this year. General Motors will also issue an emergency response guide (ERG) for the Volt, and will make the guide available at its Service Technical College website’s first responder page.

Powering Down The Electric Powertrain. The live extrication exercise was performed on one of more than a hundred pre-production Volts that had been subjected to crash testing. Chicago firefighters demonstrated the sequence of tasks required to safely disable the vehicle’s powertrain and extricate injured occupants.