Merrimack Fire Rescue Extricates 'Victims' From Jeep

The Merrimack Fire and Rescue Department held its annual open house on Thursday as part of National Fire Prevention Week activities. This year's theme nationwide is "Preventing Kitchen Fires."

The annual open house affords families the opportunity to come meet the Merrimack Firefighters and EMTs, explore the fire trucks and ambulances, watch safety demonstrations, practice spraying the fire hose and more.

This year, during the side-by-side burn demonstration, the fire department showed the difference between a fire that starts in a living room that has sprinklers and a kitchen grease fire in a room without sprinklers.

Fire Chief Michael Currier, in introducing the demonstration, discussed the importance of keeping things like pizza boxes and other ignitable materials away from your stove top, leaving a pan where it is during a grease fire so you don't inadvertently spread the fire, and the importance of sprinklers and smoke detectors while addressing the crowd on an unseasonably warm October night. 

Also during the event, a group of first responders showed how they go about breaking a car open with Jaws of life tools in order to rescue accident victims from a vehicle. 

Watch  a condensed version of the extrication above. It took about 20 minute in real time for the crew to get into the late model Jeep, see what they did in under two minutes.

Look through our photo gallery of the event here.