Breaking things for a living

One of the fun parts of my job is breaking things. Urban Search and Rescue Teams or USAR for short have some pretty amazing capabilities. Most USAR teams are part of fire department companies with extra responsiblities and training. A lot of the specialized equipment we carry is meant to gain access in tough areas. One example might be a freeway collapse after and earthquake. In the early stages of an incident like this you could have people trapped in void spaces. A USAR team would come in with specialized tools and training and recon the area looking for potential victim spaces. After a primary search is completed the breaking tools are brought in to make access. One of my favorite tools, the concrete cutting chainsaw, can be seen in the video below being operated by one of my fellow firefighters during some recent training. We were able to breach a hole in 9" or reinforced concrete, large enough for a stretcher to fit through, in just under 45 minutes.