Omaha Steve continues to suck the government teat.

[Big Dog]

I've never seen them, only heard of them.

Would there be one of those "jaws of life" things big enough to extricate the big guy?

I don't even know what they look like, but I imagine they have load limits.

-Big Dog using Jaws of Life, 1991

The Jaws would pull and cut the library from around him. No outhouse could survive!

[Chris_]

That poor Pinto.

[Big Dog]

That poor Pinto.

It was a training day with the fire department at a local junkyard. We cut up 3-4 cars that day. Kind of like cadaver lab, the cars were already dead.

 

[franksolich]

-Big Dog using Jaws of Life, 1991

The Jaws would pull and cut the library from around him. No outhouse could survive!

Oh.  So they look like a pair of big wire-cutters.

I see the phrase "jaws of life" in the newspapers once in a while, but had no idea.

I'd imagined it something like a big crane but rather than with a hoist, with some sort of mechanism that stretches things apart, and lifts someone or some thing out of a tight spot.

<<doesn't do television, remember, so hasn't seen all.

[67 Rover]

It was a training day with the fire department at a local junkyard. We cut up 3-4 cars that day. Kind of like cadaver lab, the cars were already dead.

 

Where is the rust!  I do not think I have ever seen a Pinto that intact especially right in front of the wheel well, they usually start rusting in that area and on the top of the fenders about a month after purchase.

[Big Dog]

Oh.  So they look like a pair of big wire-cutters.

I see the phrase "jaws of life" in the newspapers once in a while, but had no idea.

I'd imagined it something like a big crane but rather than with a hoist, with some sort of mechanism that stretches things apart, and lifts someone or some thing out of a tight spot.

<<doesn't do television, remember, so hasn't seen all.

The Jaws will cut through metal (also fingers, but that is a story for another time*), crush, pull a steering column away from a trapped driver, spread apart a mangled car door from the frame (as in the picture), and lift like a scissors jack. It's a versatile rescue tool.

It's also a heck of a nutcracker on slow days at the fire station!



For really heavy-duty lifting, there are "air bags" which will lift an entire truck.

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATrOkUBvpYY&feature=related[/youtube]

*I have all of my fingers.