“For the person looking at the picture online, we’re seeing that as well, but we’re also smelling the smells. We’re hearing the screams and the traffic and the tools. It’s a whole different experience on the scene.”
Aurora Fire Chief Joshua Williams says this thoughtfully, deep in reflection, during a frank and expansive interview at the district’s main station on Friday, discussing what seems to be a rise in the number of serious car wrecks in the area in recent months.
Also involved were Operations Chief Greg Dyke, Lieutenant Bill Hanson and Lieutenant Tim Gloy. The interview included the new, all-electric hydraulic tools Aurora Fire recently procured to assist them in recovery situations.
Replacing gas-powered tools the district has owned, in some cases, for four decades, these electric tools deliver increased power in a lighter, more mobile and easier-to-use package. They were put to use for the first time just last week, in a serious injury collision between a dump truck and SUV on the Hubbard Cutoff Road.
Afterward, Aurora Fire District offered the opportunity for the interviewer (me) to have a go actually wielding these tools on a practice car out back. Chief Williams showed his mean streak by warning me before I touched them that each one costs about $13,000, so I handled them like a newborn baby. A 50-pound newborn baby.
“Don’t worry,” he added with a laugh. “They’re pretty rugged.”
Hear our full interview with the leadership of Aurora Fire District on Episode 149 of the Canby Now Podcast, “Crash Course”: