The following information should provide you with a basic hows and whys of extricating victims from vehicle accidents.


Rolling a roof is usually secondary to removing the doors from the vehicle. However circumstances such as a vehicle on its side may yield to the primary use of roof roll. In a roof roll with a vehicle on its wheels, the jaws are usually not necessary to use. Instead, this is where the cutters get primarily used.

To successfully manipulate the roof, the roof supports must be manipulated. The roof supports are lettered beginning with the roof support at the windshield as an "A". The following are pictures of the A and B posts being cut.

After compromising the A and B posts, the next steps depend on if you are removing the roof or rolling the roof. Roof removal means cutting all the roof supports and physically lifting the roof off of the vehicle. To conduct a roof roll, you need to make relief cuts in the roof where you want the point of roll to be. Then the roof is simply pushed back over top of the vehicle.

Below are pictures demonstrating a roof removal, roof roll, and a side roof roll.

We would like to acknowledge the Boles Fire Protection District for their contribution of this article.