 The Cohasit fire department has been approved for a net of jaws of life tools and they were approved to that last August and they've already helped save one life. Lakeland News reporter Shrelmore tells us what makes the tools the best of their kind. This one here is a cutter for cutting door hinges, cutting the door off, cutting panels off the side. Being right on highway two can have its perks. Cars are always passing through, which could bring more business to your city, but more cars could also potentially mean more accidents. Right out here it's the main highway so we get we get many car accidents. Back years ago when I first got on we didn't even have jaws of life so we always had to call Grand Rapids fire. The Cohasit fire department receives more than 200 calls a year and their old jaws of life tools were getting old. With so many calls they really needed an upgrade which led the department to make another big decision hydraulic versus battery powered. We tried out probably four different four different brands from the hydraulics to the battery powered ones and they're being very nervous about the batteries being in cold weather but they're tested they've tested them up in Alaska cold weather incidents they've got the same power. This here is what they call the RAM hydraulic RAM whether it's you have to lift the dash up so you can get people's feet untangled from them or whatever. There's three parts total and they also have a long battery life. The Cohasit fire department says a lot of fire stations have switched to battery powered so they seemed like a good fit. Now instead of two guys one grabbing the power pack out of the truck and one grabbing the tool one guy can grab the tool you're down into the vehicle whatever they're just there's no maintenance as far as a gas engine that you have to deal with. So far the Cohasit fire department has only had to use the tools one time although they're hoping to never have to take them out of the truck. Hopefully everybody is safe driving and so that these never have to be tested out we do have them in case they in case we need them but we hope we don't ever have to use them. Reporting in Cohasit, Shawmore, Lakeland News. The Cohasit fire department is looking for firefighters anyone interested can contact Cohasit City Hall. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.