It’s a story you hear often when temperatures rise of kids being left in hot cars.
But in many cases, kids are accidentally locked inside with parents frantic to get them out.
That was the case Sunday for Tulsa Fire Department's Station 20 which responded to two calls within 30 minutes, of a child locked inside.
Thankfully, both were unharmed.
“They were successfully rescued,” Bryan Bohbrink, firefighter with Tulsa Fire Department, said. “One of them was actually running with the AC on.”
Bohbrink said it usually only takes a few minutes for them to get inside a vehicle.
“It’s a basic call but it’s an emergency and we do it to the best of our abilities,” Bohbrink said.
Fire engines have tools ready to go at all times.
“We have a wedge to wedge the door open and create space, to create an opening for this tool here,” Bohbrink said. “It’s what we use to reach in and we can either unlock the car. If we can’t reach that with a button we can use it for the handle.”
Bohbrink said if you accidentally lock the doors, the first thing you should do is call 911 then look for ways to get inside.
“You want to break the glass,” Bohbrink said. “You want find the pressure points. Find anything sharp or hard that you can. I wouldn’t use your hand and I wouldn’t use the windshield. That wouldn’t be effective.”
If a child is sitting in the backseat, you want to make sure and break the window on the opposite side so the glass doesn’t hit them.
“In 10 minutes, the temperature can rise over 100 degrees on a summer day,” Bohbrink said. “So, it’s most important to find something you can do to help you remember that your child’s in the back.”
It’s important to have a routine, Bohbrink said, to help keep situations like this from happening.
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