Teams compete at cutting edge of smash rescue

Lifesavers: A crash "victim" awaits rescue by the Feilding Rescue Brigade. Forty teams from around the world are competing in the challenge. Picture /Amos Chapple.

It seems cutting people out of crushed cars with the Jaws of Life is turning into a sport, but the only people likely to cringe at the concept are Holden lovers.

About 150 brand-new Monaros, Commodores and Rodeos - worth around $6.7 million - are being purposely mangled, wrecked and reduced to scrap metal at Mystery Creek, Hamilton, this week.

Twenty-tonne diggers are being used to wrap the cars around solid objects such as concrete culverts and power poles in an effort to simulate real-life incidents at the roadside.

Holden has donated the cars to the New Zealand Fire Service so the World Road Crash Rescue Challenge can be staged.

The chairman of the organising committee, Peter Guard, said teams from Britain, Spain, South Africa, Canada, Australia and New Zealand were taking part.

They were competing against the clock in several scenarios designed to test the skills of firefighters and their medics.

Teamwork was the key, Mr Guard said. The Cutting Critters from the Thames Volunteer Fire Brigade were reigning Australasian champions.

Hamilton Chief Fire Officer Roy Breeze said it was appropriate the competition was being held in Waikato, which had the worst road fatality rate in country.

It was useful that the latest cars on the market were being made available to cut and wreck, he said.

"With new car technology they have all sorts of strengthening materials nowadays.

"Our tools have to keep up with the new cars and design. Cars are designed to crumble to allow cushioning.

"They crumble up to the cage [the seated area of the car], which is meant to remain intact."

Outdoors, a haunting display of wrecked cars lies scattered among a garden of more than 80 white crosses. All wrecks come direct from a selection of real-life crashes on the region's roads this year.

The display is part of a wider event, the Staying Alive Expo.

One of the highlights will be at midday on Saturday when the public is invited to witness a fire taking hold of an old house, complete with donated furniture and appliances.

Mr Breeze said a small fire would be sparked. Within five minutes the house would reach "flashover" point, a temperature at which toxic smoke ignites with enough force to blow out windows.

The fire would be put out before any structural damage occurred to the house, with the public invited to take a stroll through the aftermath.