DIXFIELD – Most of the calls for help to the Dixfield Fire Department are not for fires; they’re for auto crashes. The wrecks often involve extrication of a victim from a knot of metal and plastic.

On the night of Sept. 13, it was a single-car crash on Morrison Hill. A 1995 black Pontiac Grand Prix skidded through a roadside turnout, rolled off Route 2 and slammed roof first into a clump of trees down an embankment.

The crumpled car then fell down from the trees, landing right side up.

Its now U-shaped roof was pushed down into the passenger compartment, trapping two young victims.

The Dixfield Fire Department didn’t have the Jaws of Life, an expensive, heavy-duty tool, to get the victims out. But it did have a battery-operated, reciprocating Sawzall purchased by Fire Chief Scott Blaisdell for $300. It was the department’s first such tool.

“Sixty to seventy percent of our calls are accidents now,” Blaisdell said.

In the crash, “We made a couple of cuts to the doors, and it saved time for the guys with the heavy-duty equipment. That money we just spent on the saw just paid for itself,” Blaisdell said.

Next year, he plans to buy another Sawzall.