Firefighters use a saw on a trunk and an ax on a windshield at Paramount Auto Body Tuesday night. When they're all finished, several cars will be destroyed.

Firefighters are training to respond to extrication accidents. Their goal is to be able to reach people stuck inside wreckage within 10 minutes.

"Minutes count when there's an extrication, again, what happens with these auto accidents is people don't just break an arm or get a concussion, they have what's called multi-system trauma," Reno Firefighter Jim Bolton said.

"You see all the videos but there's nothing like putting a tool to a vehicle to see how it actually works," Reno Firefighter Bill Winchester said.

Winchester is joining others practicing using the jaws of life -- A pressurized scissor-like device and an essential tool when responding to any extrication accident.

"The biggest thing to keep it simple... not to get in-between the actual tool and the vehicle that's the safest thing and let the tool do one-hundred percent of the work," Winchester said.

Firefighters need to watch out for air bags that can injure them, as the devices may sometimes injure children, Bolton said. Some cars, like hybrids now have high voltage cables, he added. Firefighter also said simply taking the cars apart requires more force than ever.

"Different steels the boron steel, the high string steel all those new steels add to the integrity or the strength of the vehicle," Tim Waldren of Paramount Auto Body said.

But when firefighters are finished, the cars are in pieces -- helping them be prepared to do this again when someone's life might depend on it.

About 90 firefighters from various local agencies took part in the training. Paramount Auto Body and Enterprise Car Rental helped make the exercise possible. Four cars were dismantled. They were donated by Progressive Insurance and D&S towing.