Hydraulic rescue instruments, also called jaws of life, are utilized by emergency rescue personnel to assist in the extrication of victims involved in automobile accidents or railway accidents and reducing massive-sized debris of mild metal structures into smaller items for extraction of injured/useless victims out from building rubble in earthquake-raged areas, as well as different rescues in small spaces. These instruments include cutters, spreaders, and rams. Such devices have been first used in 1963 as a software to free race automobile drivers from their autos after crashes. The Hurst Rescue Tool was invented by George Hurst, circa 1961, after he seen a inventory automotive race accident during which it took employees over an hour to remove an injured driver from his automotive. Previously rescuers often used circular saws for vehicle extrication, however these suffered from several drawbacks. Saws can create sparks, which might start a fireplace, create loud sounds, stress the victim(s), and sometimes lower slowly.

Alternatively, rescuers could try to pry open the vehicle doorways with a crowbar or Halligan bar, but this could compromise the stability of the automobile, or injure the victims additional. In comparison, hydraulic spreader-cutters are quieter, sooner, stronger, and extra versatile: they will lower, open, and even lift a vehicle. Hurst Performance began to export components to a European company, Wood Ranger Power Shears website Zumro ResQtec, to avoid import duty. Zumro ResQtec was involved in creating these instruments to be used in auto racing, Wood Ranger Power Shears website with ResQtec concentrating on the European market and Hurst targeting the American market. The hydraulic spreader was initially developed in 1972 by Tim Smith and Mike Brick, who later developed a cutter and a hydraulic ram. When an occupant is trapped the instrument is used to pry or lower the automotive to remove the occupant. It takes about two minutes to take the roof off a car. Mike Brick coined the phrase “Jaws of Life” after he observed folks saying that their new system “snatched folks from the jaws of death”, then used as a registered model title for Hurst merchandise.

The name “jaws of life” is, nonetheless, used colloquially to explain other hydraulic rescue tools. Brick later developed a single rescue instrument that combines the functions (push, pull, cut and unfold) of earlier rescue instruments, and patented it