By Keith Gushard

Meadville Tribune

“Thunderstruck” is how Chris Gillingham describes himself that fateful day in April four years ago.

“It hit me like a lightning bolt,” said Gillingham, a captain with Meadville Central Fire Department when he thought of an idea for a new multi-use hand tool for firefighters.

Now being manufactured by Channellock Inc., the Meadville-based maker of hand tools, The Rescue Tool combines six tools into one specifically for firefighters, police and other first responders.

Gillingham, a fireman for the past five years, got the idea for a combination tool following a fire call in April 2004 when he and fellow firefighters were cleaning equipment.

“One day it just hit me that it would make the job a lot easier,” he said. “With this, you don’t have to fish around in your pockets for each tool.”

The new tool combines pliers, cutters, a pry wedge to open doors and windows, a spanner wrench to tighten and loosen hose couplings, a gas valve shut-off tool and a steel punch to shatter glass. It weighs 23 ounces and fits into a pocket.

Gillingham previously worked in the tooling and machining industry for four years. He developed a prototype with the help of his former employer, Starn Tool & Manufacturing of Meadville, as well as friends Paul Kelyman at Ideal Tool Co. of Meadville who did technical drawings, and Joe Gionti, a welder at General Electric in Euclid, Ohio.

The prototype was a pair of Channellock linesman’s pliers with the handles cut down and the various tools welded together on the handles.

After receiving a provisional U.S. patent in January 2005, Gillingham approached Channellock about the possibility of manufacturing it.

“I wanted to keep everything in Meadville,” he said. “Channellock is the benchmark (in making hand tools). Everybody wants to make pliers like them.”

Scott Jonap, vice president of sales and marketing for Channellock, said the company has worked with Gillingham for the past two years to refine the tool so it could be manufactured.

“It’s an exciting opportunity for us,” said Jonap. “It’s not anything like we’ve produced in the past. With six tools in one — we’ve not seen anything like this on the market.”

Channellock officials talked with numerous firefighters and fire departments already, both volunteer and full-time as well as emergency equipment suppliers.