More Of The Same

On day three we were again assigned to structure protection. To make things easier we were even assigned to the same structures.

This barn with the hay and historical truck was the most threatened building we were assigned.

Since the fire was not really coming our way in any hurry we spent the day parked outside our most threatened building listening to radio traffic. Always trying to get a mental picture of what the fire was doing.

We also happened to find an outhouse near where we were staged.

Fixer upper outhouse.

At one point during the day we decided to drive up an old logging road that traveled up behind the homes we were protecting. We ended up driving until we couldn't go any further and then had to back down. Some where along the trip the ground decided to reach up and bend the step below my door (if you're reading this and you're from my department this is in no way an accident report).

Before the repair work the step was bent so high it block the cabinet doors.

We spent a little while back at our barn doing some auto body work. Even with our limited tools we were able to make the step and the cabinet it was now blocking usable again.

At the end of the day we headed back to camp. That night we were able to sleep in tents. It was a good thing because it did end up raining.

Although sleeping on the ground was already getting old.

Dead Man Walking

Dead man walking driving. At least he was.

The gentleman was driving down the freeway and took one of the exits. Since it was an exit that lead to the nearest hospital I'm going to assume the guy wasn't feeling well and was headed that way instead of calling 911. I don't know any of that for sure but that's what I'm going with.

On the off ramp, while still at a high rate of speed, the man kicked the bucket. His heart had had enough and had quit. He sailed through the intersection, down an embankment and into a fence.

PD was first on scene and they found the driver unresponsive. Engine 57 was right behind them. They secured the vehicle then rapidly extricated the driver and placed him on the ground. Once it was determined that he was pulse-less and apneic CPR was started.

We arrived and assisted with the resuscitation efforts and moving the patient up the hill to the ambulance. The AMR medic asked for 2 riders and got them. We cleared the scene and went back to cooking dinner.

The crew from engine 57 were at the hospital for over an hour while the staff tried to revive the patient. Attempts were ultimately unsuccessful.

Someone Hit My Station?

The tones went off at oh dark thirty. I must have been still in my sleepy daze because I thought I heard the tones for a traffic accident and my station address. Did someone really hit my station?!

I jumped into my bunker pants and grabbed my jacket. I looked out the windows on the apparatus bay doors to look and see if there was anything right out front. Nothing. My captain had checked the front door on his way to the rig. Again, nothing.

We pulled out of the station and saw a vehicle that had crashed into building down the block. I guess the 911 caller used our station as the reference when reporting the location of the accident.

The car had crossed oncoming traffic lanes, hit a power pole and then went head long into a cinder block building, oddly enough, an auto repair shop. The woman that had been driving (term used loosely) was just about the legal drinking age. And she was drunk. Plastered.

She was still wearing her seatbelt and the front airbags had deployed. My engineer immediately went for the car battery (disconnecting it helps to reduce the chance of another airbag going off and injuring us). I poked my head in the car and turned off the vehicle. I also placed it into park and set the emergency brake.

While trying to stay out of the airbag deployment zones as much as possible I did a quick assessment. I noted that the patient had a fractured right arm and that she was bleeding on her right leg. AMR was on scene and getting the backboard ready. Their EMT grabbed c-spine and I applied the collar. Once she was out of the car and onto the backboard we were able to do a strip and flip (this is where all of the patients clothes are removed to look for any injuries that may not have been so obvious). We found that the young woman had managed to break the bones in her lower leg and now they were protruding through the skin. This was the source of the blood I found earlier.

With the patient packaged and on her way to the ER we were free to make sure the vehicle wasn't leaking any fluids. Since we had already disconnected the battery there wasn't anything else for us to do. We headed back to the barn to try and get some more shut eye.

No sooner had we stripped out of our turnouts then the phone rang. It was dispatch saying that PD was requesting are presence on the scene of the accident we just left. Evidently the car was pinned against a power box of some sort.

We walked back over and looked. The car wasn't against a box. In fact, it had bounced back off of the wall and wasn't touching anything. And PD said that they didn't ask for us. Maybe dispatch was bored.

No Good Deed

No good deed goes unpunished.....


So assuming that there was an actual need to place the patients in C-Spine (which I highly doubt) you're trying to tell me that the paramedics there couldn't find a way to extricate the victims from a perfectly good car? If they can't remove someone from a perfectly intact car does this mean they do a full auto-extrication on every traffic accident? What a fun job for the firefighters!

All I can say is if the insurance company doesn't cover the cost of the vehicle the ambulance company should.

Freeway Dangers

This engine was struck not once but twice, sending 3 firefighters to the hospital. Please slow down when you see flashing lights. Our families want us to come home at the end of the shift.

When To Roll Your Vehicle

The best way to survive a vehicle accident is not to be in one. Other things you can do is to use the safety equipment installed in your car. Doing something as simple as putting on your seatbelt can save your life.

If only you could control when the accident were to occur. I would tell you to have it sometime between 7 and 9 in the morning, at least in the city. That's because this is prime off duty firefighter commute time. If something bad happens, qualified help is probably right behind you.

After working an overtime shift I hopped on the freeway and headed home. I was about 15 miles into my commute. I was in the zone. All the windows in my truck were down, the music was blasting away. It was a beautiful morning.

Then things seemed to slow down. I watched as the black car to vehicles up was hit in the side by the car next to it. The driver hit her brakes and slid into the K-rails.

K-rails are designed to "...both to minimise damage in incidental accidents and reduce the likelihood of a car crossing into oncoming lanes in the event of a collision." It did exactly as it was designed to do. But in the process of preventing the car from entering oncoming traffic it caused the vehicle to flip. The car rolled over one and a half times ending up on its roof sliding down the number 2 lane. The vehicle that caused the accident pulled over to the right shoulder without incident.

I hit the brakes and my hazards and made sure the person behind me wasn't going to try and use my tailgate as a hood ornament.I slowly picked my way through the debris field and stopped just past the upside down car. As I exited the truck I noticed another off duty firefighter from a neighboring department mirroring my actions. We approached the drivers side window and saw that she appeared mostly uninjured and that she was climbing out on her own.

She had been wearing her seat belt and the airbags had done their job. I did a quick assessment on here and found that she had only a little bit of pain to her right arm, probably from the airbag. After a few minutes the first due engine pulled up. I gave the captain a quick rundown and headed back to the commute.

If you have to get into an accident, between 7 and 9 in the mornings would be the time to do it.

Neither Snow Nor Rain.....

We pulled up on scene to find a mail jeep and an SUV in the intersection. It was pretty clear that the jeep had pulled out and into the other vehicle. PD was already there. The officer said that there were 3 possible patients. The mailman, the guy driving the SUV and his grandson.

My engineer headed over to the grandfather and my captain started assessing the mailman. I went over to the police cruiser where a frightened 8 year old boy quietly sat. Pulling off my helmet I opened the door and knelt next to him. I got his name and age. I asked him if he was wearing his seat belt and what hurt. He said that he was and that nothing hurt any more. He said that the bag hurt the side of his head a little bit but he was better now. And he wanted to know why we had airbags.

I continued my assessment and answered questions. He was very curious. How did we know to come? Who called 911? What going to happen to the car? But most of all he was worried about his grandfather. I told him that he looked ok and that another firefighter was looking after him. Finishing my assessment I headed over to my engineer to find out about the old man. I then headed back to tell the boy that they didn't need to go to the hospital and that his grandfather was well.

Once that was done I headed back to the rig and grabbed a sticker. I knew I had hit the jackpot when I handed it to the 8 year old and he exclaimed "COOL!"

The mailman was ok too.

Stupid Drivers, A Real Danger

We pulled out of the station with our lights flashing. As the tailboard cleared the apparatus door my engineer hit the remote control closing the door.

This station is in a residential neighborhood. We turned left onto the small street. As we approached the main road through town the growler started to wail. My engineer had to come to a complete stop at the uncontrolled intersection to wait for traffic to stop. The traffic to our left stopped (shocking I know) and we started to pull into the intersection to clear the other side.

It was about then that the woman driving in the #1 lane decided that she no longer wanted to stop for us. She drove across the intersection and were it not for the yells of stop by my captain the old lady would now have a giant imprint of the bumper of our fire engine in the side of it.

Sometimes getting across the street from the station can be the most dangerous part of the job.

Car Crash

Just after dinner the tones went off. We were dispatched to the freeway with a neighboring agency for a single vehicle accident in the center divider.

Pulling up to the scene we saw several vehicles pulled over but only one appeared to have been in the accident. We nosed in Big Red behind the accident to give us a little protection as we worked. Some people are like moths to the flame with fire trucks.

We found our patient sitting and leaning up against the center divider. It was a chilly night and someone who had stopped had offered her a blanket. The victim said that she was cut off and had been forced into the median. She had been wearing her seatbelt and the airbags did deploy. There was only moderate damage to the vehicle.

The lady was initially complaining of pain to her right forearm and to the right side of her jaw. While assessing C-Spine I found that she had point tenderness around C4 and C5. As we were going through the process of placing her in full spinal precautions AMR showed up. While I finished strapping the patient to the backboard the AMR medic that was ready to strap her head down said alarmingly, "She's not breathing!"

We did a another check. She wasn't breathing, she did have a strong pulse but she wasn't responding to verbal or painful stimuli. I kept thinking, "Crap, what did I miss." While the EMT grabbed the BVM we loaded the patient onto the gurney and headed for the ambulance.

About the time that we had the BVM set up our patient started breathing again. She was also alert and oriented. The husband (who, from home, had beat the ambulance to the scene) told us that his wife had severe panic attacks and that she often passed out. I'm not sure if that was what happened here but it's something that I would have liked to know when I asked her about her medical conditions!

Before leaving I checked with the AMR crew to find out if they needed anything else. They had a paramedic intern there so they didn't feel they needed a rider.

TC Down The Street

The tones went off (insert sounds here...maybe I'll have to try that sometime). We were being dispatched for a TC just down the street from the station. We jumped into our turnouts and pulled out of the station.

As we approached the scene we could see a four door late model sedan in the middle of the side street. Along the curb was a late model mid size pickup. There was moderate damage to the front and sides of both vehicles that happens when to cars try to occupy the same space at the same time. Airbags had deployed and both occupants had self extricated.

As the air brakes set I jumped off the rig and went to see what we were dealing with. I first came upon the driver of the car. He said that other than the minor cut on his hand, he was fine. He didn't want any medical attention. I then walked over to the other driver who was talking on his cell phone.

After convincing him to hang up (repeatedly) I did a quick assessment. While my engineer held c-spine I did a neuro check to see if the patient warranted full spinal immobilization. Fortunately, he did not. While I questioned my patient I noticed that he was a bit slow in answering my questions. He would answer everything correctly but just seemed a little slow. He was also complaining of a burning sensation on his forearm. This was probably from the airbag. Once AMR showed up we loaded him on the gurney and sent him to the hospital. The poor guy was probably just shaken up from the accident.

Once he was taken care of we turned our attention to the debris field around the scene. My engineer grabbed the push broom and I grabbed the shovel. While we were tending to the patient the engine crew put absorbent down on the fluids in the roadway. Now, we cleaned everything up. While it may look like we are just being helpful it actually serves to prevent an accident later on at that same location. Once everything had been cleaned up we headed back to the barn, leaving PD to wait with the wrecks for the tow trucks.

KaBoom!

We were doing our morning checks on the apparatus when we heard a big boom. Over the roar of the engine and power tools we didn't hear the screech of tires or the second crash. We peered around the corner of the station and could see one vehicle with moderate damage up against the utility pole and another vehicle in the middle of the intersection.

I ducked into the engine to grab some gloves and headed over to the wreckage. My engineer informed our captain and then pulled the engine around to block traffic in an attempt to make things a bit safer for us.

I stopped by the first vehicle I came to, the one up against the pole, and checked on the driver. She was a elderly woman that was shaken but did not appear to be injured. I then turned my attention to the car in the intersection. In the drivers seat sat a young woman young enough to make me wonder why she wasn't in school. She was complaining of head and neck pain.

About this time is when my engineer got big red in between the wrecked sedan and traffic. He jumped out and grabber the c-spine equipment. I grabbed a c-collar and directed him over to the other patient. the biggest problem with having an accident happen in front of your station is that there aren't enough EMS personnel to go around.

As soon as the first police officer showed up I had him help me with my patient (I'm sure there's a joke in there about cops wanting to be firemen but I'll let it slide this time). Soon we could here the truck coming from the next station over. Two minutes after their arrival we had an ambulance on scene, plenty of manpower, and a patient just about packaged to go get checked out.

These types of accidents really demonstrate how for passenger protection has come in vehicles. More than likely both patients that day were able to have lunch with friends and talk about their experience. 20 years ago a t-bone accident would have been a lot worse.