Speak of the devil. . .

Minutes after I posted my post above, my pager went off for a Motor Vehicle Accident with Entrapment (a "pin job"). I thought I'd tell you about it, as it shows you the kind of resources necessary to safely respond to a bad, but not out of the ordinary accident.

There were five different agencies that sent apparatus and personell to the scene. My agency provided an ambulance and BLS technicians (volunteer), FD1 provided a heavy rescue with a Hurst tool ("Jaws of Life")(combined), FD2 provided an engine for standby fire suppression (volunteer), FD3 provided a ladder truck with a second Hurst tool, and finally the county police provided ALS technicians, Traffic control, and air support (all full-time paid responders).

All in all, we are talking about more than thirty responders from five agencies to handle an accident that had it happened over the border in NYC would have been handled completely by either FDNY or NYPD, but most likely by both. There is no way that my town could have handled this on its own, and we drew resources from three additional fire districts plus the county police.

I'm not really sure what my point is, other than to say I'm increadibly proud of my colleagues who put down their work to go and do an important job to save lives. I'm not really sure how we continue to have the response that we have around here without volunteers or vastly higher taxes. If you can volunteer, I urge you to do so. You learn great skills, and it is immensely rewarding.

BTW, the patient who had been pinned was extricated after a 20-minute operation and airlifted to the county trauma center with some pretty gruesome injuries. Total time from accident to arrival at the hospital was probably 40 minutes, well within the "golden hour."

Edit: Photos, if anyone is interested.

I'm the guy in the yellow holding up the IV bag



The extrication guys doing their thing:


I'm the guy to the far right in the bunker pants