Crews Extricate Trapped Victim in Lakeside

Lakeview - Crews from the Riverview Fire Station 1 and Lake Jennings Fire Station 3 were called to Lakeview Granada Drive in Lakeside for reports of a vehicle accident with a trapped victim.  When units arrived on scene they found a Toyota truck which had rolled and ended up resting on the driver's side.  Lakeside Battalion 1, Chief Larkin, took command of the incident and assigned Rescue 3 as the Rescue Group with Engine 1 assisting them with patient extrication. M1 was assigned Medical Group and provided patient care and transport once the patient was extricated.

The patient was fortunate to have fairly mild injuries but was trapped in his vehicle.  In a situation like this firefighters and rescue personnel must first stabilize the vehicle before they are able to begin extrication.

As pictured above, firefighters use Rescue 42 struts to stabilize the vehicle.  By utilizing these struts the vehicle is secure for firefighters to work around.  Once the vehicle is stabilized, a Firefighter/Paramedic will enter the cab of the vehicle with the trapped patient to begin delivering medical care.  If the vehicle is not stabilized there is the risk that it could move or fall onto rescuers on scene and further injure the occupant.

Firefighters place struts to stabilize the vehicle.

A view of the rescue in progress.  Note the "jaws of life" on the ground.

A gurney is moved into place to move the patient to the Ambulance

The windshield is removed to provide access to the patient.

In order to complete the extrication and remove the patient from the vehicle, the front windshield was cut out of the vehicle.  The objective on any vehicle extrication is to remove the car around the patient so we can extricate the patient without adding to the injuries they have sustained during the extrication.  This goal was met in this circumstance by removing the front windshield which provided sufficient room to remove the patient.  The patient was transported by M1 to a local hospital for further treatment.

Submitted by:  Firefighter / Paramedic Bernie Molloy