Summer Situations

BY MICHAEL N. CIAMPO

Now that the school buses have stopped their daily routine and the children are on summer break, our odds of having unusual rescue incidents are surely going to rise. Whether it’s for a child stuck in the toddler swing on the playground or a child with his head stuck in a fence or a foot stuck in between the chain and sprocket of a bicycle, we may be doing some type of delicate or unusual extrication.

Responding at dusk for a child stuck in the fence had all of us sizing up the scenario of the kid with his head stuck between the balusters. In the back of some of our minds, we wondered if the caller thought stuck meant the same thing as impaled and mentioned that to each other on the response. Entering the dead-end block, we proceeded slowly because the run ticket stated “behind the address,” and we didn’t want to pass it. Once at the reported address, we didn’t see any fences near the location, so we asked the dispatcher to try a call-back number to see where this might be.

In a minute or so we heard the sounds of a motorcycle approaching us from the woods at the end of the block. Two kids riding the dirt bike were frantically waving at us and motioning while pointing into the woods. As they arrived in a state of panic, they let us know that their buddy was trapped in a fence in the woods. He was riding his dirt bike, doing jumps, and crashed into a fence and was hurt. We asked them what type of fence it was and if their buddy was conscious. They said he was talking and it was a chain-link fence, so those were good pieces of information to gather before we trudged off into the woods. Realizing it was getting dark and that this wasn’t going to be a simple operation, we called for help knowing we would need additional lighting and equipment and ensuring that we would have an ambulance assigned to the incident.

Prior to arriving, we had already discussed bringing our normal complement of hand tools and first-aid equipment, but since we weren’t going to be working near the rig, we had to change our game plan. The stokes basket would become our transport vehicle for tools and equipment. We carried a few of our hand tools and added a small and large bolt cutter, a reciprocating saw, and a rotary power saw. The basket already has a backboard in it with tubular webbing at the feet in storage bags for diamond lashing patients. One member would remain at the apparatus until a size-up determined what other equipment we would need. Since it was getting dark, all members wore their personal flashlights, and stretching the light cord off the generator would be one of our options if the incident wasn’t too deep into the woods. Unfortunately it was, so we carried our portable generator/power light into the scene for lighting.

As we got a hundred yards into the woods, we saw a child being held up by two others. He was screaming at us and trying to maintain his balance as he was semi-suspended in the air, with his legs upward and head downward on a chain-link fence. His dirt bike was a distance away, shut down and out of our way. Our priorities were getting his name, calming him down, and immediately supporting his body. The more he moved, the harder it was for us to size up the whole situation. Two firefighters were immediately assigned to support his body and calm him down, while the other two quickly unloaded the stokes basket to get to the backboard. We put the backboard under the victim’s stomach so he could lie flat while the two firefighters supported it.

Now that we had him supported, we could begin a better size-up of where he was caught and what we would need to do to extricate him. Shining our flashlights on his legs, we could see blood had soaked through his pants, one spot at the knee and the other farther down at his calf. One leg was twisted in an unusual position and may have been fractured. Still in shock and pain, he calmed down a bit and began to trust us when we told him it “wouldn’t hurt to get him out.” We cut off his pants around the fence to see how he was caught, hoping this would free him, but it didn’t. Both legs were impaled by the twisted upper ends of the chain-link fence. We couldn’t tell how far the ends went into his legs-they were all twisted and bent from the impact of the crash.

We turned on the portable generator to light up the scene so we could see to start the extrication. Our best and quickest option was to cut the chain link with the bolt cutters. We used caution to cut slowly with even pressure so we didn’t twist the fence. We put the material deep into the jaws and opened the tool’s arms fully to get the most leverage during the cut.

After numerous cuts, we had freed the victim with only small sections of fence around his wounds. Once he was released and an ambulance was on scene, we packaged him with pillows under his bent knees with the fence and transported him to the hospital. Just another summer situation mitigated.

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MICHAEL N. CIAMPO is a 28-year veteran of the fire service and a lieutenant in the Fire Department of New York. Previously, he served with the District of Columbia Fire Department. He has a bachelor’s degree in fire science from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. He is the lead instructor for the FDIC Truck Essentials H.O.T. program. He wrote the Ladder chapter and co-authored the Ventilation chapter for Fire Engineering’s Handbook for Firefighter I and II (Fire Engineering, 2009) and is featured in “Training Minutes” truck company videos on www.FireEngineering.com.