>PHOTO GALLERY

MidTown - January 1, 2003 --- The first call of the year for Evans Center firefighters turned out to be a challenging one. Alerted for an auto accident with rollover just before 4pm on New Year's day, multiple EMS units and a Mercy Flight Medical Helicopter were used to treat and transport a total of eight (8) patients.

There was freezing snow coming down and thick icy slush on the roadway when Chief Dennis Allen arrived shortly after being dispatched. The area was under a severe weather alert from the National Weather Service. He called for a Mercy Flight helicopter and radioed to his responding Engine 1 that extrication would be required.

A sedan had collided with a two-door GEO Tracker, apparently impacting the Tracker on the passenger side and flipping it over.

A young female passenger had both of her legs trapped between the dented door and the center console of the vehicle. With the vehicle on its side, her upper torso was lying on the pavement. She was conscious and speaking with the rescuers through the extrication.

Engine 1's crew of Firefighters Bruce Green Jr., Kevin Snyder and Bob Zamrok, Captain Tiger Schmittendorf and Asst. Chief Ken Hontz stabilized the vehicle using cribbing and shoring blocks and went about the extrication process.

The spreaders of the Jaws-of-Life were positioned between the transmission hump and the passenger door which had been impacted far into the passenger compartment. Rural/Metro Paramedics kept her stabilized and covered during the removal.

After approximately 10 minutes on scene, the extrication team had the patient freed from the vehicle and prepared for transport to Evans Center's Erie Road Station where Mercy Flight had landed. She was then transported to Erie County Medical Center, the local trauma center.

Six other patients in the sedan were treated and/or transported by ambulance crews from the Evans Center, Angola and Highland Fire Companies and additional Rural/Metro units.

Evans Center was assisted at the scene by the Angola Fire Control Dispatch Center, Village of Angola and Town of Evans Police, Pinto's Towing and Tick-Tock Towing services.

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PHOTOS BY: Tiger Schmittendorf/PIO ©2003www.ecvfc.org