By By GREG KATSKI
Community Editor
CHOCOWINITY — What could happen if a wreck on the soon-to-be-opened U.S. Highway 17 bypass bridge sent a vehicle over the bridge railing and into the Tar River or wetlands surrounding the river?
Recently, the Washington Fire-Rescue-EMS-Inspections Department and Chocowinity Volunteer Fire Department played out this “worst-case” rescue on the south end of the bridge. That training drill, according to training division chief Jasper Hardison with the Washington department, provided the departments’ personnel an opportunity to prepare for the real thing. As part of the training scenario, the vehicle’s driver was pinned in the car as a result of the fall and appeared to be unresponsive.
To rescue the “victim,” Washington firefighter/EMTs connected two rope lines to the front of an ambulance. Several firefighter/EMTs tied themselves to those lines for support, while four firefighter/EMTs hooked harnesses supporting their waists to the lines, straddled the bridge’s guardrail, turned and repelled — one at a time — down the side of the bridge .
Several firefighters remaining on the bridge tied an extraction tool, a fire hose and a generator to the lines, sending the items down to the firefighter/EMTs below.
Once the “victim,” in this case a dummy, was extracted from the vehicle, it was placed and secured on a stretcher.
The lines attached to the front of the ambulance were secured to the bottom of a ladder on a Washington ladder truck, with the ladder positioned over the side of the bridge. The two lines were then dropped to the four firefighter/EMTs on the ground. They secured the lines to stretcher before one of them, serving as a spotter, was attached to the lines and pulled up with the stretcher and victim.
Personnel with each department lined up along the rope secured to the ladder truck, then they pulled the stretcher and spotter up from the ground to the side of the bridge. Then, the victim and spotter were lowered onto the bridge. The three firefighter/EMTs left on the ground were then pulled up one at a time.
Hardison said the training, which started shortly after 6 p.m. and was over by 7:50 p.m., “was a little slower that we would’ve liked.”
“But we do (rescue training) slow and meticulously to make sure no one gets hurt,” he said.
Hardison said that in a real-life situation “adrenaline would’ve been pumping,” hopefully making any potential rescue a lot faster.
He said completion of the new bypass bridge, not yet open to the public, makes such training a necessity.
“With cars going 65 mph, it can happen here,” Hardison said.
The terrain under the bridge makes the training that much more important, he said.
“This bridge is 3.5 miles long, and most of (the land under) it is swamp land,” Hardison said.
The training session was for the Washington department’s A shift. The department’s B and C shifts will train during the next two Thursdays, respectively.