# Vehicle Over-the-Side



## SafetyPro2 (Apr 20, 2006)

We seem to be making the news a lot lately. This is the road that heads up into the mountains at the NE corner of our town. Different sections of the road fall under the jurisdiction of us, Arcadia, Monrovia, LA County and the USFS, so calls up there tend to have multiple agencies responding.

We were just finishing our monthly meeting when the call came in, so we had lots of people available to respond. I was actually on our second engine, but we didn't respond due to the other agencies responding.

All told, the following units responded.

*Sierra Madre FD*
Engine 41
RA 41
Utility 41
Battalion 4
Chief 4

*Arcadia FD*
Engine 107
RA 106
Truck 105
Battalion 105 (who was the IC)

*LA County FD*
Engine 66
Engine 244
Patrol 44
Squad 19
Battalion 4
Copter 18

*Sierra Madre Search and Rescue Team*
Sierra Madre 1
Seirra Madre 2

As the article states, there were also Arcadia PD, California Highway Patrol and LA Sheriff's Department units on-scene as well. The airlift was performed by LACoFD's air unit, not a Sheriff's air unit as reported.

There's also a photo gallery on the local paper's website. Because of the Java pop-up, I can't seem to link to it, so here's links to the individual photos.

Picture 1 - The guys in the khaki are our SAR team
Picture 2
Picture 3 - Other than the guy in the orange helmet, these are all our guys. The "white hat" is the Chief of our department.
Picture 4
Picture 5
Picture 6 - The guy with his back to the camera is one of our Captains.
Picture 7
Picture 8
Picture 9
Picture 10

Pack Station Resident Plunges Off Chantry Flat Road

_ANGELES NATIONAL FOREST -- A resident of the pack station at Chantry Flat crashed off the side of Santa Anita Canyon Road Wednesday, plunging 150 feet before being ejected from his pickup.

CHP officials said that about 8:20 P.M. a bicyclist believed he saw a pickup truck crash off the side of the road. Using a light, the bicyclist signaled a distress signal as an S.O.S. toward the Santa Anita Dam where a dam operator noticed and responded.

The jurisdiction of the crash site was unclear so several fire and rescue agencies responded, including Sierra Madre Search and Rescue, Arcadia Fire Department, Sierra Madre Fire Departement, Los Angeles Fire Department, California Highway Patrol and officers from Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

The man was rescued, pulled on a rescue gurney up the precipitous drop to the reservoir at Santa Anita Dam by team members of Sierra Madre Search and Rescue. He was taken to a waiting Los Angeles County Sheriff's helicopter at Highland Oaks Elementary School in Arcadia and flown to Huntington Hospital in Pasadena._


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## Jon (Apr 20, 2006)

Smart cyclist.... and attentive Dam opperator...


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## MMiz (Apr 20, 2006)

That's just crazy.

I want someone to be watching when I do my bat signal.  I can't believe the dam operator caught the signal.


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## SafetyPro2 (Apr 20, 2006)

The dam operator had apparently heard the crash himself, so he was probably outside looking.

The driver's lucky that anyone knew it happened. The road has been closed to the public for a couple of years now (first due to fire danger, then due to severe mudslide damage). Its been repaired and is due to reopen, but at the moment, the only people who go up it are the cabin owners like this guy (who have keys to the gate) and bicyclists who hop the gate. He could easily have been down there for a long time before anyone knew he was there.


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