SafetyPro2
Forum Safety Officer
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Today (the 5th) was our annual 4th of July Parade in town, held a day late since the 4th fell on a Sunday. Sierra Madre's a small town, but the parade's a big deal with over 100 entries (many silly, some serious). Unfortunately, today's parade started off with a fairly serious accident.
Our department's always the last unit in the parade, so we stage at the end of the main boulevard just past the side-street where most the rest of the units stage. This allows us to both serve as traffic control and to respond if necessary. Generally, there's a couple of other units staged there as well, mainly other fire and police from neighboring towns.
Today, I was covering for someone, so I was riding on the first-due engine. We had to make a couple stops on the way to staging, so we were the last rig in.
As we were pulling up to the intersection at the staging area, I heard a simultaneous "Oh #%#%!" from both the Captain and the Engineer. The other FF and I both turned around in our jumpseats to see someone laying in the street and a sea of blue uniforms converging on that individual and going several other directions at the same time. Being the closest rig (the rest of the department rigs were about a block down), we jumped off and grabbed our medical gear and ran over to the scene.
Turns out that the chassis (about the size of a large bus chassis) for the Sierra Madre float for the Rose Parade was parked just in front of our staging, and somehow, it inadvertently started and moved, injuring 5 individuals in the process.
The most serious was the patient I initially saw and worked on, who was either struck by or thrown from the chassis when it moved. She had pretty severe facial trauma and other lacerations as well as a fairly likely neck injury and possible internal injuries. She was transported code 3 (lights and sirens). Two of the other patients were transported code 2. The other two patients had minor injuries not requiring transport.
Luckily, we had plenty of personnel to handle the incident since we had every piece of apparatus and 90% of our members there on-scene witnessing the incident as it occured. We also had help from Arcadia Engine 107 and two U.S. Forest Service engines, as well as at least half our PD and two CHP motor officers, who all jumped in and helped out as needed.
Still, put something of a damper on the day. PD was very edgy about anyone being in the street along the parade route (its generally a running water fight between us and the kids in town with kids running up and squirting us all along the way) and threatened to stop the parade altogether if anyone got too close to the apparatus.
We ended up running one other medical call prior to our start down the parade route...kid fell from a bicycle and scraped his knee. No transport needed, and after the first call, was almost a relief to run on such a minor call.
Our department's always the last unit in the parade, so we stage at the end of the main boulevard just past the side-street where most the rest of the units stage. This allows us to both serve as traffic control and to respond if necessary. Generally, there's a couple of other units staged there as well, mainly other fire and police from neighboring towns.
Today, I was covering for someone, so I was riding on the first-due engine. We had to make a couple stops on the way to staging, so we were the last rig in.
As we were pulling up to the intersection at the staging area, I heard a simultaneous "Oh #%#%!" from both the Captain and the Engineer. The other FF and I both turned around in our jumpseats to see someone laying in the street and a sea of blue uniforms converging on that individual and going several other directions at the same time. Being the closest rig (the rest of the department rigs were about a block down), we jumped off and grabbed our medical gear and ran over to the scene.
Turns out that the chassis (about the size of a large bus chassis) for the Sierra Madre float for the Rose Parade was parked just in front of our staging, and somehow, it inadvertently started and moved, injuring 5 individuals in the process.
The most serious was the patient I initially saw and worked on, who was either struck by or thrown from the chassis when it moved. She had pretty severe facial trauma and other lacerations as well as a fairly likely neck injury and possible internal injuries. She was transported code 3 (lights and sirens). Two of the other patients were transported code 2. The other two patients had minor injuries not requiring transport.
Luckily, we had plenty of personnel to handle the incident since we had every piece of apparatus and 90% of our members there on-scene witnessing the incident as it occured. We also had help from Arcadia Engine 107 and two U.S. Forest Service engines, as well as at least half our PD and two CHP motor officers, who all jumped in and helped out as needed.
Still, put something of a damper on the day. PD was very edgy about anyone being in the street along the parade route (its generally a running water fight between us and the kids in town with kids running up and squirting us all along the way) and threatened to stop the parade altogether if anyone got too close to the apparatus.
We ended up running one other medical call prior to our start down the parade route...kid fell from a bicycle and scraped his knee. No transport needed, and after the first call, was almost a relief to run on such a minor call.