Meadowbrook Road MVA with Entrapment

At 00:39 hours, Rescue 20 along with Rescues 64 and 78 were dispatched to the area of 3475 Meadowbrook Road for a single vehicle accident with entrapment. Captain 20 confirmed entrapment due to power lines down around the vehicle and a West Penn Power pole across the hood of the vehicle that was perched on top of the guide rail. Assistant 20-1 took command of the incident and immediately requested West Penn Power along with Comcast and Windstream to the scene.

While waiting for the utility companies, contact was made with the single operator of the vehicle after she was told to call 911 so that we could have her cell phone number. The patient was told to remain in the vehicle until the power was shut off, the vehicle was property stabilized, and someone told her that it was safe to exit the vehicle. She reported having minor burns to her hands from airbag deployment but other than that was not injured. The power company took approximately an hour and a half to get to the scene and to confirm that all three phases of electric were off and would not recycle. In that time frame, crews from Rescue 20, Rescue 64, and Murrysville Medic One implemented a plan of extrication that included a variety of cribbing, stabilization struts, ratchet straps, and bumper jacks.

With the utilities safely secured, the extrication of the patient from the vehicle commenced. Crews used two stabilization struts on the passenger front side of the vehicle and two box cribs - one on the passenger side rear tire and the other on the driver side between the front and rear tires. The patient was then helped out of the passenger side of the vehicle. Total time for extrication was fifteen minutes once the power was confirmed to be off.

After the extrication, crews began to wrap up and waited for Wally's Transport to arrive for the removal of the vehicle from the scene.

Good teamwork by all involved!

Total time out - four hours. Pictures to follow shortly.

Command - Asst. 20-1 (Yant, III)
Operations - Asst. 20-2 (Synan)
EMS Command - Director 610 (Gerano)
EMS Operations - Lt. 610 (Chellman)