8/15/15: Engine-17

Engine-17 respond to 8084 Topaz for a 23 year old male who has fallen off a ladder. Engine-17 your time out is 0704 and respond on tac-1

" Engine-17 responding....Tac-1 "

* We pull out of the station and the warm air of the summer morning hits me like a ton of bricks. I reach up immediately and turn on the fan above my head and look around. Rich proceeds to the light then makes a left heading up Crenshaw towards the scene. *

* while we head towards the scene I start to get dressed. noticing my bunker pants are worn and dirty. thinking to myself I need to put in an order for a new pair. I get my bunker coat on since I still have my normal clothes on and watch the world go by. I notice we start to rapidly slow down and rich makes a right turn off of the blvd to crescent and then again we pick up speed. *

' Hey cap any info on how far he fell?. '

* As wel make a left turn onto topaz I notice a construction box van with its back door open, *

' I bet that's where we are going lol. '

* Sure enough rich kills the siren and a tall man comes out pointing to the house. *

" Engine-17 on scene fire. "

* I take my headset off as we come to a stop. brian and ty both get out. I reach for my clipboard and step out of the engine. The man comes up to me not in a panic but the level of concern on his face says a lot. *

Me: Hello, whats going on
Man: they are up on the roof he fell please hurry.

* He rushes off and I start walking up behind him to what can only be described as a complicated scene. I look up and there is a victim on the 1st floor roof who has fallen from the 2nd floor. His right leg is dangling in between a plastic covered wood patio, he is flat on his back and unconscious. There is a man on the roof with him trying to do what he can for him. I notice a 2 story ladder half way extended leading to the roof. *

' Sir Hello Fire department, we are coming up. '

* the man yells back for us to please hurry. Brian and ty start their way up the ladder to the roof as rich walks up to me. *

' Rich get the splint kit from the truck and the trauma box. '

* I get on my radio to call for assistance. *

" Fire engine. 17.......This is going to be a technical rescue, can you respond the truck and upgrade BLS to code 3. "

*As I'm walking into the station I see the engine guys head out on a medical run, so I watch as they head out and shut the bay behind them. I walk up over to my locker and move my gear into a gear locker next to the truck and then go relieve the last shift's captain. I decide to take my radio off of scan and flip over to Tac 1 since there isn't much else to do when I hear the engine's call for us and to upgrade the medic. I don't wait to hear the tones go off through the station, so I walk over to the truck and then pull my bunker pants on. I open up the bay door and then head back to the rig where I toss my bunker coat into the rig and jump in. By this time, I hear the dispatch tones go off, so I wait a few seconds as the rest of the guys arrive at the rig before I key the mic.*

"Truck 17 is responding, Fire."

*I turn around and do a quick headcount to make sure that we have everyone as we pull out of the station, responding at Code 3.*

* Once at the top of the ladder I take my first step onto a very shaky poorly built patio. the patio is made of very old wood with a plastic wavy material covering the wood. I walk slowly across the top and reach the victim. His left arm is draped over his head, he is unconscious but no signs of trauma are apparent. I lean over the top of him trying to wake him. *

' SIR SIR. this is the fire department, Hey buddy whats ur name. '

* There is no response from him. I open his eyelids and he looks at me, once I let go they immediately close back up. I nod my head and take over for his friend holding his head till the trauma box comes up. *

' Hey bry, we need a spinal kit, neck brace and check his leg we may need to splint it. '

* I begin to look around at how complicated it is going to be to get him off the roof. *

*As we pull up on the scene, I key the mic.*

"Fire from Truck 17, we're on the scene."

*I get out of the rig and take a look at the scene. I turn to the guys and formulate a plan.*

'Steve, Roy throw another ladder up there. That one looks a bit shaky. I'll go check in with Captain Floan and see what he can tell us about equipment they need up there. We might have to rig something up to send him down with ropes.'

*As the guys head to the side of the truck to get a ladder, I walk over to Floan.*

'Cap. What do your guys need up there to get him out? We're throwing another ladder since that one looks a bit shaky. I'm thinking that we might have to rig something to repel him down.'

* I notice the truck pull. Nick walks over to me. I shake his hand point to the roof. *

' Nice honestly I think the easiest way down for him is through the house. Honestly taking him down through that shaky roof with him, and 2 other guys looks too hazardous. Im going to leave that up to you but he may fit through a big enough window. '

* I key up my mic *

" Engine-17 to Medic-17 you can cancel, BLS is on scene. "

* kneeling next to the victim I open up the splint kit and get out a noneck c-collar. Carefully I wrap it around his neck while ty holds his head still. *

' Alright T, im going to check his leg real quick. '

* I transfer to his lower leg area which puts me on the shaky patio cover. as I begin to feel around his leg for an obvious break I don't find anything of importance so I lift his leg up slowly to match his other one. *

" 17-Flynn to Pump-17. Can we get a backboard up here please rich. "

*I nod.*

'All right. That window there might work. We'll still throw that second ladder in case Brian and Ty need to get off in a hurry. See you shortly.'

*I walk over to the rig and grab the Stokes basket off of the rig. I then see the guys finishing with the ladder and turning to me with a questioning look.*

'Let's see if we can get him out through the window.'

*We head to the door where we find it locked. I turn to the person who was talking to John when we rolled up.*

'SIR, can you get us into the main house?'

*The guys comes over and fishes out a lock box key and opens the door. I walk inside with the guys as we climb up to the second floor. I know that this is where the guy fell, so this seems like it could be a good way to get him out. I open the window and look down onto the roof where I see Brian and Ty in a rather precarious situation. I see that we're about seven feet above the roof, so we should be able to simply lift the guy without any major effort. I slide the window open and look down. I see Rich coming up on the ladder with the backboard.*

'We're ready when you guys are.'

* As rich hands the guys the backboard I start to get some information from the gentlemen who was kind enough to let In our guys. As he tells me the info I enter it into our tablet and pass it on to Medical control. *

Me: Alright that should just about do it, as soon as they get him down we are out of here.

Man: Where is he going to.

Me: At this point I think St Eva's but I will check with the medics when he is down.

Man: ok please just let me know.

* As Rich hands us up the backboard I notice the truck crew in the window ready to receive the patient. Slowly we position him onto the board then ty and myself both strap him down. I lean down to see again if he can hear me. *

' SIR we are going to get you out of here now. just stay still and relax we will take care of everything. '

* Motionless and completely unresponsive he lays there. I shake my head and then Ty and I both stand up and lift him. I hear rich tell the BLS crew to go to the front door to meet and we walk him the couple feet to the waiting truck crew. Slowly we pass him through the now broken screen and pooped off slider of the window. *

' Ok you guys he is all yours we will meet you downstairs. '

*As the engine crew passes the backboard, I grab stand on the left side of the window while Steve takes the opposite side and Roy takes the rear. We get the patient inside and then onto the Stokes litter. As the three of us get ready to move him down, I hear Brian tell us that he'll meet us at the bottom. I let him know that I heard him as we head down the staircase that is now a lot tighter than it seemed when we came up. As we round the landing, I make sure everyone still has a good grip on the litter. We exit the building a few seconds later where I see the BLS crew waiting. The three of us rest the Stokes basket near the front porch while I watch Brian and Ty coming down off of the ladder. Rich is already over by us, looking over the patient. We take the engine's backboard out of our stokes litter and step back, noticing the guy for the first time. His leg has lacerations from being stuck in the roof as well as the unconsciousness, which I'm assuming if from the impact after the fall. I stand back and look over the scene. When it looks like the engine has everything under control with the patient, I decide that we might as well get our ladder back on the truck. We lower the ladder and then carry it over to the truck where we pack it into the ladder storage compartment. Once we finish with that, the three of us walk back to the engine and BLS crew. It seems like they have a pretty good hold of the scene with the three medics and two BLS people, so I turn to Floan.*

'John, anything else we can do to help you guys?'

' No nick u guys can clear anytime u like. would have been a little more difficult if we didn't decide to take him out of the house. but im glad you all were here. '

* I walk back to the engine and open my door. I set the tablet back in its charger and walk over to the man standing nervously by his friend. *

' he will be going to St eva's afterall ok, we are goin gto do a follow-up with the ambulance so u can ride with them or take your own car. totally up to you. '

* He nods his head and brian and ty load him with the BLS crew into the back of the ambulance, Ty climbs into the back of the bus and the doors close. The ambulance drives away slowly as I give a small pat on the shoulder of the guy. *

' Don't worry buddy im sure he will be fine. take care though. '

* I climb onto the engine, buckle my seatbelt nd get my headset on. Rich starts us up again and after noticing bryan is on board as well we pull off following far behind the ambulance towards St Eva's. *

'All right. We'll see you back at the house.'

*I walk back to the truck and climb in. Roy goes to the tiller and Steve fires the truck into drive. I mark us returning to quarters and key the mic.*

"Fire... Truck 17's gonna be available, returning to quarters."

* Hearing the truck clear I just remembered we have a bare fridge. I quickly get on the mic. *

" Engine-17 to Truck-17, Nick can you head to the store and stock us up on groceries. we will split the cost when we return to the house. "

*I chuckle when I hear John go over the radio and ask for us to get groceries. I grab the mic.*

"Truck 17 copies."

*I clip the mic back and turn to Steve.*

'Little road trip guys. Grocery time.'

*As we make a U-turn, I start trying to figure out what we'll need from the grocery.*