How busy is the Basking Ridge Fire Company? There
are many answers to that question. We could be quantitative,
and say that in an average year we have about 300 fire calls and
about 600 EMS calls. We could also be anecdotal and optimistic,
and report that on many (blessed!) days, we have no calls at
all. It isn’t all that rare to go two or three days, even,
without a single call in town. And every now and then, things
go absolutely crazy. Wednesday, April 18, 2007, was one of
those days.
A Quiet Morning Turns Hot
At 7:00AM, two volunteer EMTs took one of
the Fire Company’s two ambulances to the town garage for its
quarterly maintenance. They joked that having one ambulance out
of service might be enough to cause a stampede of runs. Little
did they know.
At about 9:45 that morning, a call went out
for a female with chest pain. Two EMTs drove to her house,
while another went to the firehouse to get the ambulance. They
took vital signs and a history from the patient, and quickly
moved her to a cot and then into the ambulance. They encouraged
her that it was probably nothing serious (it usually isn’t), but
prepared for the worst by keeping the paramedics from Morristown
Memorial Hospital coming. At about 10:15 AM, as they waited to
rendezvous with the paramedics near an on-ramp for I-287, they
heard a call for a “structure fire with smoke showing”. Their
ears perked up to this, but they kept their attention on their
patient, met with the medics, and continued with one paramedic
onboard as they transported their patient to Morristown.
Meanwhile, the town was turning into a
beehive of activity. Fire fighters and EMTs rushed from their
jobs and other activities to respond to an active structure
fire. The 911 dispatchers had encouraged the residents to
evacuate their house, and Bernards Township Police Officers were
able to slow the progress of the fire with hand-held
extinguishers. Moments after the first fire truck arrived, two
fire fighters were in the building and aggressively attacking
the fire through dense smoke on both floors. Their big hose
quickly extinguished a room-and-contents fire on the first
floor.
As the two fire fighters risked their lives
inside a burning building, help was coming from many quarters.
A Chief arrived on scene to establish Incident Command. Another
engine arrived and its fire fighters set up a water supply from
a hydrant. EMTs arrived in personal vehicles to set up a
rehabilitation center, and the ambulance that had gone to
Morristown returned shortly to serve as a treatment center, if
needed. An ambulance from Bernardsville came to provide mutual
aid by transporting one patient who had emerged from the
structure coughing and covered in soot. The Bernardsville and
Liberty Corner Fire Companies sent over engines and crews to
provide mutual aid in case the fire was not quickly
extinguished. The maintenance crew at the township garage heard
about the fire, and quickly finished the ambulance and drove it
over where it stood by as a “go rig” to transport any injuries.
After the obvious flames were extinguished,
the fire fighters continued to search the house for traces of
fire. The initial crew was checked by EMTs at the
rehabilitation area and returned to service. When the house was
finally declared safe, the crews turned to packing up their
gear. They were finally able to return to the firehouse around
noon, and finished cleaning up there around 1:00PM.
A Hectic Afternoon
Next came an hour of deeply-savored quiet.
(Except, of course, for one EMT who provided individual Mutual
Aid to a Liberty Corner EMS call, just as our sister squad often
does for us.) At 2:00, though, the tones went out again, to
report a brush fire on I-287. Fortunately, when the fire
fighters arrived on scene, they found that the fire had burned
itself out. Back to the fire house.
At 2:50, the tones went out again for a
“traffic crash, with female down”. When the Chief officer
arrived on scene, he found that in fact three people had been
injured in the accident. When the EMTs arrived on site, they
sized up the scene, and called for a second ambulance. They
worked with fire fighters and police officers on scene to
package two of the patients. Because the Liberty Corner Squad
was busy on yet another call, the Bernardsville squad arrived
(once again) to provide mutual aid, and each patient was
transported in her own ambulance. The third patient had only
slight injuries, and refused treatment.
A Tragic Evening
Structure fires are rare in Basking Ridge;
we tend to see about one a year. We therefore planned a
critique of the morning fire for 7:30 that evening. Many of the
volunteers went home after a busy day to have dinner with their
families before the impromptu evening meeting.
At about 6:10 the tones once again went
out, this time for the hair-raising “motor vehicle accident,
overturned vehicle on fire, possible entrapment” on I-287.
Within a few minutes, three emergency vehicles were speeding out
of the rear gate of the fire house onto I-287: a fire engine, a
rescue truck, and an ambulance. When they arrived, they found a
car in the woods off the shoulder, with flames shooting 30 feet
high and a plume of smoke rising hundreds of feet into the air.
Despite heroic efforts of Good Samaritan motorists, the driver
tragically perished in the blaze. Fire fighters immediately
attacked and extinguished the blaze, with mutual aid from a
Bernardsville water tanker.
There
was much to do after the fire was out. EMTs treated a bystander
who received a superficial burn while trying to rescue the
driver. EMTs and paramedics from Morristown searched the woods
to ensure that no additional victims had been ejected from the
vehicle. The State Police closed down one lane of I-287, and
opened the other two to traffic. Fire fighters stood by in case
the flames returned while the vehicle was being removed from the
woods. Accident investigators combed the scene under search
lights provided by the rescue truck. The primary job, of
course, was extricating the victim as quickly and as
respectfully as possible.
Our meeting that night was canceled. Many
of the responders were able to leave earlier, but the last Fire
Company crews left after 9:00PM, more than three hours after the
accident. They returned home to their families after a long and
exhausting day, with the encouragement of their officers, and
with the thanks of many people they had met that day. The
members of the Company went to sleep that night with pride in
their performance, with an increased respect for life and its
fragility, and with gratitude for the privilege of serving their
fellow citizens.
If we could guarantee that Basking Ridge
would have at most one call a day, then the current members of
the Company could provide emergency response. But we do have
more than a few busy days, and we do need your help. For more
information on volunteering, see Joining the Company. And if
you don’t have time enough for that, please contribute your
financial support Here.
