RESCUE REPORT
By Tom Vines
Photos Courtesy Forest Grove Fire & Rescue

On Dec. 12, Oregon Firefighters were called to a confined-space rescue in an unexpected area: the forest backcountry.

At 1109 HRS, the Washington County Consolidated Communications Agency (WCCA) received a 911 call reporting that two men were stuck in a drain pipe in a remote area of the county—a site on private forest land approximately 15 miles northwest of Forest Grove, Ore. The caller reported that the two people—a teenager and his father—appeared to be unconscious.

Dispatched at 1110 HRS were Forest Grove Fire and Rescue 4, Unit 4510 (chaplain), Unit 4910 (fire inspector, to act as safety officer), Unit 491 (assistant fire inspector, to act as PIO and manage helicopter landing zone), Unit C400 (training division chief, to act as staging officer), Engine 421, Engine 422 and Engine 427. Also dispatched: Hillsboro Fire Department Engine 3, Truck 3, Technical Rescue 3 and Battalion Chief 3, Metro West Ambulance 54 and Ambulance 69, as well as a Lifeflight helicopter.

A few minutes after the initial call, the reporting party called back to say he would meet responders at the Purple Cow Winery and would lead them to the site, a 3- to 5-minute drive.
The first units arrived on scene at 1126 HRS. The Lifeflight helicopter and Hillsboro units staged at the junction of Highway 6 and Timmerman Road.

The site was a privately constructed dam about 12 to 15 feet high, designed to impound a small lake, which was currently dry with only a creek running through it. The interior of the dam held a manhole constructed of a culvert pipe set vertically, which accessed a shutoff valve about 10 feet down. The valve was designed to control the flow of water through the dam. A family had decided to close the valve to allow the pond to fill up with water during the rest of the winter and spring months.

In order to close the valve, the father and son tried to use an approximately 10-foot-long pipe, a kind of “key,” but they could not get the valve to bulge. Despite warnings from a family member, the teenager went down into the space and attempted to move the valve. While trying to turn the valve, he lost consciousness.

The teenager’s father then entered the space, but upon reaching the bottom, he too became unconscious and fell over on top of his son.

One of their family members watching all this unfold quickly grabbed a length of small-diameter PVC tubing, lowered one end down to the teenager’s face and then blew through the other end. After a few minutes, the teenager began to regain consciousness. His father, however, did not regain consciousness and appeared to not be breathing. One family member then entered the hole, placed a rope around the father, and with the help of others, tried to remove him. This proved difficult, as the father was a rather large man. They had managed to remove the father’s head and one arm out of the entryway when firefighters arrived on scene.

The firefighters then lifted the man out. Unfortunately, he was unresponsive, with no pulse or respiration. The Advanced Life Support on scene attempted resuscitation but were unsuccessful, and the father was declared on scene.

The teenage son was treated on scene and transported by Metro West Ambulance to Tuality Community Hospital in Hillsboro.
Units cleared from the scene at 1435 HRS.

Sources: Forest Grove Fire and Rescue Chief Michael Kinkade and Public Information Officer David Nemeyer provided information for this report. Some additional details were taken from accounts of the incident published the Salem-News and The Hillsboro Argus.

LESSONS LEARNED/LESSONS REINFORCED:
Responders tested the air quality in the space, but found no toxic gasses present. It’s likely, however, that any dangerous gases escaped while the manhole cover was open during the rescue phase of this incident.

Forest Grove Fire and Rescue Inspector Dave Nemeyer said, “In that hole, you get gases like hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide that are just purely natural. It’s just off-gasing, the product of decomposing organic matter such as leaves, grass and roots.”

Chief Kinkade notes the following:
1. “Never think confined spaces are limited to urban and industrial areas. This was a confined-space rescue in a wilderness area.
2. “Never underestimate confined spaces. There were no sources of industrial or manmade gases anywhere near this event; a natural process reduced the oxygen level in the hole.
3. “Air monitors are crucial. Be comfortable with their use and make sure you have a testing and maintenance system in place. They require care, testing and calibration.
4. “Refresher training in confined-space awareness is crucial. In a discussion with one of my less-experienced officers, he noted that he would have underestimated the situation if he hadn’t attended a refresher class on this topic the weekend before.
5. “Request the resources you think you might need for the worst possible scenario. The technical rescue team and the transport helicopter arrived about the time that it was determined that we didn’t need them. However, if we had needed them, they were there. Not requesting these resources early on would have been a mistake.
6. “The regional chaplain was requested early in the incident to assist with family members who had gathered on scene. This was invaluable.
7. “Because of the number of resources responding and the limited access (gravel forest roads), the early adoption of staging to control units and allow appropriate egress/ingress was crucial.”

Rescue Editor Tom Vines is the co-author of “High Angle Rescue Techniques” and “Confined Space and Structural Rope Rescue.” He operates a rope-rescue consulting group in Red Lodge, Mont.

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