By Tom Vines

On May 1, Los Angeles firefighters in the Chatsworth area proved their expertise at handling a unique rescue situation.

It began with a call to the Los Angeles 911 Center. The caller reported a single-vehicle accident involving a passenger vehicle in a flood control channel.

At 1121 HRS, the department dispatched Engine 7, Engine 81, Rescue 81, Paramedic Rescue 81, Truck 90, Light Force 39, Heavy Rescue 56, EMS Captain 10 and Battalion Chief 10. The first units arrived on scene at 1127 HRS and found a station-wagon down about 10 feet in a flood channel with high vertical walls and, fortunately, no flowing water. The vehicle was on its wheels, and there was a female driver inside. Damage to the railing indicated that the vehicle had gone through the railing and plummeted into the channel. (The driver reported that another driver had clipped the back of her car, causing her to lose control and drive into the flood channel.)

To access the patient, firefighters quickly set two ground ladders from the bridge to the base of the flood channel. After climbing down into the channel, paramedics found the 60-year-old woman alert and responsive, but with apparent facial and head trauma. She was complaining of back and neck pain.

Engine 7 and Rescue 81 were assigned to patient treatment. While they handled the driver’s injuries, other rescue personnel began rigging the rescue system. To raise the woman out of the channel, firefighters planned to use the aerial ladder. Specifically, they anchored a main line to the base of the aerial, and ran a safety rope through a tandem Prusik belay at the base. They ran both lines over the top end of the ladder.

Now firefighters needed to remove the woman from the vehicle. Fortunately, because the vehicle had not rolled during the crash, its sides were intact and, therefore, rescuers could easily open the vehicle’s doors without extrication tools.

After a quick assessment, paramedics applied spinal stabilization, extricated the woman on a spine board and packaged her in a wire basket litter.

Firefighters working above (on the bridge) then extended the aerial and lowered it so the rescuers in the channel could attach the ropes to the litter using a pre-manufactured harness with large straps. They also attached taglines to both the head and foot end of the litter to stabilize it as it was being raised out of the flood channel. Firefighters then retracted the aerial, raising the litter, and set the litter down onto the ambulance gurney.

Rescue 81 transported the woman to a local hospital where she was admitted in serious condition. Most units then cleared the scene, but some personnel remained at the site to assist as a towing company extricated the vehicle from the flood channel. All units had cleared by 1240 HRS.

Sources: Los Angeles Fire Captain Lon Roberts provided information for this report. Some additional details were taken from an account of the incident by KTLA-TV News.

Lessons Learned/Lessons Reinforced
The flood channel had vertical walls so rescuers couldn’t just carry the patient out by hand. Although in some situations, a rope haul up a vertical face might be considered, using the aerial was a faster solution and probably was easier on the patient. Simply having certain skills, such those for vertical rope rescue or high-line rescue, does not necessarily mean rescuers must use them in all rescues. You must use the technique that will be the most efficient and safest for rescuers and patient.

Captain Roberts notes that this area of Los Angles includes all sorts of rescue challenges, including flood channels that are dry or running with swiftwater, high-rise buildings, cliffs and park land. Training must include all the basic rescue techniques. After all, you never know what the next call will bring.

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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